State Classifications of Struggling Children
Monday, April 15th, 2019
Parenting is harder than it looks. People across the state of Tennessee often find themselves struggling to provide the care that their children need to function as members of society. When parents are unable to provide that level of care for their children, for whatever reason, the state may step in. When this happens, the […]
Read More »First Friday in juvenile court
Thursday, April 4th, 2019
When I started practicing family and juvenile law over twenty years ago, drugs were a factor in about half of the cases that I took that involved an abused or neglected child. Now, the opioid crisis is all over the news. Right behind it is the methamphetamine crisis. The cocaine crisis. But as the years have gone […]
Read More »What resources are available if I’m not receiving my child support?
Tuesday, April 2nd, 2019
Child support can be a controversial topic, because many people who are ordered by the Court to pay it do not feel they should have to or that they can afford to. There are many different routes you can take if your children’s other parent does not pay child support, but unfortunately, most of these […]
Read More »Child support: Can failure to pay be grounds for termination of parental rights?
Tuesday, April 2nd, 2019
There several reasons that can be used to terminate a parent’s rights to their child, one of the most common being abandonment by a willful failure to support (in other words, not paying child support). Pursuant to Tenn. Code Ann. § 36-1-102, the party seeking to terminate the parent(s) rights under abandonment for lack of […]
Read More »Child Support: The basics
Tuesday, April 2nd, 2019
If someone has a child who is either under the age of eighteen or is disabled, and that child does not live with a parent full-time, then they have a legal duty to pay money for that child’s support to the person who the child lives with. The amount the supporting parent pays is determined […]
Read More »Challenges faced by blended families
Friday, March 29th, 2019
Parenting is tough, whether you are a child’s biological parent, a step parent or a grandparent caring for your grandchildren. Blended and nontraditional families (such as those headed by relatives of a child who are not that child’s parents) can provide a great model of functional family relationships, but ensuring these families work well as a […]
Read More »What the drug crisis means for grandparents
Friday, March 29th, 2019
Due to the large number of parents who struggle with drug addiction, particularly in Tennessee, many children are placed in households headed by relatives other than their parents. Nearly 8 million children across the country lived in these non-nuclear households in 2017, and many of those households were headed by grandparents. Although kids would ideally […]
Read More »If my grandkids live in Tennessee but I live out of state, can I get custody?
Friday, March 29th, 2019
Many grandparents are raising their grandchildren when the parents cannot or choose not to do so. Society is so mobile today, and oftentimes the grandparents and the grandchildren may live in different states. What are your options if you live outside the state of Tennessee but your grandchildren reside in Tennessee and need your help? […]
Read More »Grandparent Visitation 101
Friday, March 29th, 2019
The desire to be in your grandchild’s life is occasionally met with resistance. A parent may resent the intrusion, be defensive about their parenting style, or have other reasons for feeling that way. For some grandparents, filing for a court-ordered right to visitation is often the only way to ensure continued contact with their grandchildren. The […]
Read More »Tax Changes and Divorce Planning
Saturday, November 10th, 2018
We’re entering a “new era” of divorce planning because of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017. Rose Swanger, CFP®, RICP®, CDFA®, EA explains, “for new divorces that are finalized after Dec. 31, 2018, all alimony payments will be treated like child support payments, which are not deductible. Before, the alimony payor could deduct the amount of their alimony […]
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