Posts By Pittsburgh Family Law Services, P.C.

When you are ready to turn the page, protect your rights and your future with experienced family law advocacy, we can give you the help you need to face family law challenges in Western Pennsylvania. Call our Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania office for a free telephone consultation at 412-371-4500.

The best times to update your estate plan

January 26, 2022 · by Pittsburgh Family Law Services, P.C.

Having a well-crafted estate plan is the best way to protect your loved ones in the future. It allows you to set aside how your hard-earned assets will be distributed and gives your family protections they would not have otherwise. But planning for the future is not something you should only do once. Instead, you should occasionally update your estate plan. Life brings numerous changes; when those changes happen, it is good to consider whether your current estate plan reaches your goals. You can choose to look at your Will, Powers of Attorney, and trust documents at any point. There are no rules or requirements in place. However, there are certain times I recommend people revisit their estate planning documents. We will look at a few of these.

You get a divorce

If you recently divorced, you may have received property in equitable distribution. This property may include retirement distributions, proceeds from the sale of a house, or the former marital residence. Depending on what you received, these assets may become part of your estate. This is a good time to consider who will receive what.

Another reason to update your estate plan after a divorce is to revisit who the beneficiaries or fiduciaries will be. Sometimes, people leave part of their estate to their ex-spouse’s family members. While this may sound strange, it happens frequently where funds are left to a niece, nephew, or stepchild. You may feel differently about these family members receiving something after a divorce though. Sometimes family members take sides in a divorce or become estranged from each other. If you no longer wish to leave them anything, you can remove them entirely from your Will.

Along with your Will, you should consider your powers of attorney. If you let your former sister in law be your agent to make medical decisions, you may not wish her to do so after a divorce.

You remarry

Another time to update your estate plan is if you remarry. This is especially true if you have children. Many people write their Wills so that their spouse receives everything if they pass away. The hope is that the spouse who survives will distribute the estate to the children. This works well in many families! But it far from guaranteed in blended families. You simply have no way of knowing that your spouse will leave anything to his or her stepchildren. If you want to guarantee your children will inherit from you, it is equally important that you look at a prenuptial agreement. This will clearly define what will be “marital” property and what will simply belong to you.

Your beneficiary’s needs change

Most people in Pennsylvania leave their property to their families directly. But sometimes this may not be in a family member’s best interest. Your spouse may become disabled, or your child may develop a severe drug addiction. You may want to support these loved ones, but know that leaving them assets may not work well. That is when it is worth considering a trust so the funds will be managed properly.

Your personal values change

I focused this article on handling changes to your Will. But I cannot overlook changes to your financial and healthcare powers of attorney. With a healthcare power of attorney, someone else will make medical decisions for you when you cannot do so. This includes deciding types of treatment and making end of life decisions. As you go through life, your perspective on these issues may change. You may have not wanted life support in the past, but feel differently because you now have children. Or, you may have watched a loved one live in a vegetative state and decide you do not want to experience the same. There are no right or wrong feelings. But if your values and priorities changed, it is time to revisit your plan.

If you want to change your healthcare advance directive, you should also talk to you agent. Your agent may not support your new wishes. Updating your estate plan is the time to designate somebody else, if that happens.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are many times to revisit your estate plan. This is by far not an exhaustive list! But changes to your family, changes to your values, and changes to your finances are the ideal times to consider whether your original plan meets your goals. The purpose of an estate plan is to protect your family in the future. By periodically revisiting your wishes, you can ensure that they have these protections.

I lost my custody trial. What did I do wrong? What can I do?

January 24, 2022 · by Pittsburgh Family Law Services, P.C.

Man upset after his custody trial wondering what went wrong

It’s never easy to lose or receive a negative decision after a custody trial. They involve the most important aspects of your life: your children. It is devastating to come out on the losing end. You probably paid large legal fees, which makes it even harder to accept the outcome. If this just happened, you may wonder what what went wrong, or what to do next.

What did we do wrong?

You may wonder if your lawyer did something wrong that made you lose. Very often, when I speak with someone who is looking for a new lawyer, they believe they lost their trial because their past lawyer did something wrong. While it is easy to assume that good lawyers win and bad lawyers lose, a custody trial simply doesn’t work that way. An experienced lawyer will take a set of facts, present it in the most favorable way, and help the judge understand the facts in a way that makes her able to find in your favor. However, lawyers cannot change the history of a case, or control the outcome. In a custody case, outcomes often turn on facts and events which happened long before hiring your lawyer.

Unfortunately, not all facts support a favorable outcome, and some cases are harder than others to persuade a judge. This is often the case when one parents wants to move away, or when a parent has only recently addressed a serious drug addiction. Sometimes you may do everything right, but it hasn’t been long enough. This does not mean you did anything wrong, or that you are a bad parent! It means that certain types of cases are very challenging to succeed.

You may also wonder if you lost because something wasn’t presented in court. Clients are often concerned about this. In every custody case, there are exhibits and facts that never get shown to the court. It is common to think the case would have gone differently, if only the judge had “everything” in front of her. Why didn’t your lawyer show those text messages? Why didn’t your lawyer introduce the voicemails from years ago? “More is better” is often the wrong approach in custody cases. Your lawyer knows the court’s priorities, the facts of your case, and what the other side will argue. Instead, your lawyer uses her knowledge to pick the strongest arguments. This ultimately means excluding information that doesn’t address the court’s priorities or distracts from your strongest arguments.

Finally, parents often ask why their lawyer didn’t say more about the other’s bad character. In most custody cases, these arguments are often vague and provides little of valuable use. Parents rarely come into a custody trial with no blemishes. There are text messages, voicemails, and missed communications which do not support the child’s best interest. This is very common at the beginning of a separation. But their existence does not by itself indicate poor parenting.

What can I do next?

First, talk to your lawyer. She may have insight into why the judge ruled a certain way. Your case may have always been harder to win, or there may have been some glaring fact that tilted the judge in the opposite direction. This is usually clear from reading the judge’s opinion. It is uncommon that an experienced lawyer truly does not know why a judge made a certain decision.

Next, you should take time to read the judge’s opinion. This is often hard, but it provides valuable information. It lets you see what the judge found problematic and what to change moving forward. If the judge found that housing wasn’t stable, then prepare to address that head-on. If the judge found you to be less involved, then be proactive in requesting information about your children. The purpose of understanding what concerned the judge is not to make you feel bad, but to give you the opportunity to make concrete changes.

If you take the time to address the judge’s concerns, eventually you can request a change in custody. Judges can and do change their orders when they consider a previous issue to be resolved. It is not a quick or easy process, but it is very possible. Losing a custody trial once does not mean you cannot have a better result in the future.

Custody orders are not set in stone, and they can be changed if you address the problematic areas. This shows the court you took its concerns seriously and are acting in your children’s best interests. Child custody is rarely a one-step process. By using an unfavorable decision as way to make changes, you can obtain a far more positive outcome later.

Why is my divorce taking so long?

January 20, 2022 · by Pittsburgh Family Law Services, P.C.

For many spouses, the process between filing the divorce complaint and receiving the decree is an exercise in patience. You’ve moved out, opened separate bank accounts, and likely spent many hours looking for and giving your divorce lawyer all of your financial information but you’re still not divorced. A lot of spouses get very frustrated after having done so much work to only feel like they’re still in the same place.

There are a few reasons why a divorce cannot be granted instantly. The first reason is because Pennsylvania does not allow that to occur, even in the most amicable situations. Even if the only thing you and your spouse seek is the piece of paper saying you’re no longer married, you have to wait at least 90 days before you will receive that decree in the mail. This waiting period cannot be shortened, waived, or removed for any reason.

Most spouses who hire a lawyer for their divorce though need more assistance than merely receiving a divorce decree. The most common situation is that the couple has marital property which must be divided. This requires gathering and exchanging documents. At the beginning of a divorce case, I always instruct my clients to begin obtaining financial records that we will need to divide the marital property. The vast majority of this information is not something your lawyer has immediate access to, and you do not want to pay your lawyer to obtain it if it’s already in your possession. Depending on what your financial picture consists of, it can take awhile before you have everything ready. For this reason, when you formally request to exchange documents with your spouse using the court process, the other person is given 30 days to respond.

After a couple exchanges financial information, everything you provided has to be reviewed by your lawyer and only then can you discuss what an equitable division of the marital estate may be. Although you will see settlement proposals sent before this investigation happens, this is often not a good practice because you may feel differently about a given proposal after seeing what assets the other spouse has. Taking the time to thoroughly review what you worked hard to gather ultimately ensures that nobody can come back years later and say they had no idea what property they even had.

Finally, the factor that often gets overlooked in the length of a divorce proceeding is that so much of the process is outside your individual control. A spouse cannot control the court’s calendar, mandatory waiting periods set by statute, the amount of time a spouse is legally entitled to to respond to requests. You also cannot control whether the court is understaffed and hasn’t processed your documents, or whether your spouse will work quickly to finish the divorce. With few exceptions, your lawyer has no more control over these factors than you do. You can, however, ensure that you are doing what you can to handle everything quickly by being organized and looking for requested documents as soon as you’re asked.

The divorce process is never quick or immediate. But if you are ever concerned about the amount of time it is taking, you can always ask your lawyer about whether the amount of time is normal or typical. He or she will have the experience to know whether your case is taking a particularly long period of time. In our office, we proactively tell our clients if the court has a large backlog which is creating longer delays. The important thing to remember is that if you ultimately want to dissolve the marriage, you will be divorced at some point. It is only a matter of “when.”

What to try before filing a guardianship petition

January 14, 2022 · by Pittsburgh Family Law Services, P.C.

I posted briefly about how a guardianship can be helpful if your loved one is unable to make decisions for herself. But before petitioning for guardianship, I always caution families to make sure it really is the best resort that serves your loved one’s needs. There is no set list of what medical conditions require a guardian to be appointed. The majority of people with disabilities are able to live independently and ask for assistance as needed on their own. Merely having a disability does not require an order taking away an adult’s autonomy and ability to make decisions. When you ask the court to be appointed as a guardian, you will specifically need to identify what other steps you have taken, and why those measures do not meet your family member’s needs. There are a few options that may be available to help your loved one:

Power of attorney– A power of attorney for financial or medical decisions are part of standard estate planning, and are some of the most important documents you can have. The documents designate someone to make decisions on your behalf if you are unable to do so. You can even specify that if a guardian needs to be appointed, that it be the same person you designate in your powers of attorney. These documents require the person signing them to be competent, and able to make their own decisions. Having a power of attorney in place can be a lifeline if someone suffers a sudden medical emergency which leaves her unable to communicate or understand what she is being told.

Community support services– Sometimes an adult may need help in specific areas of daily living, but is otherwise able to function independently. Depending on where you live, there may be various types of community support options available. Home care workers can visit regularly to make sure someone is taking prescribed medication at the proper dosages. For adults who struggle with handling money or bank accounts, there are money management supports which can help to monitor bank account activity.

Family support– In many cases, adults with special needs already have substantial supports from their immediate and extended family, and no court involvement is ever necessary. These individuals may be physically healthy and receiving Social Security Disability or other benefits through a representative payee and live with their family members. Their doctors and other providers may know who their family support members are and they are willing to communicate with those family members. In those circumstances, they may not need a guardianship if their needs are already being met.

Of course, not every incapacitated adult’s needs can be met outside of a formal guardianship, and that process is available to those who need it. But before filing a legal pleading, it is best to consider what your loved one’s needs really are, whether they are being met right now, and whether they are unable to be met in the absence of a court order. Taking the time to ask these questions will not only enable you better assist your family member, it will also help you articulate for the court what other measures you have considered and why they are not effective.

Protecting your disabled loved ones through a guardianship

January 13, 2022 · by Pittsburgh Family Law Services, P.C.

Every year, families face the need to help a disabled loved one receive appropriate care. Sometimes these needs are anticipated, such as a child who has always been disabled reaching the age of 18. Other times it is completely unexpected, such as when someone suffers a severe stroke or sudden illness and he never appointed someone to act on his behalf. This can be a very distressing time for families because important decisions need to be made quickly. Often when families try to talk with doctors, hospitals, or creditors, they are given limited information because their loved one is an adult; well-meaning family simply does not have an automatic right to act on behalf of an adult.

In Pennsylvania, adults are given the ability to make their own decisions about their health, well-being, and finances. This is true even if their family strongly disagrees. While it may not seem like a good idea for an adult to cash in a retirement early and decide to never work again, the reality is that they are legally permitted to do so. However, there are situations where an adult cannot and should not make these decisions independently. Some adults experience long-term physical or mental health conditions which make them unable to follow directions in taking medication, arrange for assistance in helping them to live independently, or understand how to respond to an emergency. These are only a few scenarios in which families may need to consider a guardianship appointment to help their loved one achieve physical and financial security and safety.

When a family member is appointed guardian, she is able to speak with doctors, take an active role in medical treatment decisions, pay bills on behalf of the disabled family member, and arrange for other types of personal care. Because this is a legal document signed by a judge, families can be assured that their requests will not be refused because a provider is unable to speak with someone other than the disabled adult.

While a guardianship order is a lifeline for families who want to provide the best care possible for their loved one, it is important to note that it should be a last resort. Such an order takes away an adult’s ability to make her own decisions, which can greatly change the way she lives her life. The family dynamic can also be drastically altered if family members disagree on whether someone lacks the capacity to care for herself. Before filing a petition in court, it is wise to speak with a Pennsylvania guardianship lawyer to determine the best course of action. When I meet with clients seeking a guardianship, we talk about what the family member’s medical conditions are and whether there are any options which may be more appropriate. Identifying your loved one’s needs will help you to make the best decision which protects them and allows them to maintain as much independence as possible.

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