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 Southwestern Pennsylvania. Call our Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania office for a free telephone consultation at 412-371-4500.

School choice disputes: where will your child go to school?

February 9, 2020 · by Pittsburgh Family Law Services, P.C.

Pittsburgh School Choice Attorney
CALL 412-371-4500 FOR YOUR FREE CONSULTATION
READ MORE ARTICLES ABOUT FAMILY LAW IN PENNSYLVANIA.

READ THE REVIEWS on Google, Facebook and Avvo.

“Children learn more from what you are than what you teach.” – W.E.B. Dubois

Back to School… but which one?

Deciding where your child will go to school can be a very personal and oftentimes emotional decision, even for two-parent households. You might have a personal history with a specific school, and might even want your children to learn from some of your own former teachers. Perhaps you chose your current neighborhood for the sake of its school system. No matter the reason, many parents have very strong and specific educational preferences for their children. In custody disputes between parents of school-age children, issues of school choice often need to be addressed. If you face a dispute over who gets to pick your children’s school, here are a few points to keep in mind.

If you can, discuss the subject with your co-parent. Describe the outcome you would prefer and why you think it is the right decision, and ask what your co-parent thinks. Listen to the answer, and consider it seriously. Consider whether there is an alternative way to address each parent’s concerns outside of a court battle, and also whether one possible outcome might put an unsustainable burden on the other parent or the children, when compared to the other outcome.

You should also discuss this issue with your local child custody attorney, just as soon as you have reason to know that you and your co-parent might disagree about it. Courts seldom move quickly, and too many parents wait to raise the issue until the summertime, joining the crowd of other last-minute parents who need quick decisions from hard-pressed judges over where their children will go to school in the fall. When that happens, it is more likely that your family court judge will have to make a snap decision about which school your child will attend, at least temporarily, simply because the school year is about to start and there is no time for more thorough consideration. Given an opportunity, Judges prefer helping parents reach agreement, or (if that is not possible) to give both parents a fair and full hearing before making such an important decision. Discussing the matter as early as possible with an experienced family law attorney will help ensure your best opportunity to make your case to the court.

A common misconception is that a Pennsylvania judge will choose to send your child to the “better” school district, or will favor private school over a public education. This is very much a myth; it is seldom that simple. Judges understand that you and your co-parent know your children far better than they ever can. They also know that while some children perform better in a large district with many resources, others might flourish best in a smaller school with fewer students and more individualized attention from teachers. Some private schools offer top-level academic programs which help some children, whereas others may have institutional issues such as falling enrollment or insufficient funding. Your children’s friends might attend one of the two schools. There are other considerations that relate to the parents rather than to the schools, such as their relative economic means, their own respective educational backgrounds, how involved each of them has been up to now in the children’s education, whether one parent is more accommodating or informative toward the other parent in educational matters, and what agreements they have made in the past about their children’s education. The logistics of each possible outcome also matters; perhaps one outcome will allow the current custody arrangement to remain in place, whereas the other outcome might require a disruptive change to your children’s schedule. The focus of the court is always upon the best interest of the child, viewed holistically.

This is why, when a judge makes a decision in a school choice dispute, the order is often framed as awarding “sole legal custody for the purpose of school choice” to the selected parent (or similar phrasing). Judges prefer to maintain parents in equal provisions of authority over their children, limiting one parent’s leverage over another to ‘either/or’ situations such as school choice. Even then, both parents remain equally-entitled (and expected) to participate fully in the children’s education at the school selected by the choosing parent, and each will retain full access to academic records.

BROWSE THE LIBRARY AND READ MORE ARTICLES!

If you need the help of an experienced family law attorney for your shared legal custody case in Southside, Lawrenceville or Homestead, call our office to set up a personal consultation with an experienced Pittsburgh area child custody lawyer and to learn how to get the most out of your parental litigation dispute. Please do not comment anonymously, and do not post anything that you consider confidential. We try to be responsive to commentary and questions, but know that posting here will not create an attorney/client relationship and that we will not offer legal advice via the Internet.

Navigating extracurricular activities in your custody case

November 25, 2019 · by Pittsburgh Family Law Services, P.C.

Pittsburgh Legal Custody Lawyer
CALL 412-371-4500 FOR YOUR FREE CONSULTATION
READ MORE ARTICLES ABOUT FAMILY LAW IN PENNSYLVANIA.

READ THE REVIEWS on Google, Facebook and Avvo.

“We are apt to forget that children watch examples better than they listen to preaching.” – Roy L. Smith

Separated parents often find themselves fighting over their children’s extra-curricular activities. Disagreements can become heartaches: which activities and programs to choose, how many are too many, whether children may be signed up for activities during the other parent’s custodial time, and what happens when one parent declares an activity too dangerous, too time-consuming, or too expensive. Making decisions about extra-curricular activities is a legal custody issue, and usually that means the court expects parents to work together to figure these things out. When the “together” part turns out to be easier said than done, disagreements can be brought to court.

Often, children will be permitted to continue participating in activities they were already involved in before the court became involved. There are always exceptions, such as if a child no longer wants to participate, if the costs go up drastically, or if the activity itself has changed in a way that makes it objectionable to a parent. Most activity disputes that end up in court have to do with new activities, especially if one parent’s decision to enroll the child commits the other parent to supporting the child’s involvement in the activity during his or her own custody time.

When parental disputes like this do end up in court, judges tend to favor children being permitted to participate in extracurricular activities that appeal to them, and if that is the court’s decision both parents will be expected to ensure that the child is able to participate fully. However, judges know they are poor substitutes for parents when making these decisions, and they will still expect parents to coordinate together directly for the benefit of their children. Coordinating and consulting with your co-parent is not just about checking in and asking permission, but also is about making sure that if you are not inadvertently scheduling a commitment that occurs at the same time as something else your child is already scheduled to attend. Many parental disagreements happen because one parent chose not to check in with the other to confirm there were no timing issues with the activity.

Parents often can more effectively resolve issues arising from extra-curricular activities (and many others) by participating in a program of co-parenting counseling. Having a structured, refereed forum in which each parent is able to raise address his or her concerns is often far more effective – and far less expensive – than going to a judge and letting the court tell you both how you must raise your children. The vast majority of disagreements can be resolved by this type of dialogue in a way that litigation can never do.

Of course, it is not always possible to resolve parental disagreements without court intervention. This is often true when one parent views an activity as being particularly dangerous or morally objectionable, if one parent schedules activities to interfere with the other parent’s time without advance agreement, or if the activity will require substantial travel or a large commitment of money or time. In these situations, the court has the power to give one parent the overriding authority to make such decisions.

If you and your child’s other parent disagree about extra-curricular activities and you are considering taking the matter to court, it is important that you speak with an attorney before you take any action. An experienced attorney can help you to identify whether the disagreement is one that is better addressed in co-parenting counseling or by other means, or whether it is worth the effort to bring it in front of the judge.

If you need legal assistance with your physical custody case in Pittsburgh’s Southside, Upper St. Clair or Mt. Lebanon, call our office to set up a personal consultation with an experienced Allegheny County child custody attorney and to learn how to get the most out of your co-parent dispute. Please do not comment anonymously, and do not post anything that you consider confidential. We try to be responsive to commentary and questions, but know that posting here will not create an attorney/client relationship and that we will not offer legal advice via the Internet.

Pennsylvania child custody law is changing: can grandparents and non-parents still file?

May 11, 2018 · by Pittsburgh Family Law Services, P.C.

Experienced Pittsburgh Grandparents’ Rights Attorney
CALL 412-371-4500 FOR YOUR FREE CONSULTATION
READ MORE ARTICLES ABOUT FAMILY LAW IN PENNSYLVANIA.

READ THE REVIEWS on Google, Facebook and Avvo.

“Remember that children, marriages, and flower gardens reflect the kind of care they get.” – H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

The most fortunate children grow up being loved by many adults besides their parents, but loving a child cannot by itself confer the right to claim custody of that child in Pennsylvania. Only people who have “standing” under the law may ask a Pennsylvania family court to grant them an award of custody.

On May 4, 2018 Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf signed into law Senate Bill 844, which makes some major changes to who can petition a PA family court for child custody. It affects grandparents’ rights to ask for custody of their grandchildren; and under certain circumstances, it grants standing for the very first time to third-parties such as aunts, uncles and other close relatives to sue for custody. The new law takes effect on July 3, 2018, sixty days after being adopted.

What is “standing” in a Pennsylvania child custody case?
Standing, for purposes of the law, has to do with who has the right to make a claim before the court, and to have that claim heard. Going to court in Pennsylvania was never meant to be a free-for-all; you must have a reasonable basis to ask for what you want the court to grant. If you are a parent, you always have standing to request a PA court to determine your custody rights toward your own children… but probably not to ask that same court to make decisions about my children.

Having standing to file for custody of kids does not mean that you will win, of course. It just means that you have the right to make the request. You still will have to back up your claim according to the standards set under PA child custody law, and to convince a judge that the custody arrangement you want to establish is the right outcome.

No matter how much you love a child nor how committed you may be to that child’s well-being, the courtroom door will be closed and barred against you if you lack standing to make the claim.

Who can sue for any form of physical and legal custody of a child in Pennsylvania?
Pennsylvania child custody law makes a distinction between physical custody (the right to obtain the physical presence of a child) and legal custody (the right to participate in the parental decision-making process over that child). Likewise, there is a difference between the kind of standing that will let the claimant ask for any form of physical or legal custody over a child, and the kind that sets a lower standard, and that is limited to claims for partial physical custody or supervised partial physical custody.

You can make any claim for physical and legal custody of a child if (and only if) you fit into one of these categories:

Parents. That’s no surprise. If you are a child’s parent whose parental rights have not been terminated by a court (for example, by adoption), you can make your claim and be heard.

A person who stands in loco parentis to the child. “In loco parentis” standing applies to an adult who is not a parent to a particular child either by blood or by adoption, but whose relationship with the child was begun by a blood (or adoptive) parent in anticipation that it would become indistinguishable from a parental relationship. In practice, this means that the child has resided with the adult who claims in loco parentis standing Step-parents often can claim this kind of relationship, as can grandparents who have, in effect, become parents to their grandchildren due to the absence, incapacity or disinterest of the actual parents.

Grandparents not in loco parentis, who meet a strict and narrow standard. To meet the standard, the claimant must be a natural grandparent to the child (step-grandparents don’t make the cut), and the relationship with the child must have begun with the consent of a parent (or by court order). The grandparent must have assumed, or be willing to assume, responsibility for the child. Additionally, one of three things must be true: (1) the child must have been found “dependent” by a juvenile court; (2) the child is substantially at risk due to parental abuse, neglect, drug or alcohol abuse, or incapacity; (3) less than six months before the grandparent files the custody claim, the child had been living with that grandparent for at least twelve consecutive months before the child was removed from the home by a parent.

The above three categories were already in place under the old law. The 2018 change to PA child custody law establishes a fourth category of child custody claimant:

Any person who is able to establish by clear and convincing evidence: (1) that he or she has assumed or is willing to assume responsibility for the child; (2) that he or she has a sustained, substantial and sincere interest in the child’s welfare ; and (3) neither parent has any form of care and control of the child. The person who meets this standard need not be a grandparent, or even a blood relative. Please note that this category does not apply where there is a current dependency proceeding involving the child, or where the child has been adjudicated dependent and the court has made an award of permanent legal custody.

Who can sue for partial physical custody of a child in Pennsylvania?
People seeking custody under this form of standing are subject to strict limitations in the kind of relationship they can ask the child custody court to support. These people may claim time to spend with a child, but without the authority to make parent-level decisions:

The parent of a deceased parent. Grandparents can claim access to a grandchild if their own child, a parent to their grandchild, has died.

A grandparent with whom the child has resided for at least a full twelve months, if the grandparent files the custody claim within six months after the child was removed from the grandparent’s home by a parent.

The 2018 change to the Pennsylvania custody code also grants standing to file for custody to:

A grandparent whose relationship with the child began either by a parent’s consent or by court order, when the parents have commenced a custody proceeding and when the parents cannot agree over whether the grandparent should have custody.

Who lost standing when the law changed?
Grandparents are no longer able to file for partial physical custody simply because the parents of their grandchild have been separated for six months or longer, or because the parents are parties to a divorce proceeding.

If you need legal assistance with your grandparents’ rights case or otherwise protecting children you are caring for, call our office to set up a personal consultation with a Pittsburgh child custody law attorney. Please do not comment anonymously, and do not post anything that you consider confidential. We try to be responsive to commentary and questions, but know that posting here will not create an attorney/client relationship and that we will not offer legal advice via the Internet.

Dividing marital property in divorce: whose “mine” is it, anyway?

May 7, 2018 · by Pittsburgh Family Law Services, P.C.

Pittsburgh Equitable Distribution Lawyer
CALL 412-371-4500 FOR YOUR FREE CONSULTATION
READ MORE ARTICLES ABOUT FAMILY LAW IN PENNSYLVANIA.

READ THE REVIEWS on Google, Facebook and Avvo.

“I’d marry again if I found a man who had $15 million and would sign over half of it to me before the marriage and guarantee he’d be dead in a year.” – Bette Davis

One of the most common questions clients ask me is “Who will get what out of the divorce?” immediately followed by, “Do I have to give my spouse anything?” My answer usually begins with the phrase that clients hate most: “Well, it depends…” Every divorce in Pennsylvania is different when it comes to property distribution, and the particular facts of your situation can make a tremendous difference in the outcome.

What is the Marital Estate for divorces in Pennsylvania?
Before even approaching the question of which spouse gets which property in the settlement, a good family law attorney will first analyze what the marital estate contains. The divorce lawyer representing you for property distribution must determine what assets are owned by you and your spouse (irrespective of whose name is on them), what those assets are worth, and what debts you owe. Every rule has its exceptions, of course, but in general if you or your spouse acquired an asset or a debt after your wedding and before your final separation, Pennsylvania says that it is part of the marital estate. The property you owned before you got married usually stays yours alone, but any increase in value prior to the date you separate is also included in the marital estate. This means that assets or debts in one spouse’s name can still be marital property, and therefore can be subject to equitable distribution by a family court judge. That includes credit card debt in your name or your spouse’s name alone, as well as the marital increases in the value of individual retirement assets such as pensions, 401Ks and IRAs.

After your divorce lawyer has determined the size and value of your marital estate, it is time to explore how to divide it between the two of you either by settling your case, or by moving forward toward an equitable distribution trial.

Does Pennsylvania split marital property 50/50 down the middle?
Nothing about marital property division in Pennsylvania is automatic. Before the best divorce attorneys are prepared to take a firm position about which spouse should end up with what property, first they will address the percentage share of the marital estate’s value that should go to each spouse. There are many instances in PA of equal division of the marital estate’s value, but divorce lawyers dealing with asset distribution will often talk about “skewed” splits in which one spouse will walk away with a greater share of the marital estate than the other spouse.

Skewed splits are especially common when one spouse has a substantially greater earning capacity than the other. PA divorce law recognizes that one spouse often is economically dependent upon the other, for reasons that include one spouse working as a homemaker, or one spouse being unable to earn as much as the other spouse in the local job market. Pennsylvania law requires the court to prioritize economic justice over a formula-based outcome in any marital property division that goes all the way through court, and that includes consideration of various factors such as the relative earnings (and capacity to earn) of each spouse, the length of the marriage, and the standard of living that the couple enjoyed.

Even an equal distribution of the marital estate can require one spouse to give up separately-titled assets.

I worked to earn my pension, so why does my spouse get to touch it?
Retirement assets usually are among the biggest things to divide in divorce; and often, the spouse with higher wages often has put more money into savings funds such as IRAs, TIAA-CREF plans and 401K plans. My economically-advantaged clients often become upset that they have to give part of these assets to their soon-to-be exes. From the higher-earning spouse’s perspective, it simply is not fair that they worked as hard as they did, earned what they did and sacrificed what they did, only to have to give part of it away to the spouse who failed to do the same thing.

You can expect a Pennsylvania family court to view things differently. One spouse’s time might be worth more money than the other’s in the world of employment, but as between the two of them in their marriage they will be viewed on much more of a level playing field. Were it otherwise, the breakup of a traditional family arrangement featuring a breadwinner spouse and a homemaker spouse would leave the breadwinner extremely well-off, while consigning the homemaker to financial ruin. No divorce court will permit this.

It may help you to understand that for purposes of Pennsylvania divorce law, marriage is neither a religious sacrament nor an affair of the heart; instead, it is no more (or less) than an economic arrangement created by contract (getting married), much in the nature of a shared business enterprise. A family court presiding over a divorce case is unlikely to be interested in the family drama incident to any marital breakup, but will focus instead upon the dollars and cents of the marriage along with what those dollars and cents were used to buy.

For that reason, it is best to think about Pennsylvania divorce as being about economic closure rather than being about personal closure. The family court is unlikely to overlook the prospect that lower-earning spouses become financially dependent for many reasons, such as having sacrificed income potential or education, having focused on caring for the children, or having been in a state of impaired health. A divorce court judge is not going to leave a dependent spouse destitute simply because the marriage came to an end, and instead will want to ensure that he or she has sufficient resources available to attain financial independence. Giving a dependent spouse the greater share of the marital estate is one way a court can achieve that goal. This is an example of why “equitable distribution” often is not the same as “equal distribution” in the eyes of a Pennsylvania divorce court.

How a Pennsylvania family court divides marital property in divorce.
In making an award for equitable distribution of the marital estate, a judge has to consider eleven different factors. These factors include the length of the marriage, the incomes and earning potentials of the spouses, whether one spouse will be caring for minor children, and the opportunity available to each spouse to increase earning potential. None of these factors are assigned greater importance than any other by default, meaning that your judge has substantial discretion to determine a distribution that fits your (and your ex’s) actual situation and needs.

You may be surprised to learn that “marital misconduct” is specifically excluded from consideration by the court when it comes to allocating your marital property between you and your former spouse. Fault grounds for divorce have absolutely no effect on equitable distribution in Pennsylvania, and so claims of adultery or abandonment have no effect when dividing marital property. Your judge is there to judge the case, and not the hearts and souls of the ex-spouses. If you own a pen, for example, and use that pen to write terrible things about your spouse… you still own the pen. Nobody cares whether you deserve it, because (rightly or wrongly), ownership of property in our society has nothing to do with what the owner might deserve.

You can expect the court to worry less about what you and your spouse might deserve, and more about what each of you may need.

If you need legal assistance with your marital separation in east-end communities such as Squirrel Hill, Shadyside and Monroeville, call our office to set up a personal consultation with an experienced Pittsburgh-area marital property division lawyer and to learn how to get the most out of your separation. Please do not comment anonymously, and do not post anything that you consider confidential. We try to be responsive to commentary and questions, but know that posting here will not create an attorney/client relationship and that we will not offer legal advice via the Internet.

The change to Pennsylvania divorce law, and what it means to you

October 6, 2016 · by Pittsburgh Family Law Services, P.C.

Divorce Attorney for Pittsburgh, Squirrel Hill, Penn Hills & surrounding area
CALL 412-371-4500 FOR YOUR FREE CONSULTATION
READ MORE ARTICLES ABOUT FAMILY LAW IN PENNSYLVANIA.

READ THE REVIEWS on Google, Facebook and Avvo.

Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future. – John F. Kennedy

On October 4, 2016 Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf signed into law House Bill 380 of 2015, which reduced the waiting period for an “Irretrievable Breakdown” no-fault divorce ground from two years after the spouses separate, to only one. The change took effect on December 5, 2016.

The way we were: two year separation before divorce in PA.
Pennsylvania has two “no-fault” divorce grounds: Mutual Consent, and Irretrievable Breakdown. Mutual Consent requires no particular length of separation, but does require the active cooperation of the spouses, and either spouse can bring the divorce process to a screeching halt simply by refusing to sign the divorce consent forms. If there is no mutual consent, grounds for divorce of Mutual Consent simply cannot be established, that remains true even after Pennsylvania’s divorce law change goes into effect.

For the divorce-filing spouse in Pennsylvania who wants to move things forward anyway, but who cannot establish old-fashioned “fault” grounds (such as adultery) against a spouse, that leaves only the Irretrievable Breakdown divorce ground. Irretrievable Breakdown does not require consent, but does require not only that the marriage be irretrievably broken (no surprise) but also that two or more years have passed from the date of the parties’ final separation. Divorce is never “automatic” after two years in Pennsylvania; this is a common misconception. In most cases, the two-year separation simply means that your spouse’s refusal to consent to divorce stops being a barrier against your moving forward toward closure. At the two-year mark, your spouse’s non-cooperation changes from “You shall not pass!” into “Whatever, do what you have do.”

“New wave divorce” in Pennsylvania: the two-year wait gets cut in half.
For married couples in Pennsylvania who separated on or after December 5, 2016, the Irretrievable Breakdown ground for divorce will require only one year of living separate and apart for one spouse to be able to proceed toward a divorce decree without the other spouse’s consent. It is not an exaggeration to say that this is a major game-changer.

Please note that married couples who separated before December 5, 2016 must still have a full two years of separation to establish grounds for divorce under “irretrievable breakdown.”

How will the change in Pennsylvania law affect my divorce?
Imagine that you live in PA and are married-but-separated, and that you are economically dependent upon your spouse (which might be your exact situation). You might already know that Pennsylvania law allows you to file for spousal support without also having to file a claim against your spouse for divorce. Once you have been to court and your spouse is required to pay support money to you each month, you are effectively being paid to do nothing at all when it comes to cooperating with a divorce process. What do you do next?

In most cases you do what you are being paid to do, of course: nothing… nothing at all. Your spouse can go ahead and file for divorce, but you have no obligation to sign the consent forms that would let the divorce process move forward under Mutual Consent. Unless you have a compelling reason to file for divorce yourself (and sometimes those reasons exist), if you are like most people you will end up stretching your advantage until your spouse can move things forward anyway under the Irretrievable Breakdown ground.

The change to Pennsylvania divorce law chops a full twelve months off of that free ride. For people stuck paying spousal support month after month, the reduced waiting period might well be cause for celebration. If on the other hand you are a Pennsylvania spouse who receives support, you now will have a much smaller window of time to get your finances and your life together and to decide “what you want to be when you grow up,” before you can be compelled to participate actively in in the process of working your way toward full economic closure for your marriage (possibly including alimony and marital property division). Since the most successful alimony claims tend to involve a clear plan for improving your economic situation, an economically-dependent spouse’s window of opportunity is now massively reduced. The same procrastination that would have been your best friend under the old law may now be toxic to the strength of your case.

This change makes it more important than ever before to talk to a local Pennsylvania divorce lawyer sooner rather than later. There is opportunity as well as challenge in every situation, no matter how difficult, and your best chance to take advantage of it only happens if you are willing to be proactive. Where divorce and family law are concerned, an ounce of prevention really can be worth a pound of cure.

If you are in Southwestern Pennsylvania, call our Pittsburgh divorce and family law office for your free consultation by telephone.

If you need legal assistance with your divorce or family law matter in Southwestern Pennsylvania, call our office to set up a personal consultation with an experienced Pittsburgh divorce lawyer. Please do not comment anonymously, and do not post anything that you consider confidential. We try to be responsive to commentary and questions, but know that posting here will not create an attorney/client relationship and that we will not offer legal advice via the Internet.

Page 1 of 7 1 2 3 … 7 Next »