LGBTQ Divorce
As many LGBTQ couples finally won the right to marry in the landmark Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges, these couples also won the right to divorce. In many ways, LGBTQ divorce is quite similar to divorce between heterosexual couples. However, there are a few differences and complications LGBTQ couples looking to divorce may encounter.
Read more about them down below.
What’s the Same
Of course, there are several aspects of LGBTQ divorce proceedings that are the exact same as heterosexual divorces. Here are some of the common issues that may pop up during any divorce.
- Child Custody: Figuring out who gains custody of the children born between a couple is one of the most contentious and emotional aspects of a divorce. Oftentimes this will be the aspect of the divorce proceedings that take the longest, as both parents have an emotional investment in the well-being of their children.
- Child Support: Related to child custody disputes, another big aspect of divorce proceedings is the determination of child support. The spouse who does not receive custody of the children will likely be ordered to pay child support to the custodial parent, at least until the children turn 18 years of age.
- Alimony: Another aspect of divorce couples may see is alimony, which you may have heard referred to as spousal support. Alimony is the legal obligation one spouse may have to financially support the other spouse following the divorce. The conditions surrounding alimony can change if the financial circumstances of the spouse receiving the alimony change, however.
- Division of Property: Married couples often share property and assets and must figure out a way to split them up following a divorce. This can be difficult, especially when couples both own something and one must give something up.
What’s Different
- The Dating: When a judge is determining how to reward alimony or divide up property or assets, they often look to see how long the marriage lasted. However, with LGBTQ couples, this becomes a bit unclear. Many LGBTQ+ couples have been together and shared property long before the 2015 Obergefell ruling. Do judges consider the relationship beginning in 2015 or when the couple first got together? In some areas, the courts will consider the years cohabiting and in others, they will consider the years legally married.
- Child Custody: Another thing complicating LGBT divorces are child custody battles. Sometimes if a child is adopted or biologically only related to one of the parents, only one of the parents will have legal rights over the child. The child without that legal standing can find it difficult to maintain a relationship with the child following the divorce.
If you’re in an LGBTQ relationship and are anticipating a divorce in your future, you should reach out to a divorce attorney as soon as possible to learn about how your divorce may differ from heterosexual couples.
Read MoreA Cultural Reckoning
There has been a seismic shift in the cultural norms around assault, harassment, consent, and other topics associated with the #MeToo movement. For the first time, men and women are holding the powerful accountable for actions that crossed boundaries or left victims feeling vulnerable.
With this new understanding of cultural norms, especially as they relate to relationships between employees/subordinates and employers or people with professional power, people are left wondering how employment discrimination or harassment litigation has changed. Thankfully, there are answers to this pressing concern.
As The Melton Law Firm has discussed, harassment is both provable and actionable. In this piece, I will discuss the topic of harassment and how to take action if you are a victim of this crime in the workplace:
What is harassment?
Litigation around harassment has included multiple definitions or frameworks depending on jurisprudence. However, certain principles remain true. Most definitions of harassment require pervasive and impactful actions. In the workforce, these actions must be tangibly impactful to the point that it affects your health or work performance. This definitional bright line, though not without its faults or flaws, is used to prevent small, annoying actions from being claimed as harassment in lawsuits or settlements.
Additionally, many claims of harassment have been defined in their positioning as discrimination against specific protected classes. It is possible for people not in protected classes (of gender, race, religion, ability, or otherwise) to still experience harassment; it is just much more difficult without those characteristics being present in a harassment case.
An additional characteristic to consider, though it is by nature ambiguous, is that the behavior is unwanted. Though specific company guidelines may differ, it is not a crime in of itself to pursue a workplace relationship. However, pursuing a romantic interest that is not matched or explicitly wanted, is obviously and sadly harassment. Be sure to consider how jokes or compliments are taken by your colleagues if you want to avoid contributing to harassment culture. On the flip side, make it as best known as possible if you are experiencing or hearing behavior that you find inappropriate or uncomfortable.
How is harassment proven?
Though every case differs, broadly speaking, it is best to establish a chronology of when harassing behavior begin (or, if it still continues). This will allow your legal counsel to paint a picture to a judge or jury of the purpose, nature, and context of the bad actions.
Additionally, speaking with other employees or subordinates will be beneficial. If they are willing to testify or act as a witness, agreeing that the boss or powerful figure was inappropriate, it will strengthen your case and prevent or stymie accusations that a person is making a false allegation.
Of course, any evidence such as texts, photographs, recordings, or other physical collections of proof is incredibly useful for your legal representation. The worst thing to happen to a sexual harassment case is to turn into a he-said, she-said dispute.
Read MoreWhy Do Drainage Systems Matter?
Do you have mildew issues, especially in your basement? Have you struggled with standing water in your front lawn? Are mosquitoes killing you with their pesky bites?
There may be a root cause: drainage issues. Water collection is a natural and essential process for a home to experience. However, ideally, the water would only partially collect to water the lawn and nourish plants. Excess water is designed to drain to the streets and away from your home’s yards and foundation.
What Are Drainage Systems
Drainage systems include devices like gutters and spouts meant to pool water and push it to collect away from a home. We will explain later why it is important to not collect near your home!
Exterior rainwater drainage is meant to catch water falling onto your roof and channel it off the roof, through pipes, and into the street. Another important aspect of exterior house drainage systems regards the home’s slope and grading. These terms describe the angle of the ground outside of your home, ideally (and legally required to be) angled to prevent standing water in your lawn.
There are other drainage options that may be employed in your house’s landscaping plans, dependent upon the design and needs of your home. These include complex options like in-ground drainage systems that require a higher amount of construction and cost.
The Impacts of a Drainage System
If a drainage system is improperly installed, fails to drain away water, or is significantly blocked, it can be harmful to the health of your lawn and to the structural integrity of your house’s foundation.
If water does not drain, and small puddles turn into standing water, plants may struggle to grow. The water can also seep into your foundation, causing cracks and damaging your home. The problem is even worse with temperature changes, in which water can freeze — and expand — inside of the cracks.
Standing water from poor drainage can also seep into your basement, causing mold and mildew to collect within the pipes and walls of your home. The potentially detrimental health effects of mildew in your home are obvious, but sometimes the cause of such a problem is not — might be faulty pipes, leaking issue, or as we have stated, foundation issues. Circumventing the issue entirely is your best option, and that can only be done by hiring a qualified professional company like Daybreaker Landscapes to take care of your drainage issues.
What to Do with Drainage Issues
Lawn grading and sloping is an incredibly intensive process for lawn service amateurs. The stakes are high as well. If you make an error with regrading your lawn to better channel off the water, you may permanently/drastically damage the foundation of your home or make your standing water issues worse.
Your best bet is to trust the professionals to assess your drainage issues. Something as simple as leaves blocking drains from properly clearing out water from a gutter could be the issue causing your severe drainage issues. On the other hand, you may need advanced solutions for an advanced problem. No matter what, leave it to the people who know what they are doing.
Read MoreWhy More Lawyers Are Better Than One
There’s a lot of comfort in going to a single lawyer with his own small practice when seeking a divorce. “This feels pretty comfy,” you might think, and that’s just what you’re looking for when your house is in disorder. You want comfy, and here’s the small office of your local lawyer, and he or she seems nice, and isn’t that all you need anyway?
When it comes to divorce, that’s a definitive “no.” What you need is the best lawyer, not the one with the comfiest office (although that’s a great bonus if you find it with a great lawyer attached as well).
In fact, when you’re pursuing a divorce, and particularly when you’re worried it will be nasty, what you really need is not one lawyer that you like but a big law firm.
Some people are reticent to go to big law firms for some reason. They worry they’ll get lost and their case forgotten, that they’ll call for information and never talk to a real person with a real update.
That can be the case at some big firms, and you should be careful about which firm you choose for that reason, but a firm is exactly what you need.
Why? Why go with a law firm with multiple lawyers instead of that single small office lawyer you liked?
There are a lot of answers to those questions. First, having multiple lawyers is a sign of success. You want your divorce lawyer to give you the best legal assistance, right? Well, then you want a divorce lawyer that is connected to a firm that has proven over and over they know how to win for their clients.
You also want a law firm with the resources to handle your case. Divorce is complex, and your lawyer may need to use a great deal of knowledge and skills to get you the best outcome. Can that single lawyer pull that off? Maybe, but you have to hope in a way you don’t with a bigger firm.
Perhaps the best reason, though, is that a law firm with multiple lawyers can rely on the experience and expertise of multiple lawyers. A law firm with several lawyers can give your case to the lawyer that knows best how to work with the specifics of your case. You don’t have to wonder if your lawyer knows how to handle a complex custody case; at a firm with several lawyers, you’ll know your lawyer is an expert in that area.
Just look at the breadth of issues a law firm like Kessler & Solomiany, LLC can handle, and then compare that to what you see on that individual lawyer’s site. A bigger law firm can use its team to give you the best outcome, while that single lawyer can only rely on what he or she knows and their individual experience.
When you look at it like that, the choice should be obvious. Just ask your lawyer from your bigger firm to meet you in a more comfy location than their office.
Read MoreMemories of crashes
I was just reading about a crash that killed a pedestrian around Fort Worth today, and it made me so sad. I always get so upset thinking about such things. How can people be so reckless? You know?
Stories like that, they always bring back thoughts of friends I’ve lost through tragedies, particularly cars. I’ve had more than my share of loss due to other people driving without regard for others. My sister, Sarah, when she was just twelve, she was hit by a car. Thank God, she survived, but she still has lasting problems due to that. Her early onset arthritis I’m convinced came about because of that accident.
Then, my friend Nick in college died crossing the street. It was a big party weekend, and someone, of course, was driving drunk. He went to jail for it, and I bet that ruined his life, so that’s really two lives that were ended by that accident.
I just don’t know what to do about such things. On some level, I want some vengeance for the victim. I want their family to sue whoever did this, to take them for everything. I have a good mind to call up that family and recommend a lawyer (another friend had some success with these lawyers, so I have a number handy).
But then, I think about that poor boy who hit Nick. I remember seeing him afterward, during the whole process when they were charging him and gathering evidence. He was broken, believe me. I don’t know how you cope with making a mistake like that, and then prison on top of it. And as far as I know, Nick’s family may have sued him too, or his family at least. Was that fair? I just don’t know. I can’t help but feel angry for a victim like Nick, but I hurt for the boys like the one who hit him too.
Was the person who hit that pedestrian in Fort Worth as easy to sympathize with? I don’t know. I couldn’t finish the article, so I didn’t see if the driver was drunk or speeding. I don’t know if they were simply not paying attention or if the pedestrian stepped out in front of them. Maybe I don’t want to know. I don’t want to put that burden on myself, to decide, even if just it’s a decision just for myself.
What I want is to let such stories go and not think about them. I don’t want to make the associations I always make with my own life, and I don’t want to imagine every victim as Nick or Sarah. I want to just let it out and let it go.
That’s why I’m going to start writing here. Hopefully, putting everything down here whenever I start remembering and getting upset, will help me do more of that letting go. I want to put it on this page and then forget it. I hope it works.
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