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Maryland recognizes three types of attorneys who can be appointed to represent children in contested custody, access/visitation/parenting time, and domestic violence cases. All of these roles require that the attorney be appointed by court order to represent the...
Updated: January & October 2021 Third party custody is one of the fastest developing areas of Maryland law, seeing many major changes since 2016. This series of articles explores these developments and raises questions about where this area of the law is...
In Maryland, child custody has two main parts: physical custody and legal custody. Physical custody involves where a child lives, when a child spends time with each parent, and any conditions. Physical custody is also called residential custody or...
Resilience is not something we have or don't. Resilience is something we can build - at any age. This New York Times article focuses on practical tips for building resilience in middle age. "Scientists who study stress and resilience say it’s important to think of...
Family clients have many urgent concerns because family cases are complicated. But is every urgent issue an emergency in the Court's eyes? Short answer: No. What is an emergency depends both upon the Circuit Court's case management plan and the Judge hearing the...
The question asked in every initial consultation when suit has been filed or when settlement seems uncertain. And, a question clients should ask throughout the attorney-client relationship. The truthful, but dissatisfying, answer: It depends. It depends upon you, the...
In two prior posts, I discussed court and private custody evaluations. But a few of the other types of evaluations in contested custody cases are: Psychological Evaluations: A psychological evaluation provides a psychological profile of a parent, based on a parent...
When assessing the advantages and disadvantages of settlement versus trial, it is worth considering what happens after the trial is over. When the trial ends, the case is rarely over. In Maryland, for 30 days after the ruling, either party has the right to an...
In contested custody cases, there are many types of evaluations that the court can order or parties can agree to undergo in order to assess the fitness of the parents and the living and decision-making arrangements that suit the best interests of the children. These...
In contested custody cases, there are many types of evaluations that the court can order or parties can agree to undergo in order to assess the fitness of the parents and the living and decision-making arrangements that suit the best interests of the...
The 2017 Maryland General Assembly Session saw a bill - SB378/HB1191 - which would have prevented court clerks from ruling on motions. This arose, apparently, due to a directive of the District Court of Maryland which would have allowed clerks to rule on motions to...
The 2017 Maryland General Assembly Session saw, for the first time, a bill that would have made a continuance/postponement of a civil case mandatory if all parties agreed to the continuance. This would have applied to civil cases only, both at the trial and appellate...