Author Archives: Jay Butchko
Can Your Friends And Family Make Your Divorce Worse?
Stressful situations like divorce are very effective at showing you who your real friends are. Some of your friends will give you all of the emotional support you need without adding to the drama, while others will find a way to make things all about them. Perhaps, when you were young, you found your… Read More »
Legal Separations And Alabama Law
According to Alabama law, marriages can end when one spouse dies or when the court issues an order of dissolution of marriage (also known as divorce) or annulment. Each of these is much more final than any of the things we refer to as spouses being separated. In practice, married couples do not always… Read More »
What Happens To Your Debts When You Divorce?
Arguing about who gets to keep which assets in a divorce is bad enough. Arguing about which spouse should be responsible for which debts is even more stressful. All debts incurred during the marriage and owed at the time of the divorce count as marital debts, regardless of which spouse’s name is on the… Read More »
If You Want To Keep The Family Pet, Is The Law On Your Side?
Even though pets are part of the family, and people can get as emotionally attached to them as they can to human family members, from a legal standpoint, domestic animals are property. Case in point, some couples even stipulate in their prenuptial agreements which of them will keep which of the family pets in… Read More »
Is Cryptocurrency A Marital Asset?
Are people who own vast sums of cryptocurrency rich, or is it all an illusion? What do you do with an NFT after you buy it? Digital assets are as misunderstood as they are mysterious, and unfortunately, no one understands them less well than the family law courts. These days, you see people, often… Read More »
How To Make Co-Parenting Changeovers Easier For Children
Parents and kids alike worry about how difficult the adjustment will be for children to divide their time between their parents’ separate houses. The worst-case scenario, where neither house feels like home, rarely happens, but children feel the stress of co-parenting as acutely as their parents do. They might spend certain days of the… Read More »
How Does A Restraining Order Affect Your Divorce Case?
Despite what your parents and school guidance counselors tried to tell you, pettiness and bullying do not automatically disappear when you graduate from high school. People saying terrible things about each other and trying to sabotage each other’s new relationships still happen, and thanks to the Internet, they can now happen in full view… Read More »
The Penny Pincher’s Guide To Divorce
Financial stress and incompatible financial values have driven plenty of couples to divorce. With today’s economic woes, such as inflation and lingering uncertainty related to the pandemic, almost every family is feeling the pinch; even households with an income above $100,000 are living paycheck to paycheck. People in all tax brackets report that divorce… Read More »
The Role Of Vocational Experts In Alabama Divorce Cases
Divorce is emotionally and financially stressful for everyone, but one of the biggest stresses is having to adjust to reentering the workforce just as you are adjusting to no longer being married. Many couples agree that one parent will leave the workforce to be a stay-at-home parent, but the couples who can afford to… Read More »
Do You Have To Continue Paying Alimony If Your Spouse Enters A Romantic Relationship?
When it comes to property division in divorce cases, the courts only look at numbers and leave emotions out of the equation. If a divorce court has allocated marital assets to you and to your ex-spouse in the amounts it determines are the fairest, or even if you, your ex, and your respective lawyers… Read More »