Do Not Just Pay The Money You owe the money and there is nothing you can do, right? To the contrary, in many collection actions the consumer will have significant counterclaims. Filing fees and arbitration requirements may be avoided and federal claims stay in state court. The debt collector may be less willing to dismiss its claims and may prosecute the collection case more aggressively in order to vigorously contest the counterclaim. Courts that hear collection cases may not have judges willing to put in the extra time that counterclaims require. A good example of a collection case that raises numerous potential counterclaims is when the collector is seeking to recover a deficiency after a car repossession and repossession sale. The consumer may have counterclaims under Uniform Commercial Code Article 9 and other state laws relating to the repossession and… Read More
When you file a petition for divorce, you may want to file a petition for temporary relief. Things that can be requested: 1) Temporary Custody. There are two types of custody that can be awarded. Joint custody. What this means is that both parents can work together and agree on most aspects of parenting their children. This includes jointly making decisions regarding medical treatment, religion and education. Courts tend to prefer joint custody and encourage co-parenting. That being said, even two great parents may not be able to work together, and joint custody is certainly not right for everyone. Sole custody. Sole custody means that one parent makes all decisions regarding the care of their children. This does not mean that you necessarily think the other parent is bad, simply that you don’t agree or work together well when it… Read More
Stages Of Childhood Every child has unique stages of development. Custody and visitation decisions must take into account the age and developmental needs at each stage When proposing a parenting plan to the Court, you must understand the age of the child. So, how do those stages look (a recent CLE describes the stages of childhood as follows): From birth to 18 months, a child’s needs include receiving attention and protection, allowing physical closeness to and nurturing by primary caretakers and beginning to adjust to scheduled feedings and sleep time. During this period, infants do well when they have a routine so it is important to coordinate transitions between parents in a way that does not interfere with normal sleeping and eating times. Infants have short attention spans and frequent and short visits are preferable to frequent transitions from one… Read More
