Category: Family Law

What is Child Support in Louisiana? Child support is a court-ordered amount that the non-custodial parent must pay to the custodial parent to cover a proportionate amount of the child’s expenses, including housing and utilities, food, clothing, and education expenses. Both parents have an obligation to support their children after a divorce. State laws differ greatly as to how courts calculate child support payments. Louisiana long has recognized and credited the custodial parent’s day-to-day care as a significant portion of the support obligation. Child support orders may be modified only by another court order and usually depend on the amount

The Importance of Domiciliary Parent Status: Louisiana provides joint custody of children between the mother and father in most situations. Joint custody is presumed by the courts to be in the best interest of the children and is awarded regularly. Sole custody can be awarded but is much less common than joint custody in Louisiana unless there is an extenuating circumstance leading to the need for sole custody.   While joint custody may be favored by the Louisiana court system, it does not mean, however, that both parents will exercise equal physical time with the children. In the majority of cases,

Contesting Intra-Family Adoption: There are many steps and tests required by law in contested adoption proceedings.  These can mainly be found in the Louisiana Children’s Code, with which our firm is very familiar.  The Louisiana Children’s Code was drafted to combine all the laws affecting juvenile court jurisdiction, resolve ambiguities, reconcile conflicting laws, ensure that statutory law accurately reflects settled case law and provide a single code containing procedural and substantive laws affecting juveniles. Some interesting concepts are articulated in these cases and may be useful in your case too: When a stepparent or parent with custody fails to cooperate with

Reconciliation After Divorce: Per La. Civ. Code art. 104, “[t]he cause of action for divorce is extinguished by the reconciliation of the parties.” The concept of “reconciliation” can be thorny and confusing for a spouse who has filed for divorce.  If you are in doubt as to what to do, where to reside, or how to interact with your spouse during the pendency of your divorce, it would be wise to retain counsel and discuss this issue with your attorney.  Our family law attorneys are able to clearly and thoroughly advise you of the “dos and don’ts” of dealing with

Ex Parte Orders in Custody Proceedings: Ordinarily, courts issue orders regarding custody after hearing evidence at a trial.  However, most family law practitioners know of and have utilized the ex parte emergency order of temporary custody.  In emergency situations a parent may file a petition asking for temporary custody, and a court may issue an ex parte order awarding emergency temporary custody prior to a formal hearing.  It is an effective tool if the procedural requirements are followed closely and used only in instances of exigent circumstances. Immediate and Irreparable Harm Under La. Code of Civil Procedure: La. Code Civ.

Collaborative Law: The philosophy of our firm is to offer people an alternative, when possible, to the traditional litigation model of dispute resolution. The key issue is not who is right or wrong, but how can the issues presented (often caused by an inability to effectively communicate and financial stress) be reconciled by the parties themselves under the guidance of certified professionals through the Collaborative Law process or via Mediation. In our opinion, the obligation of a family lawyer is to facilitate the settlement of conflict and to carefully evaluate the responsibility of each party to bring the subject matter

Preventing Divorce: One in two marriages ends in divorce. Given those odds, it’s easy to think of marriage as a gamble. However, by taking a few basic steps, you can raise your odds considerably. Here are four ways to make sure your marriage can weather any storm. 1.  Have fun together The number one difference between couples that stay together and couples that split up is how much fun they have together. It may sound obvious, but as responsibilities mount, it can be easy to view your spouse as more of a business partner than a life partner. Find fun

How Men Heal from a Breakup: Men pride themselves on feeling powerful, competent, and effective in their world. They receive a sense of fulfillment in feeling successful and doing well. Men take great pride in being independent and self-sufficient.  Then, they fall in love. They allow themselves to be vulnerable to another, they get close and sometimes they end up getting hurt and their hearts get broken. Surprisingly, men generally are the first to fall in love and the last to fall out of it. Men have more difficulty handling their emotions than women because they have been trained to be

Family Law Mediation Process: In a divorce or other relating family law matter, your options are as follows: Hire an attorney to litigate; Hire a team of certified collaborative practice professionals; or Mediate. Regrettably, it is difficult and often expensive to resolve any family law dispute (divorce, custody, child support, partition of community property) in court, or even using the collaborative law process. In an adversarial traditional litigation case, the lawyers jockey for control and the courts often don’t want to spend the necessary time to discover the specifics of what the parties actually need to resolve their dispute. As