Board Certified Family Law Specialist Matt Arnold answers the question: “What can I do to gain custody of my child in North Carolina?”
It’s just passed the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling in the landmark Obergefell case. In that case, the Court announced that same-sex marriage bans were unconstitutional, forcing courts around the country to begin allowing same-sex marriages. Today, the courts are still grappling with how to do that, especially given confusing and sometimes contradictory state legislation.
Board Certified Family Law Specialist Matt Arnold answers the question: “What can I do to gain custody of my child in North Carolina?”
The New York Court of Appeals (the state’s highest court) will grapple with a tricky legal question that has become increasingly important in the family law world: what is a parent? The answer to the question will impact hundreds if not thousands of custody disputes involving same-sex parents who for years have waged battle without the kind of legal clarity that exists in cases involving opposite sex partners.
Family Law Specialist Matt Arnold answers the question: “How Can I protect myself from my spouses spending habits?”
Courts across the country continue to grapple with last year’s same-sex marriage ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court. Though the decision altered the legal landscape nationwide, the Supreme Court left much of the implementation to the state courts, issuing a very broad decision. It is now up to the lower courts to work through the many challenges that decision will create.
Charlotte Divorce Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “When do you get alimony?”
Family law experts have long said that not enough people consider the potential value of a prenuptial agreement. Too often what family law attorneys hear is that prenuptial agreements are only for rich people or those on second and third marriages that want to ensure children from their first marriage are being looked after. This couldn’t be further from the truth, as prenups can be useful in almost any circumstance. Unfortunately, this same prenuptial skepticism has carried over to many same-sex couples who, for the first time, are now able to marry legally nationwide. The reality is that though prenuptial agreements are beneficial to same-sex couples for all the same reasons as they are to opposite-sex couples, there are other reasons why same-sex couples may benefit even more. To find out more about the benefits of prenuptial agreements for same-sex couples, keep reading.
Charlotte Divorce Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question ” I’m considering separating from my spouse; what actions should I refrain from doing?”
For years, as the push for same-sex marriage gained steam across the country, several states tried another option, a kind of middle ground between denying all rights to marry and fully embracing same-sex marriage. These states passed laws allowing for civil unions. In the flurry of activity since the Obergefell v. Hodges decision this past June, there has been very little discussion of what happens to civil unions and those who are united in civil unions.
Charlotte Divorce Attorney Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “Does adultery affect who gets custody?”
This summer’s same-sex marriage ruling has resulted in rapid change across the country as courts adapt to the new legal landscape. The family law court system has borne the brunt of these changes, dealing with weddings, adoptions and, unfortunately, divorces. Given how new same-sex marriage and divorce is across most of the country, some issues have arisen and the courts are having to make their way through uncharted territory.
Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “Do I need an attorney to get a Divorce in North Carolina?”
The television network TLC has foisted the phenomenon of same-sex attracted husbands who married straight wives into the fore of the American public’s consciousness with its new program “My Husband Is Not Gay.”
As reported in the Salt Lake City Tribune, however, new statistics compiled by John Dehlin, Bill Bradshaw and Renee Galliher should be “sobering” to couples participating in the show. Dehlin is a doctoral student at Utah State University. Galliher—also of Utah State—assisted Dehlin in compiling the statistics. Bradshaw is a retired Brigham Young University professor.
They studied 1,612 “self-selected LGBT/same-sex attracted Mormons and former Mormons,” some single, some in committed same-sex relationships, and some of whom had entered into heterosexual marriages.
The researchers found that between 51-percent and 69-percent of “mixed-orientation Mormon marriages” ended in divorce. That is compared to the approximately 25-percent overall divorce rate among couples associated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—also known as the Mormon church.
LGBT is an acronym that stands for “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered.”
Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “How can an attorney help me with my Divorce or Separation in North Carolina?”
Heather Brassner’s marriage ended five years ago, but she was only able to get a Florida judge to sign off on her divorce this past Wednesday.
In so doing, Brassner, her now ex-wife Megan Lade and Broward County Circuit Judge Dale Cohen made history. The Brassner-Lade divorce marks the Sunshine State’s first same-sex divorce.
Brassner’s attorney, Nancy Brodzki, called Judge Cohen’s ruling historic, telling the Associated Press that while this is Florida’s first same-sex divorce, it will not be the last. As the Washington Post reported Monday, Columbia University statistics professor Andrew Gelman analyzed statistics comparing same-sex and traditional marriages and concluded that “the dissolution rate of same-sex marriages seems comparable to, not lower than, the divorce rate of traditional marriages.” Previous analyses had provided that the same-sex divorce rate was lower than the traditional marriage divorce rate.
Any way you slice the numbers, according to Gelman, results in lots of divorces—same-sex and traditional.
Brodzki may expecting more same-sex divorce business in Florida, but before she takes any more clients over the divorce finish line, she may have to fight Florida’s Attorney General Pam Bondi in court.
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