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FAM · PRACTICE DESK

Family Transitions

The contested middle of a family case: interim orders, financial discovery, custody evaluations, and third-party access claims — where temporary decisions often become permanent ones.

Foundational briefing

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FAM-01 · 01

Temporary Orders During Divorce: Housing, Finances, Support, and Parenting

8 MIN · FAM

Interim orders decide who lives where, who pays what, and when each parent sees the children while the case is pending. They are decided fast, on paper, and they tend to stick.

  • Divorce is state law. What a court can order on an interim basis, and how fast, differs materially from one state to the next.
  • Temporary orders are usually decided on affidavits and documents rather than live testimony, which makes exhibit quality the deciding factor.
  • Several states attach automatic restraining provisions to the divorce summons, freezing asset transfers and insurance changes without any hearing.
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Custody & parentingMarital finances

FAM-02 · 02

Finding and Valuing Assets in Divorce Discovery

8 MIN · FAM

Assets are usually found on paper before they are found by subpoena. This brief works the tax-return trail first, then the formal discovery tools, then the valuation fights that follow.

  • Start with tax returns and their schedules. Interest, dividends, capital gains, and K-1 entries name accounts and entities nobody disclosed.
  • Most states require sworn financial disclosure before any formal discovery is served, and a false disclosure carries consequences beyond the asset itself.
  • Business valuation turns on the standard of value the state applies and on whether goodwill is treated as personal or enterprise property.
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FAM-03 · 03

Custody Evaluations, Guardians ad Litem, and Child Representatives

8 MIN · FAM

Three different appointments get confused with each other constantly. This brief separates the evaluator, the guardian ad litem, and the child's attorney, then walks the evaluation itself.

  • These are three distinct roles with different duties. Some states define all three by statute; others use one label for functions that vary by county.
  • Custody evaluations are normally conducted by licensed mental-health professionals under state rules plus professional guidelines that are not themselves law.
  • A guardian ad litem advocates for the child's best interests; an attorney for the child usually advocates for what the child wants.
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FAM-04 · 04

Grandparent and Third-Party Visitation: Constitutional and State-Law Limits

8 MIN · FAM

A fit parent's decision about who sees their child carries constitutional weight. This brief sets the ceiling Troxel established, then the state statutes that operate beneath it.

  • Troxel v. Granville (2000) struck down a Washington third-party visitation statute as applied and required special weight for a fit parent's decision.
  • Troxel produced no majority opinion and left open whether a showing of harm to the child is constitutionally required.
  • States rewrote their statutes around Troxel and now differ on standing, threshold conditions, burden of proof, and available remedies.
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FAM-05 · 05

Finding Digital and Crypto Assets in a Family Case

8 MIN · FAM

Digital holdings are traceable more often than people assume, but the trail runs through tax filings, bank records, and party production rather than through the blockchain alone.

  • Property division is state law. No federal statute tells a divorce court how to classify or divide a crypto holding or a monetized account.
  • Federal tax filings are the cheapest starting point: the digital asset question and reported dispositions both create documented, sworn admissions.
  • The Stored Communications Act generally stops a civil subpoena from reaching message or email content held by a provider; production comes from the party.
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FAM-06 · 06

Valuing a Closely Held Business in Divorce

8 MIN · FAM

Two competent appraisers can value the same company months apart and land a third of the way from each other. The gap is almost never arithmetic; it is the legal assumptions the appraiser was told to use.

  • The standard of value — fair market value or fair value — is a legal question decided by state law, not a choice the appraiser makes.
  • Whether personal goodwill is marital property varies by state and often decides most of the value in a professional practice.
  • Marketability and minority discounts can move a number by a third; several states restrict or bar them in the divorce context.
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FAM-07 · 07

Enforcing a Parenting Order: Contempt, Make-Up Time, and Remedies

8 MIN · FAM

Most enforcement motions fail on the record rather than on the law. This brief covers what remedies exist, what proof each one needs, and which problems a court will not solve.

  • Custody and parenting time are governed by state law. Remedies, standards of proof, and expedited procedures differ substantially between states.
  • Civil contempt is coercive and requires a present ability to comply; criminal contempt punishes past conduct and carries criminal procedural protections.
  • Make-up parenting time, cost reimbursement, and fee awards are ordered far more often than any sanction involving custody.
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FAM-08 · 08

Interstate Support Enforcement Under UIFSA

8 MIN · FAM

A move across a state line does not create a second support order or a second chance to relitigate. UIFSA keeps one order controlling and gives it a route into the new state.

  • UIFSA has been adopted in every state as a condition of federal funding, producing one controlling order rather than competing orders in each state.
  • The issuing state keeps continuing exclusive jurisdiction while a party or the child still lives there, so another state may enforce but not modify.
  • An income-withholding order can be sent directly to an out-of-state employer without any filing in the employer's state.
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FAM-09 · 09

Fee Awards in Family Cases: Need, Conduct, and Sanctions

8 MIN · FAM

Family law is one of the few areas where a court routinely orders one private party to fund the other's lawyer. Three different theories support that, and they need different proof.

  • The default rule is that each side pays its own lawyer; family fee awards exist only because state statutes create exceptions to it.
  • Some states award fees on need and ability to pay, others on litigation conduct, and many statutes allow both on different showings.
  • Interim awards exist so that access to counsel does not track the income split, and they are usually a contribution rather than full coverage.
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FAM-10 · 10

Modifying or Terminating Spousal Support After Judgment

8 MIN · FAM

Before arguing that circumstances changed, answer a prior question: is this award modifiable at all? Many are not, and the answer usually sits in the agreement rather than the statute.

  • Spousal support is state law. Grounds, standards, durational rules, and termination events differ substantially from one state to the next.
  • Many settlement agreements make support non-modifiable in amount, duration, or both, and courts in most states enforce that choice.
  • Where modification is available, the usual threshold is a substantial change in circumstances not anticipated when the order was made.
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Scope

Questions this desk answers

  • What can a court order right now?
  • How are hidden assets actually found?
  • What does an evaluator look for?
  • When can a non-parent seek time?
Reference

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