Virginia Lawyers Weekly VA Lawyers Weekly

A court may consider adultery evidence when determining spousal support even though adultery is not expressly pleaded as a counterclaim or an affirmative defense in a divorce case. The trial court erred by refusing to allow husband to present evidence ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations Judge Mary Grace O'Brien Virginia Court of Appeals

Where plaintiff seeks to have her marriage to defendant husband annulled, the failure to consummate the marriage, standing along is not a ground for annulment. Further, plaintiff has not shown by clear and convincing evidence that at the time of ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations Fairfax Circuit Court Judge David A. Oblon Virginia Circuit Courts

Even though there was no evidence to counter husband’s de bene esse deposition testimony that no marital funds were used to purchase a condominium, the court was free to reject husband’s evidence and classify the condo as marital property. Further, ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations Judge Wesley G. Russell Jr. Virginia Court of Appeals

Where the minor child’s mother extended the child’s stay in Bulgaria for months after the parties’ agreement, the court correctly decided that she could have only supervised visitation until she gave the child’s passport to the court. Background The initial ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations Judge Marla Graff Decker Virginia Court of Appeals

Where the trial court awarded appellees sole custody of a minor child, the court lacked jurisdiction to hear appellants’ appeal after the child’s 18th birthday. Background A juvenile and domestic relations district court order, dated Sept. 20, 2018, awarded appellees ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations Judge Marla Graff Decker Virginia Court of Appeals

Where husband drafted an amended domestic relations order for the court’s approval but incorrectly named the administrator of his pension plan, the court’s jurisdiction to amend the order extended past the 21-day finality period in Rule 1:1. Amending the final ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations Judge Mary Grace O'Brien Virginia Court of Appeals

Where the parties’ support agreement provided that husband’s payments could be lowered if he had reduced income, the trial court properly construed the agreement as permitting consideration of wife’s financial circumstances when ordering reduced support. Wife’s circumstances “Wife argues that ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations Judge Richard S. Wallerstein Jr. Virginia Court of Appeals

Where plaintiffs’ complaint against individual defendants in this adoption case arises from the Shenandoah County Department of Social Services alleged failure to share all relevant information about the child with the adoptive parents, the court sustains the demurrers of two ...

Tagged with: Family Law Judge William F. Sharp Virginia Circuit Courts Winchester Circuit Court

Although a circuit court retains jurisdiction to correct or clarify a pension distribution order after Rule 1:1’s 21-day period, the court lacks jurisdiction “to change the substance of the original division of property.” As a result, where the property distribution ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations Justice William C. Mims Supreme Court of Virginia

Under the unusual facts of this case, where the trial court made a clear legal error in awarding husband 100 percent of the marital share of wife’s military pension, the rules pertaining to a bill of review provided the court ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations Judge Wesley G. Russell Jr. Virginia Court of Appeals