The circuit court did not err in concluding that the entirety of the record, which included evidence and testimony that the father failed to comply with the Department of Social Services’ requirements and his own deficiencies, supported terminating his parental ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations Per Curiam Opinion Virginia Court of Appeals

At the conclusion of all the evidence, the circuit court held the mother’s parental rights should be terminated pursuant to several provisions of the Virginia Code. On appeal, the mother challenged some, but not all, of the reasons why the ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations Per Curiam Opinion Virginia Court of Appeals

After he was granted sole legal and physical custody of his child, an order granting a father’s petition for child support effectively terminated a previous order setting forth the father’s child support obligations. The old order had been entered when ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations Family Law Judge Charles E. Poston Virginia Court of Appeals

The circuit court did not err in its handling of the parties’ divorce, notwithstanding the husband’s 18 assignments of error on appeal. In particular, evidence supported both the court’s jurisdiction over the parties despite their long trips abroad and the ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations Family Law Judge Rosemarie Annunziata Virginia Court of Appeals

The trial court correctly held that, absent some reason why its order articulating a fixed pension annuity could not be enforced, it lacked jurisdiction to amend that order – even if the fixed amount therein didn’t match the percentage share ...

Tagged with: Civil Procedure Domestic Relations Family Law Judge William G. Petty Virginia Court of Appeals

The circuit court did not err in classifying only 30 percent of a litigation-support company’s increase in value during the course of an owner’s marriage as marital property. The court considered evidence as to whether the increase was due to ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations Family Law Judge Marla Graff Decker Unpublished Opinion Virginia Court of Appeals

For equitable-distribution purposes, the circuit court erred in failing to determine the amount of a husband’s student loans as of the date he and his wife separated. Under the circumstances, it was within its authority to re-open evidence on that ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations Family Law Judge Marla Graff Decker Unpublished Opinion Virginia Court of Appeals

A couple who got a license to marry in Virginia but held their ceremony in Washington, D.C. was not legally married, despite living together as husband and wife for nine years. Their one-night hotel stay in D.C. after the ceremony ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations Judge Rosemarie Annunziata Virginia Court of Appeals

If facts could be gleaned from the existing record, a father seeking to modify support obligations wasn’t necessarily required to put on evidence of his children’s current needs, since the Child Support Guidelines include a rebuttable presumption of such needs. ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations Evidence Fairfax County Circuit Court Family Law Judge David Bernhard Virginia Circuit Courts

The “Important Opinions” that appear each week on the front page of Virginia Lawyers Weekly are those chosen by our editors as the most likely to impact law practice or a given subject area of law. Below is a listing, ...

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