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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A husband facing a possible overdue support obligation of up to $238,000 can breathe a little easier with a judge’s ruling that his long-term reconciliation with his wife invalidated her claim for the support arrearage. The husband’s return to the ...

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

After a divorced couple’s former residence was significantly damaged by fire, the husband was entitled to reimbursements from the wife for his outlays to return to property to saleable condition. The trial court did not err in decreasing the wife’s ...

Tagged with: Contract Domestic Relations Family Law Judge Jean Harrison Clements Virginia Court of Appeals

The circuit court did not err in modifying a husband’s spousal support obligation from about $7,800 to $4,800 based on his ability to pay, but it also properly declined to make the modification retroactive. Background Husband and Wife married in ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations Family Law Judge Rudolph Bumgardner III Virginia Court of Appeals

The trial court erred in holding a father in contempt for failing to notify the mother of their child of the date of their son’s first communion. Background Father and Mother, who separated in 2008, are subject to a final ...

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

Despite a support order entered in 2004, a husband didn’t owe arrearages dating to 2006. He’d stopped paying when the couple reconciled, resumed living together as husband and wife, and had two more children supported solely by the husband’s income. ...

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

A wife was entitled to enforce a marital agreement’s division of assets in the event of divorce. The evidence did not support her husband’s claim that she fraudulently induced him to sign the agreement by misrepresenting her intention to continue ...

Tagged with: Contract Domestic Relations Family Law Judge Michelle J. Atkins Norfolk Circuit Court Virginia Circuit Courts

Even though a wife admitted that she committed pre-separation adultery, she is entitled to spousal support, the Virginia Court of Appeals has ruled. The relative economic circumstances and respective degrees of fault would make it a “manifest injustice” to deny ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations Judge Richard Y. AtLee Jr. Virginia Court of Appeals