A power of attorney agent may not maintain a divorce action on behalf of the principal. The Uniform Power of Attorney Act expressly grants guardians the power to change a ward’s marital status. Overview The parties married in 1993. They ...

Tagged with: Fairfax County Circuit Court Family Law Judge David A. Oblon Virginia Circuit Courts

The circuit court has jurisdiction over this matter concerning a minor child because the JDR’s dismissal on the merits was a final order, thus permitting the circuit court to assume jurisdiction. Final order Initially, the court must decide whether this ...

Tagged with: 20th Circuit Court Family Law Judge Jeanette A. Irby Virginia Circuit Courts

There was sufficient evidence to terminate mother’s parental rights to four of her children. Overview Mother appeals the termination of her parental rights under Code § 16.1-283(B) and (C)(2). “Code § 16.1-283(B) states a parent’s parental rights may be terminated ...

Tagged with: Family Law Virginia Court of Appeals

A minor child’s maternal grandparents cannot be appointed as the child’s guardians because her father is alive and has legal custody of the child. Overview Petitioners are the maternal grandparents of a 15-year-old child whose mother died in 2012. She ...

Tagged with: Fairfax County Circuit Court Family Law Judge Daniel E. Ortiz Virginia Circuit Courts

Even though a couple married and lived together as husband and wife for 18 years, the wife cannot collect on her deceased husband’s nearly $722,000 pension because – unbeknownst to her – the husband had never divorced his previous wife. ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations Family Law Judge T.S. Ellis III U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A Reston lawyer has been sidelined from representing a husband in a contentious and complicated Loudoun County divorce action because of his prior representation of a former friend of the husband. The husband accused the former friend of having an ...

Tagged with: Divorce Domestic Relations Family Law Judge Jeanette A. Irby Loudon County Circuit Court Virginia Circuit Courts

The trial court correctly included expenses for the children’s occupational therapist in a $10,336 monthly child support award to wife. The court was not required to treat the contested expense as an unreimbursed medical expense that should have been excluded ...

Tagged with: Family Law Judge Glen A. Huff Virginia Court of Appeals

Even though an incarcerated mother did not have a guardian ad litem when she consented to have her parents adopt her child, the evidence does not support her argument that she was denied due process. The record shows that she ...

Tagged with: Family Law Judge Mary Bennett Malveaux Virginia Court of Appeals

Where an adoption agency sent a certified letter to a putative father informing him about the Virginia Birth Father Registry, he was not obligated to register within the time specified in Code § 63.2-1250(F) to have standing to participate in ...

Tagged with: Family Law Judge William G. Petty Virginia Court of Appeals

In a novel procedural maneuver, a husband’s lawyer took his challenge to a divorce court pendente lite order straight to the Court of Appeals of Virginia even though the circuit court divorce case still was pending. The husband scored only ...

Tagged with: Family Law Virginia Court of Appeals