With the financial costs of getting a divorce skyrocketing, the legal field has adapted to try to give divorcing couples affordable options. Some of these options play with different ways of dispute resolution that do not require a court’s intervention.
One of these options is a collaborative divorce.
Divorce is already a very emotionally taxing experience, the pain of which is only exacerbated when things don’t proceed amicably. Some people are saddened at the prospect of ending their marriage, some are relieved and grateful to put a perceived mistake behind them. Regardless of your perspective on the dissolution of your marriage, it is a universal truth that amicable divorces are easier and preferable. The last thing one needs to deal with during this potentially rough transitory period is a series of ugly divorce proceedings, accusations, asset-hiding, or general vitriol and backstabbing. Luckily, there are certain measures you can take to provide for an amicable divorce that moves smoothly and swiftly. Peaceful divorce is not a myth. It is well within reach if you are intentional in your pursuit of it and diligent about avoiding the pitfalls that could make things take a turn for the nasty.
Continue reading →
Your divorce is final; you’ve begun moving on with and rebuilding your life. To your chagrin, you come across some aspect of the newfound divorce settlement – financial, custodial, contractual, or what have you – that is not what you expected or is otherwise unsatisfactory. The conclusion of a divorce is not always the end of your legal entanglements with your ex-spouse. New issues can arise over time that was not immediately evident at the time you signed off on the divorce settlement. The divorce decree is not etched in stone. It can and often will be altered in some way after the divorce. Continue reading →
Divorce, criminal conduct and ethics intersect in a recent New Hampshire court case. Onetta Bobbet of Rye, NH has filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Portsmouth and two Portsmouth detectives. At the heart of the law suit are allegations that the two detectives improperly shared information on Bobbet’s phone with her ex-husband, with whom she was in the middle of a contentious divorce. She alleges that her ex-husband had close ties with the officers in question. After filing a credit card dispute with police, Bobbet herself was arrested on charges that were later dropped. In the course of the criminal investigation, which coincided with divorce proceedings, Bobbet’s phone was seized by police. Bobbet alleges that the policemen friendly with her ex-husband “funneled” sensitive information on her phone to him, to be used against her in the divorce. 
Continue reading →
With the commotion of the holidays settling into a lull, a different kind of commotion grips the month of January. This month sees the highest rate of divorce filings all year. While it may not be as “merry” as the festivities of the month that preceded it, January and its tide of divorce paperwork may be tinged with another feeling – relief.
Often, those who are seriously weighing the possibility of divorce are those who already need one. The longer you stew in an unhappy marriage, the more of your own time you ultimately waste – time that could’ve been spent pursuing passions and people that make you feel refreshed and revitalized. It’s not written anywhere that you must consign yourself to the misery a dead-end marriage. If you are considering getting a divorce in a New Hampshire, immediately contact the attorneys at Tenn And Tenn, P.A. Not only will we protect your rightfully owned assets and guide you through the terrain of divorce, but we will do so with honesty and professionalism, treating all sensitive matters with the utmost discretion.
Often when confronted with divorce, people fear the ugly divorces popularized by Hollywood films like the 1989 box-office hit The War of the Roses. In that film, Danny DeVito, Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas give us a front-row seat to the worst of the divorce process and show an epic battle where spouses battle to “win” their divorce at all costs. That film has become popular shorthand reference for today’s most bitter divorce battles. 
But now, many in Hollywood are showing a much better picture.
It has been said that the wheels of justice turn slowly. Never more true than for people who are anxiously waiting to be divorced. Many people going through a divorce just can’t get the process behind them fast-enough. They want to start dating again, and they don’t want to be celibate while they wait.
Recently, the New Hampshire Supreme Court addressed the issue of adultery during the marriage and that which later occurred in a new relationship after the petition for divorce had been filed. For many, that case provided no comfort. In Ross v. Ross, 169 N.H. 299 (2016), the Court was confronted with a situation (not all that uncommon) where almost 1l months after the petition for divorce was filed the husband began a sexual relationship with his new girlfriend.
If you are involved in a New Hampshire divorce or child custody matter, you may want to protect your Facebook and other social networking sites. A 2010 survey by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML) found that four out of five lawyers reported an increasing number of divorce cases citing evidence taken from social networking sites, with Facebook being the leader. According to the AAML, an overwhelming 81% of the nation’s top divorce attorneys say they have seen an increase in the number of cases using social networking evidence over the past five years.
Is your information really private?
Although you may believe access to your social networking posts is limited to your friends, those friends may not have the same level of protection, leaving the private aspects of your life open to scrutiny. Where you go, what you do and who you are with may all be used against you by your estranged spouse to gain an advantage in your NH Divorce. Photographs and posts from social networking sites, including those posted by friends on their own pages, may become evidence in your New Hampshire divorce or child custody proceedings. Marlene Eskind Moses, president of the AAML, notes that the openness and sharing of social networking sites left their users’ public and private lives more exposed. The World Wide Web offers many wonderful opportunities but may also present pit-falls in your future legal needs.
Do fathers and mothers get the same treatment in child custody cases? Or are New Hampshire judges automatically inclined to award custody to the mother? A New Hampshire man recently lit himself on fire in front of a Keene courthouse because he believed the court had handled his custody case unfairly, and his drastic act has prompted some New Hampshire residents to take a second look at custody cases, according to a recent news report by WMUR.
For instance, the National Congress for Fathers and Children, a fathers’ custody advocacy group, claims that New Hampshire courts are biased against fathers because judges tend to assume that fathers are the “breadwinners” and mothers are “caregivers,” which prompts judges to award custody to the parent they assume spends more time with the children – their mother.
Not everyone agrees with this assessment of New Hampshire family courts, however. Other groups, like the domestic abuse counseling organization Ending the Violence, say that women face an uphill battle in custody cases because they are expected to dote on their children full-time, despite the fact that most single mothers also need to work to support the family.
When a divorcing couple cannot agree on an important issue, the spouses may believe their only option is to go to court. New Hampshire’s family law courts, however, provide several alternatives that can help spouses solve their dispute without having to appear before a judge. One option that works for many couples is to enlist the help of a trained Neutral Evaluator.
Neutral Evaluators are attorneys who have received training from the New Hampshire courts that prepares them to examine a couple’s dispute objectively and help each side understand the argument and work through it. Unlike each spouse’s own attorney, who works only on behalf of his or her client, the Neutral Evaluator is not on the “side” of either party. Rather, a Neutral Evaluator volunteers his or her time to help the parties resolve as many of their disputes as possible without having to go to court.
Going through the Neutral Evaluator Program also differs from mediation, another non-courtroom option for divorcing couples. Both a mediator and a Neutral Evaluator attempt to help the parties resolve their problems without taking sides. However, a Neutral Evaluator is allowed to give an opinion on whether each party will succeed in court, while a mediator may not give such an opinion. Also, the spouses are allowed to disregard the opinion of the Neutral Evaluator, while agreements reached in mediation are often binding.
New Hampshire Legal Blog