Gulfport Family Law Blog

Grandparents' rights, visitation and child custody

On behalf of Maggio Law Firm, PC posted in Child Custody on Friday, October 19, 2018.

The relationship between grandparent and grandchild is a special one. The time children spend bonding with their grandparents is something special that all should experience. However, certain family situations can make it difficult for a grandparent to have a relationship with their grandchild, especially if there is something negative between grandparent and the child's parent.

Because of this, many grandparents' wonder if they have grandparents' rights when it comes to their grandchild and child custody? There are two types of legal rights that can grant grandparents' visitation rights to their grandchild. One is called restrictive visitation and the other, permissive visitation. Restrictive visitation is specifically engineered for families in which the grandchild's parents have divorced, or one or both parents are deceased.

Study shows divorce rates declining due to millennials

On behalf of Maggio Law Firm, PC posted in Divorce on Thursday, October 11, 2018.

Anyone of any age (starting with the age of consent) can be married or initiate divorce. However, a new research study shows that millennials are responsible for the decline in divorce rates. The divorce rates have radically dropped between the years of 2008 and 2018. A recent analysis of marriage and divorce data by researcher Phillip Cohen of the University of Maryland shows that there has been an 18 percent reduction in the country's divorce rate during this time.

Even when controlling for factors such as age or other demographic shifts, the research shows that the decline would still be 8 percent. According to Cohen, he believes this is solely due to millennials mindset and decision making processes concerning marriage. He believes this is partially because millennials simply do marriage better than previous generations and because he believes that they are more "selective" about marriage.

What is alimony and could it be a factor in your divorce?

On behalf of Maggio Law Firm, PC posted in Divorce on Thursday, October 4, 2018.

Whether you have been married a few years or a few decades, divorce is a life-changing event. It often comes with many big emotional and financial life-changing decisions that one must make in order to end their existing marriage and start anew. There are many topics and factors that could affect a person's divorce including child custody, property division and even alimony. This list is certainly not exhaustive, but one topic many divorcing couples have questions about is alimony.

So, what is alimony? Alimony, otherwise known as spousal support, is a factor in some divorces in which there is an imbalance in financial capabilities. This could be due to one spouse sacrificing personal and financial success in order to rear the home or it could be due to the fact that one spouse makes a lot of more money and has more education than the other spouse. Essentially, alimony aims to balance this financial imbalance by requiring one financially superior spouse to support the less successful spouse.

Determining the child custody arrangement right for your family

On behalf of Maggio Law Firm, PC posted in Child Custody on Thursday, September 27, 2018.

When a couple decides to separate, or if they have been separated for awhile, the child custody arrangement has a note of finality to it. However, if you and your child's parent are sure that you'd prefer to raise your child from separate households, it's good to make the arrangement official. Without an official child custody arrangement in place, there is nothing holding either parent to their obligations. This can quickly cause strife and unnecessary stress.

A child custody arrangement in official standing can put to rest some of the issues many parents may argue or have uncertainty about. Child support, child custody (both physical and legal), schedules and other things can be pre-determined in hopes of creating the best solution for the child. Other people involved will be considered, but if their wishes do not meet the criteria for best interests of the child, it will likely be nixed.

Military family law divorce differs from civilian divorce

On behalf of Maggio Law Firm, PC posted in Military Family Law on Friday, September 21, 2018.

Military families are just like civilian families, with a few differences. Many military families experience active duty in which one or multiple family members are deployed. This can put a lot of stress on a family which may or may not contribute to a military family's decision to get a divorce. Because military members are allotted special benefits due to their military service, it plays a factor in a divorce.

Please note that if one or both spouses are on active duty, an active divorce process cannot begin under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA). This law applies to U.S. service men and women as they can't be sued or begin divorce proceedings while on active duty or for 60 days following active duty (at the discretion of the court). Jurisdiction can come into play when it comes to divorce, military members actually typically have more options in terms of where to begin divorce proceeding based on either spouses' legal address or physical residence where they are stationed.

How to help your kids when you decide to divorce

On behalf of Maggio Law Firm, PC posted in Child Custody on Wednesday, September 12, 2018.

There is no more important role we can have than to be a parent. That being said, the world expects a lot of us in other roles of our life, like at work and in relationships. However, if you and your spouse have decided that divorce is the right thing to do, how do you help your kids get through it? Here are a few things kids need during a divorce.

Kids need the parent to be the adult. Understandably, kids are going to be upset to hear about this big change in their lives. However, the parent needs to step up and offer support, but also boundaries and guidance, to ensure that their kid can handle the changes as best as possible. Limiting a child's exposure to other changes in their life can help to keep the rest of the world around them stable, thus making the change easier to handle.

How do I calculate child support payments for my child?

On behalf of Maggio Law Firm, PC posted in Child Support on Thursday, September 6, 2018.

Child support amounts come down to a single dollar amount payable every month. The child's parent that does not hold primary physical custody is to financially support the child by making these payments the child's other parent. One may think that coming to an amount agreement for the child support is easy. Others may think it could be difficult.

The truth is, it could be either. Child supports amounts are based on several factors including Mississippi state law, parents' income, needs of the child and a child's accustomed standard of living. Adding up these (and any other relevant information pertaining to the child) the court will often come back with a determination fairly quickly. If a parent contests the amount, that's when the process can become lengthier.

Child's parent not paying child support? We can help

On behalf of Maggio Law Firm, PC posted in Child Support on Wednesday, August 29, 2018.

It can be difficult raising a child as a single parent. While one parent can be more than sufficient in order to raise a child and get them what they want and need, it can present specific challenges that traditional married parents do not have when rearing their child. Specifically, one of those challenges is money. Single-incomes by nature generally do not make as much as two-incomes combined do.

This is why many parents raising children from separate households opt to arrange something official in terms of the financial arrangement. Sometimes parents co-parenting from different households will work out an unofficial arrangement, but these rarely last in the long-term. A court-enforceable child support arrangement will ensure that it is enforceable but also that the arrangement keeps the child's best interests at the top of the list of priorities in an official child support arrangement.

No fault divorce laws in Mississippi

On behalf of Maggio Law Firm, PC posted in Divorce on Friday, August 24, 2018.

In most states, fault divorce isn't even considered a legal filing anymore. And while most divorcing couples in these states will opt for the less confusing counterpart, no fault divorce, fault divorce is still an option in some states, including in nearby Louisiana. However no fault divorce is certainly the more common way to file for divorce. So what does it mean to file for divorce based on no fault?

Essentially, filing for divorce in this way means that those filing for divorce do not have to allege or prove any specific wrongdoing on the part of your spouse in order to get a divorce. The divorcing spouses would, ultimately, only have to demonstrate to the court that you and your spouse have "irreconcilable differences," and further attempts to preserve the marriage would be futile. This is different from fault divorce in which a spouse may allege that the divorce is the result of the other spouse's 'fault', and thus proving their fault would be important to the final divorce decree. It could affect the marital property split, child custody and other issues that ultimately need to be decided prior to completing the divorce process.

Child support awareness month shines light on Mississippi kids

On behalf of Maggio Law Firm, PC posted in Child Support on Thursday, August 16, 2018.

When it comes to you child, there are no lengths you would not go to in order to make sure they are taken care of. When money and budgets are tight, it can certainly make it tougher to get your child everything they need or want. When a parent is a single parent, this can limit incomes and budgets even more. There are ways to expand budgets by petitioning the child's other parent for child support.

Since the month of August is Child Support Awareness month, it seemed like a great time to discuss the possibilities. According to recent studies, Mississippi is the state with the most underprivileged kids. This is based on high rates of children living below the poverty line, food insecurity, infant mortality and lack of health insurance. A child support decision can help with that, as the child's parent's income can help to offset the costs of raising a child.

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