Areas of Practice

Collaborative Divorce

The world of family law is ever growing and evolving to meet families needs and desires. With a rise in volume of families desiring an interest based process, in which your family controls the pace and outcome, the Collaborative Divorce Process meet this need. I take pride in clearly explaining and navigating the often foggy family law space and its relationships to property division, child custodial relationships, I help clients draft and negotiate agreements that are as particular as each unique family needs.

Dissolution and Divorce

Divorce and separation are always painful, and everyone’s circumstances are different. Dissolution and Divorce both legally end a marriage. A Dissolution occurs when partners agree on all terms of property, custody and finances, prior the courts involvement. A Divorce occurs when the partners involve the Court and its services at the outset, eventually arriving at terms of property, custody and finances, through the court’s processes and potentially a trial.

Parenting Coordination

Parenting coordination is child-centered dispute resolution that combines mediation, parent education, and conflict management. As a Parenting Coordinator I assist parents to devise and implement a parenting plan, including monitoring compliance with the plan once agreed to or ordered by the court, analyze and resolve child-related parenting disputes in a way that best suits the children’s needs, reduce parental conflict, re-focus the parents on the children’s needs, improve parental communication and problem-solving skills, recommend educational programs that teach parents about their children’s developmental and psychological needs, reduce reliance upon litigation as a tool to resolve parental conflict.

Child Support/Deviations

Demystifying Child Support Guidelines and the recent change to the Ohio Child Support laws is one of the many services that can be provided. Child Support remains modifiable by the Child Support Enforcement Agency and/or the Court until a child emancipates. A multi-factor calculation, including, incomes from all sources, health insurance costs, child care costs, union dues, and others factors, I assist clients to understand the impact of the factors and negotiate a support order that best supports a child during minority.

Child Custody

Representation in a child custody dispute requires a trusting attorney-client relationship in which there is open and honest communication about your goals and situation. Each child and each family has the opportunity to craft a parenting plan that is tailored to the needs of each child in a family. Experience has shown that many people are frustrated by the various labels around custody: ie. shared parenting, sole parenting, sole custody, residential parent, and others. I explain the terminology and impact in hopes parents make wise and particular choices related to their children.

Post-Decree

While many families are able to close their divorce proceeding with a single hearing and move on, some families will experience ongoing disputes after the final hearing. In these instances, post-decree proceedings will be instituted in order to enforce the courts prior orders and/or address items that were not addressed or need to be modified from the original decree.

Mediation

Many families will have already arrived at agreements, some even implanting agreements prior to seeking the advice of an attorney. For those families who prefer to work through a mediation process, in order to arrive at the Court’s required paperwork, I assist in facilitating conversations and mediating any disagreements towards a total resolution.