Cumming Family Law Blog

In many cases, determining which parent gets custody of the children is a difficult issue for parents going through a divorce. The couple might share custody or one parent may have primary custody. Add in the relocation of one parent, and the stakes grow higher still.

A custody battle between a Georgia man and his wife, who is originally from Costa Rica, recently became an international fight. The wife told the man that she was going to take their two young children to Costa Rica to visit her parents. While there, she decided to divorce the man and has kept the children in Costa Rica ever since.

Over the last 50 years, relationship patterns have evolved. Those shifts have changed family law, including how couples resolve property division, child custody and spousal support issues in the event of a divorce. Another change is the increase in cohabitation prior to marriage.

Fifty years ago only about 10 percent of couples in Georgia and elsewhere lived together before marriage. Nowadays roughly 60 percent of couples cohabitate before marriage.

Child support payments are important in order for custodial parents in Georgia to provide their children with basic necessities. When a non-custodial parent fails to make child support payments they could face serious consequences.

A district attorney in a neighboring state has taken a unique approach to dealing with the process of resolving delinquent child support payments by offering people a two-week grace period. Citing the best interests of the child, the district attorney claimed the program, which is in its fifth year, addresses the child's financial concerns while avoiding jail time for the non-custodial parent. However, after the two-week grace period is up, parents who have not paid up could be arrested.

Couples in Georgia and beyond who are entering into a marriage may wish to consider signing a prenuptial agreement. The late Whitney Houston's estate provides a good example of the importance of planning for the future, especially regarding financial concerns.

When Houston married Bobby Brown, the couple signed a prenuptial agreement which stated that neither person would attempt to financially benefit from the other in the event of a divorce. Following the couple's divorce, Houston updated her will. The updated will did not provide her ex-husband with any form of inheritance upon her death. Given Houston's wealth and the upsurge in royalties likely to result from the renewed interest in her work after her death, it would be tempting to challenge the validity of the updated will absent the previous prenuptial agreement.