Charlotte Family Law Blog

One of the most common tips given by North Carolina divorce lawyers within the last decade is to avoid posting any extravagant information on social media until the proceedings are over. Any information you post online can be used against you when the court is determining spousal support and child custody.

When spouses hear this, most of them believe all they need to do is avoid posting to Facebook and Twitter for a few months and then they’ll be fine. However, there are far more websites these days for online users to connect and share information. It is important to be aware of these options and what your spouse can find on there that they can use to their advantage.

It is easy to overlook the fact that married couples and unmarried couples alike often have child custody disputes. While married couples who go through a divorce, if they have minor children, will come out of the case with some type of child custody arrangement, unmarried couples who have children together can also approach a family law court for help in determining a child custody arrangement that is legally binding. However, for some people, just because a court order exists does not necessarily mean that they intend to follow the "letter of the law."

Interfering with or ignoring the requirements of a child custody order can lead to significant legal problems. In many cases, by the time a family law court is made aware that one party or the other has been breaching the terms of the order, the issue has existed for quite some time. Any North Carolina residents who are facing these issues will need to carefully consider and explore their options.

When it comes to legal proceedings that involve children, the parties can go through quite a range of emotions as the process plays out. Child custody disputes are a prime example, whether they come up in the process of a divorce or between a couple who has a child together but were never married. No matter the range of emotions that the parties might go through, it is important to keep an eye on the main goal of the child custody process: to determine an arrangement that is in the best interests of the child.

So, how might your child custody arrangement turn out? Well, for many of our readers in North Carolina, it probably seems like for as much as there is a range of emotions involved in this process there is also a wide range of potential end points as well. For starters, it is important for our readers to understand that there are two parts of the child custody process that need to be determined: legal custody and physical custody.

Our readers in North Carolina who are getting involved in a divorce case might hear the term "alimony" and cringe. These days, alimony is becoming more commonly referred to as "spousal support." Whatever you call it, many people who are involved in a divorce case have many preconceived notions about what alimony is and how it might impact their lives even after the divorce is finalized. An overview of alimony can be beneficial for those who may have this issue involved in their divorce case.

For starters, it is important to understand why alimony might be ordered in a divorce case. Typically, alimony is ordered to attempt to correct a perceived economic imbalance that will be created between the ex-spouses after the divorce is finalized. In many cases, one spouse or the other might have a better education, more job skills training and, in general, better employment prospects. If that is the case, that ex-spouse may be ordered to pay alimony to the other spouse who is perceived to be at an economic disadvantage.