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It is easy to get attached to a pet, especially cats and dogs. They bring us comfort, keep us company, and become part of the family. But what happens to those pets when their owners split? Pets are personal property When a relationship goes south, figuring out who gets to keep the pets can become a contentious fight and often pets are used as a bargaining chip in divorces. State laws, including North Carolina, consider… Read More
Ward Family Law Group is pleased to announce the addition of Ryan Tarrant to the Wake County Parenting coordinator list. Ryan is currently accepting appointments as a Parenting Coordinator in Wake County. Ryan Tarrant earned his law degree from Campbell University’s Norman Adrian Wiggins School of law and is certified by the State Bar of North Carolina as a specialist in Family Law. He trained as a parenting coordinator through The Center for Cooperative Parenting,… Read More
In Part 1, we discussed the use of AirTags to track your spouse and children and the implications in divorce and custody cases. Now you might be wondering, what can I do to protect myself or my child from being tracked? Manufacturers have taken steps to improve Security. The success of these trackers is based off their proximity to other devices they can ping off, and they can only ping off devices with Bluetooth turned… Read More
AirTags and other Bluetooth trackers, like Life360’s Tile, are coin-sized tracking devices. Using a Bluetooth signal, an AirTag pings off any Apple device using Apple’s Find My network and shows you the location of the AirTag. When out of range of the tracker, Tile’s app will show you the last location it was seen by your device and can ping off other Tile users to locate its current location. The benefit of these trackers is… Read More
Child custody cases can result in a lot more than a Court Order setting out the physical custody schedule and legal custody terms. Feelings of anger, frustration, distrust and resentment are all common occurrences following child custody litigation. In some cases, called “high conflict” custody cases, a pattern of the following occurs: excessive litigation, anger and distrust between the parents, verbal abuse or domestic violence between parents or difficulty communicating about and cooperating in the… Read More
In May 2017, we blogged about the “Do’s and Don’t’s” in Family Law. With the pandemic forcing most of us to live a “virtual life”, we thought it was important to revisit and update what you should and should not be doing on the Internet. Emails, text messages, websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking (“social media”), or any other type of information that is… Read More
Mediation is a way to resolve family law disputes where a neutral third party, the mediator, assists parties in trying to reach an agreement. The mediator does not advocate for either party or make any decisions. The decision-making authority is left to the parties. The mediator’s job is to help parties work out their own agreements by exploring the parties’ needs and interests and by helping them formulate specific solutions to resolve the disputed issues…. Read More
Practically every aspect of our world has been drastically altered by the protections (and limitations) enacted to combat the spread of COVID-19. Our court system is no different. On March 13, 2020, Chief Justice Beasley of the Supreme Court of North Carolina issued an emergency order declaring the North Carolina courts “on hold” for a majority of matters. Over the course of the last few months, these directives have been extended in a number of… Read More
The stress and grief of a divorce ranks only second to the death of a loved one. Divorce not only affects the divorcing spouses, but it has a life-altering effect on their children. Children depend on their parents for love, support and guidance, and stability, and they can experience feelings of confusion, abandonment and anxiety when their parents separate. Estimates suggest that between 1 and 1.5 million children experience the divorce of their parents each… Read More
The domestic case—whether it’s custody, divorce issues, or domestic violence—is often the first time a party will consult with an attorney. It can be a time marked by confusion, anger, frustration, fear and uncertainty. The following is an article entitled TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES: WHY HONESTY IN THE BEST POLICY WHEN DEALING WITH YOUR LAWYER by Katie McClaflin published in the Family Advocate, a publication of the American Bar Association, Family Law Section. At Ward Family… Read More