Family law cases are as unique as each family. They can touch on anything from the beginning of a family to the ending of a marriage, including the financial and custody determinations that must be made as part of those processes.

Family law touches on the entire range of family relationship issues, including:

  • Marriages, domestic partnerships, or civil unions
  • Prenuptial or postnuptial agreements
  • Divorce, annulment, or legal separation
  • Dividing marital property
  • Adoption
  • Child custody, visitation/parenting time, and parental rights

  • Adoption

    Adoption is the legal process through which an adult becomes the legal parent and guardian of another person—most often, a child.

  • Divorce

    Divorce is the legal ending of a marriage.

    As with other areas of family law, the law governing divorce is state-specific. State laws do have a few general things in common, however, including the allowance for no-fault divorce.

  • Spousal Support

    Spousal support, sometimes called alimony or spousal maintenance, is designed to limit the economic effects of a divorce by providing income to the non-wage earner.

  • Paternity

    A paternity case can be brought by either parent to establish the identity of a child’s father. The law that governs paternity suits is state-specific.

  • Child Custody

    Child custody addresses the rights and obligations that parents have regarding their children. Child custody questions can arise during divorce proceedings or in a case involving unmarried parents.

  • Alternative Dispute Resolution

    As its name implies, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) is a way to resolve legal disputes that doesn’t involve going to family court. There are various ADR methods, each of which is suited to particular kinds of legal disputes. In the context of family law, mediation is the most common ADR approach.