Writing for families in transition.

Custody · 7 min read

How Georgia courts actually decide custody

The statute lists seventeen best-interest factors, which sounds exhaustive until you sit through a hearing. In practice a handful carry most of the weight: the caregiving history, each parent's willingness to support the child's relationship with the other, stability of the home, and the child's ties to school and community.

Parents often prepare for the wrong fight. They arrive with a catalogue of the other parent's failings and little documentation of their own daily involvement. The more persuasive record is usually the mundane one — who takes the child to appointments, who knows the teachers' names, who has been present on ordinary Tuesdays.

Divorce · 6 min read

What equitable division means for your home

Georgia divides marital property equitably, not equally. For most households the marital home is the largest asset and the hardest to divide, because it cannot be split without selling or refinancing.

Three questions decide most outcomes: whether either spouse brought separate funds into the purchase, whether one spouse can realistically refinance alone, and whether keeping the home actually serves the children or simply feels like winning.

Mediation · 5 min read

When mediation saves money, and when it does not

Mediation is almost always cheaper than trial, but the savings depend on preparation. Parties who arrive without complete financial disclosure spend the session discovering information they should have exchanged weeks earlier.