Rhode Island Divorce Tips

Men shouldn't misunderstand this article about Rhode Island Child Support.  This is by no means a criticism of men who fall prey to this mistake.  Unfortunately, too many men do get stuck in the situation I'm about to describe and frankly, the women who truly place fathers in this situation should think twice about whether they have any integrity whatsoever or whether they are just being greedy at the father's expense regardless of what the law may allow the mother to do.

Fathers should not enter into private agreements with Mothers who have placement of children regarding the reduction and/or payment of either child support, daycare amounts or even temporary spousal support or alimony for that matter.

Private agreements of this kind are completely unenforceable and unrecognized by the court because they must be adjusted by a court order.

What can happen?  Consider Paul's situation in the Providence Rhode Island Family Court.

Paul and his Lucy were divorced 17 years ago.  15 years ago Paul hit hard times after moving to Oklahoma.  Paul spoke with Lucy and they agreed over the phone that Paul could pay $50 less per week on his child support.  Paul paid $50 less per week until just before his son's 18th birthday after graduating from high school.  On the day before his son turned 18, Lucy filed a Motion to Adjudge Paul in Contempt for not paying the court ordered child support.  She asked for the $50 per week for 16 years plus interest compounded at 12% per year, plus her attorneys fees.

Paul was served and had to fly in from Oklahoma.  Paul explained that they had an agreement.  Lucy denied that there was ever such an agreement.  The court didn't care either way.  You can't unilaterally agree to modify child support.  The court found Paul in contempt and ordered him to pay what amounted to tens of thousands of dollars in back child support.  The court scolded Paul and told him he should have known better.

For my part, if they had made an agreement (which I believe they did) then Lucy is dishonest, greedy and lacks integrity.  With any luck, this type of conduct will be repaid to her 10 fold in her life-time.

Father's be aware.... you must have a court order on the issues addressed in this article.  No matter how much you want to....DO NOT simply trust the mother's word on any reduction.  Return to court and get an ORDER.

Do it right or pay the price!

Authored by:

Christopher A. Pearsall, Esquire
PEARSALL LAW ASSOCIATES
571 Pontiac Avenue
Cranston, RI  02910
Phone:  (401) 354-2369

NOTE:  The postings on this website are NOT legal advice, DO NOT create an attorney/client relationship and are NOT a substitute for a detailed consultation with an attorney experienced in the state where you have your legal issue.  This site is presented for the convenience of the internet public.

* The Rhode Island Supreme Court licenses all lawyers in the general practice of law and has no procedure for recognition of specialty in any area of law.

Let's face it.  Lawyers in general are officers of the court.  We're supposed to be servants of the public.  Yet at the same same we're independent practitioners and we have a job to do for our client that makes money or we don't survive.

It's no wonder Rhode Island lawyers are viewed with skepticism and even synicism, especially when it's time to hire one and you're not sure who to hire or what to do.  Here you are, you have a legal issue that needs to be addressed and you take the time to try to identify an attorney who will meet your needs.

It's easy for questions to surface as to whether the attorney you're interviewing is looking out for your best interests, or simply looking out for his or her own interests and making some money to put food on his or her own table.

It is, in fact, appropriate for you to question the attorney's motives.  The best time to do that is at the time you interview the attorney.

You should know that when you set up an appointment to see an attorney, YOU are interviewing the attorney just as much as the attorney is interviewing YOU. 

So how do people generally go about choosing an attorney? 

1)  A referral from a friend or family member.   This is a good source of referrals for the attorney, but is the attorney right for YOU?  What did the attorney do for that friend or family member who made the referral?  Did the attorney settle a personal injury case?  That's not going to do you much good if you need someone for a family law matter.  If your referral isn't to an attorney that regularly practices in the area of law you need and it isn't from a person who used those same type of family law services  then the referral is "empty", in otherwords a referral should be better than just hunting around in the yellow pages.  It should provide some valuable reassurance that the attorney you've been referred to, can and has already provided valuable an competent services to the person who is making the referral to you, and that those services are in the area of law that you need help with.  Without that criteria, the referral is "Empty".

2)  An advertisement in the yellow pages.  This is of course an even less effective way to select a suitable lawyer to interview than the referral from a friend or family member who did not use the attorney for the same type of legal services that you are in need of.  When you just select attorneys out of the yellow pages you will most likely do like everyone else does.  You select the attorney based on the advertisement itself, particularly its size and its wording.  Unfortunately neither of these are indicators that the attorney is competent or will serve you well in the area of law you are in need of.  Imagine that you are in need of a divorce attorney and you select the attorney's advertisement that is the largest and includes the words "Estates", "Personal Injury Cases", and Divorces, etc... with 15 years in practice".

First, that advertisement probably cost quite a bit since even small advertisements in the yellow pages run $3,000 to $5,000 a year.  From there you can take a guess who has to pay for just that single marketing ad.  That's right...that attorney's clients.  You can almost certainly plan to pay more for an attorney with a decent sized yellow page ad.  Conversely, that attorney might be worth it if you select just the right one.

Second, the "15 years in practice" tells you one of two things.  Either that you are going to pay more for those years of experience or that he has been doing "something" law-related for 15 years.  I know attorneys who have been in practice for 20 years and have handled perhaps 10 divorces in that amount of time.  By the same token the advertisement above wouldn't seem as impressive if you knew that the attorney only handled 4 divorces within his 15 years of practice.  That might not want to be the attorney you want to represent you if you need a Rhode Island Divorce attorney and complex divorce issues regarding pensions, alimony and tax consequences on the sale of a home come into play.

3.  Search for the kind of Rhode Island lawyer you want on the internet.  This is becoming more and more the method of searching for attorneys in the technoliterate sector of society.  Those who choose this method of searching can go to Google.com or another search site of their choice and type in the various terms they want to search on.  Searchers can also vary their search terms if the results  do not suit them.

 
The main benefit to searching the internet to find Rhode Island attorneys to interview is the third party nature of the ranking system.  In a search system such as Google.com, the primary listings are ranked by criteria that are not controlled by attorney.  It is Google's system that analyzes the attorney's websites and/or pages and determines from there whether the attorney's website matches the criteria you are looking for.  In this way you are getting an unbiased selection of attorney websites to review.

Secondarily, if you are searching on the internet for an attorney, you will know if the attorney has a website or not.  This will at least give you some indication that the attorney has kept up with technology.  If he or she has done so then if it is important to be able to communicate with your attorney by email this may be a factor in your decision to interview that particular attorney.  The information on the website of the attorney is also likely to be the most focused regarding what his or her primary practice areas.  In some instances the attorney's website will provide the most valuable information about the attorney in order to decide which attorneys to interview.

Suggested Search Engines to Use are:

Google.com
MSN.com
Yahoo.com

Copyright 2000 to Present Christopher A. Pearsall, Esq (All Rights Reserved.)

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In a Rhode Island divorce you may not have heard of the "Doctrine of Transmutation."  Yet it's something you certainly want to know about or at least something you don't want to be surprised by.

The doctrine of transmutation applies in a divorce when non-marital property is pulled into the marital estate when a non-marital asset that is in the name of one spouse is transferred jointly into the name of both spouses.

The court will generally deem this asset to have been transmuted into a marital asset absent clear and convincing evidence to the contrary. 

The doctrine would come into effect, for instance, where you have a Rhode Island Divorce and there is a piece of real estate that the wife purchased with inherited monies and wanted to keep separate from her husband, however, she had her husband's name added to the deed during the marriage.

A spouse wishing to combat the doctrine of transmutation can usually expect substantial resistance in court because the doctrine of transmutation has been held to be consistent with the idea that marriage is a partnership and therefore the intention by the transfer into joint names embodies the notion that the transferring party intended both parties to share equally in the asset.  See Hurley v. Hurley, 610 A2d 80 (RI 1992); and see Quinn v. Quinn, 512 A2d 848 (R.I. 1986).

It is an interesting doctrine in that, if the wife then caused the "transmutation" or... change of character in the property such that she permanently changed it to a property that her husband also had an interest in. . . then no single act by her can remove that interest.  In essence the wife changed the property from what might have arguably have been "pre-marital" real estate to one that is now part of the marital estate and and is subject to division by the Rhode Island family court whether she likes it or not.

While this doctrine might seem to be fairly obvious, it can be a bit more complex in its underlying tones.  It is very easy for laypeople and even casual attorneys practicing in family law to misuse the doctrine. For those attorneys who do use it, either poorly or out of context you should make sure that you and/or your chosen attorney are aware of the defenses that can be used and which might  diffuse the claim of the doctrine.

Authored by:

Christopher A. Pearsall, Esquire
PEARSALL LAW ASSOCIATES
571 Pontiac Avenue
Cranston, RI  02910
Phone:  (401) 354-2369

NOTE:  The postings on this website are NOT legal advice, DO NOT create an attorney/client relationship and are NOT a substitute for a detailed consultation with an attorney experienced in the state where you have your legal issue.  This site is presented for the convenience of the internet public.

* The Rhode Island Supreme Court licenses all lawyers in the general practice of law and has no procedure for recognition of specialty in any area of law.