Rhode Island Divorce Tips

We all come to points in our lives that give us cause for pause in our every day regimen.  Today was one of those days as I encountered a Family Law Attorney who failed to object to motions and only at the last minute feigned illness so that he would not have to attend court.  Conveniently, this attorney has used this same tactic each and every time my client was going to get an opportunity to be heard on rather serious and crucial motions. 

This tactic was used to the detriment of my client who for 2 1/2 years has been attempting to have two primary motions heard.  My client had filed a Motion to Modify Child Support and a Motion for Contempt.  These are matters which with normal compliance regarding the production of financial documentation would take less than a few hours if brought to a full hearing.

Regrettably, this is not the first lawyer I have run into that has stooped to unscrupulous tactics in order to win a motion and even ....as one judge put it.... "counsel you have done nothing short of perpetrating a fraud upon the court."

To my current clients and my future clients,

I assure you that I am dedicated to stopping deceptive, immoral and unethical conduct by opposing attorneys who might otherwise take advantage of you.

To Family Law Attorneys who abuse their position,

If we have a case together and you engage in misrepresent facts to the court, violate court orders, feign illness to unduly prolong a matter, or undertake other actions outside the bounds of our ethical standards, I will do everything within my power to make your conduct known to the court, to the Professional Conduct Committee and to the public as necessary to protect the integrity of our profession.

Our profession has a black eye in the eyes of the public.  From what I have seen as a practitioner, it is  understandable why we have this negative perception in the public eye. 

For my personal observations, I see only one solution.  A policy of No Tolerance!  No tolerance to unethical conduct.  No tolerance to attorney misrepresentation.  No tolerance to attorneys who abuse the privileges of their office.

For clients I will offer nothing less than this . . . . NO TOLERANCE!

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.

Many people assume that child support terminates automatically.  It's a bad assumption to make.  Child support will continue to run as long as the present order is not formally terminated, usually on the "record" of the court.

Child support runs until the minor child reaches age 18 and has graduated from high school but no longer than age 19 unless extraordinary circumstances warrant child support for an extended period of time in the discretion of the the court.  Such extraordinary circumstances may be severe epilepsy that is not controlled with medication, paraplegia or quadraplegia.

To correctly terminate child support simply file a Motion to Terminate Child Support stating that the name and date of birth of the minor child and indicating the minor child has reached the age of majority and that he or she graduated from high school.  If you have the date of graduation and the high school name that the child graduated from then you can put that in your motion for good measure. 

Schedule the motion for hearing and unless there is an objection, the court will usually grant the motion and issue a Termination Order.  Keep in mind that if you are being garnished for your child support you will need to fill out a CSS-1 Form and submit it to the Child Support Collections unit at the Providence Family Court so they will update their system to terminate the garnishment.   You will also want to obtain a certified copy of the entered Termination Order from the clerk's office so you can provide it to your employer and have your garnishment terminated immediately.

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.

When it comes to Rhode Island Child Support the amount of child support can, at times, be a hefty burden to bear.  Therefore, you may want to do whatever you can to make sure the amount calculated for your child support payment is correct.

Under the Rhode Island Child Support Guidelines parents receive a mandatory deduction from their gross income for health insurance coverage that they pay for which includes the minor child whose support is being calculated.  If you will be the payer of the child support and you provide the health insurance for the minor child then you should make sure that when you go to court you get credit for the health insurance premiums you pay.

Consider yourself warned however that you will be expected to justify the deduction.  You should be prepared to bring between 2 to 4 paystubs showing the health insurance deduction to court with you to justify the amount you are seeking for the deduction.  Additionally, if the other parent or their attorney challenges whether the minor child is on the health insurance plan you should be prepared to provide some form of documentation from either your employer, your health insurance carrier or an insurance card with the child's name on it to prove that the child is actually on the plan.

To some people in family court it seems to be "overkill" to justify a child support deduction from your gross income that you know you are entitled to.  From a layperson's standpoint that is certainly understandable.  It is important to remember that you are not in a forum that just relies on a person's "word".  In order to receive the deduction you have what is known as the burden of proof to show how much you pay for health insurance and that the minor child is covered by the health insurance plan whose premiums you want deducted from your gross income.

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.

Rhode Island Child Support is often a sticky issue when it comes time to do the numbers at court.  This is true whether the calculations are done by agreement as to the figures or whether they are achieved after a hearing on a motion to set child support or a motion for modification.

One thing you can do to help yourself out if you know the bank used by the opposing spouse or the mother or father of your minor child is to subpoena the records from his or her bank for a period of twelve months.  This will give you a good idea of his or her financial picture and whether or not any misrepresentations were made on the DR6 Statement of Assets and Liabilities form that is required to be filed in all family court matters.

Keep in mind that you're looking at a constable fee of perhaps $50 and a witness fee of about $12 to in order to get this done and some banks aren't always cooperative.  Bank of America, for instance, has a policy of notifying the account holder of any subpoenas for information before they will release it.   This sometimes conflicts with the production of the documents because a court date may come and go before the Bank will release the information.  This of course leaves you having spent your money on the effort and the subpoena only to be left holding the bag while the big bad bank defies state law.

If you can get the records they can be extremely helpful if you think the opposition is going to lie about their income to influence the Rhode Island child support that is to be paid.

Be aware of the benefits.  Be aware of this pitfall.   It's up to you as to whether to make the call to issue the subpoena for documents or not.

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.

When you meet someone sometimes it's fate that you fall in love and get married. 

Love and marriage tend to follow one another unless it's a marriage of convenience for reasons other than love.

Let's assume that we have a couple that fall in love because they truly care about each other, respect each other and have a genuine and caring relationship for each other's well-being.

Further, let's say that the marriage breaks down for this couple after 10 years.   There's no cheating going on.  The husband talks to his wife and explains that the relationship isn't the same anymore, they don't talk like they used to, they aren't getting ahead financially and they have different priorities in life.

The husband files for divorce and suddenly the wife goes nuts.  She starts stalking him, running up credit card bills that have his name on them, following him to find out who the "other woman" must be.  The wife began doing everything in her power to delay the divorce proceedings, financially injure her husband, and withheld visitation from her husband with their children.

It is regrettable that as a practicing Rhode Island Family Law Attorney that I see this all too often, particularly from women who feel rejected or scorned.

It is important that in today's times of animosity, broken homes and children taking to the streets we try to preserve the family relationships that exist in a positive manner.

Grief counseling and individual counseling with marriage therapists is often very helpful and I highly recommend it to those people having trouble "letting go" or find their behavior or thought patterns becoming somewhat obsessive.

A consideration that all spouses may want to consider is this:  If you truly fell in love with your spouse and you cared for their well being, wouldn't you want that spouse to be happy?   

If you really consider it, even though it may hurt that your spouse did not find happiness with you, wouldn't you want him or her to be happy even if it means that spouse is single or with someone else?

After all, if you truly loved, respected or even wanted the best for someone in their life (which I have to imagine you did if you married the person)  wouldn't you want him or her to be happy.

Then why do people treat their spouses so poorly in divorce actions.  Does the angry spouse expect that their spouse should only be happy with them?

It is very hard to move on from the relationships we expected to last forever.  Divorce is something that most of us never want to discuss or visit.

If you reach that point, where divorce is the only recourse you have or your spouse has because the relationship is no longer working for either of you, it is best to try to remember that you married this person.  Yet not only that you married him or her but that there were somekind of feelings, caring and respect when you married them.

So if or when divorce ever arises in your life, keep your dignity and respect the dignity of your spouse.  Push the bitterness aside as much as you can and take the higher road.  Divorce is merely a return to being a single individual again without that exact person as your spouse anymore. 

Perhaps your soulmate is right around the corner.

Perhaps this marriage was to prepare you for something greater and more wonderful than you can possible imagine that has not yet occurred.

Your happiness is key.  Taking your divorce to a level of vengeance, arguing, bickering, blaming yourself or jealousy merely prolongs the amount of time it takes you to get to your happiness.

Be good to yourself.  Get your divorce over and done with.  Move on.  Most of all.... BE HAPPY !!

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.