Glen Burnie Family Law Blog

Life changes are inevitable. An unexpected job loss, medical emergency or other financial hit could severely impact your financial stability, making it difficult to not only keep up with your bills, but also your court-ordered support payments. However, you should not stop paying child support even if you are having financial troubles. 

Child support is a court-ordered payment in Maryland, so you must obtain a modification of the original order to have your payments lowered or changed. If you do not get a modification and instead simply start paying less or not at all, you will fall into delinquency. Failing to keep up with payments might also mean that your child will not benefit from the payment of necessary financial support. 

Couples in Maryland or elsewhere who have gone through a divorce may understand that the Christmas season can be particularly rough when there are children involved. It can be difficult to arrange the celebrations of multiple families while taking the specified visitation schedules of the parents into account. Regardless of the time of year, child custody is of utmost concern to many parents, and reports indicate support is gaining for a newer type of arrangement.

Traditionally, courts have often granted custody to mothers, while leaving fathers with more limited visitation rights. In many cases, children would spend every other weekend with their fathers and would also rotate spending major holidays with them. However, studies have shown that it is more beneficial for children to spend a more balanced amount of time with each parent, rather than the majority of time with one.

Statistics from a leading research company have shown that older Maryland couples and others around the nation are divorcing at a rapid rate. While the divorce rate for all couples is actually decreasing, it has doubled for couples over age 50 and even tripled for those over age 65. The term "gray divorce" has been coined to acknowledge this trend. With gray divorces increasing, there has also been an uptick in the number of gray prenuptial agreements being sought.

Many seniors thinking about remarrying are coming into relationships with children from previous marriages, their own property and retirement accounts. They want to protect these assets as they enter into another marriage in the event a divorce may occur in the future. A prenup would also be instrumental in protecting certain assets for one's children if an individual died after remarrying.

Prior to getting married, most Maryland couples and others around the country have countless issues to discuss. Not only do they have to decide every detail of their wedding ceremonies, they also often ponder what their lives will be after they tie the knot. More and more couples are also adding prenuptial agreements into the mix of topics prior to the wedding date. Over half the matrimonial lawyers in a recent survey stated that they had witnessed an increase in couples requesting prenups.

While the reasons for couples seeking prenuptial agreements vary, many cite the need to protect the finances that they are bringing to the marriage. Some individuals have already amassed an amount of savings, property or business interests and want to safeguard those in the event of a divorce down the line. Others may have inheritances or family heirlooms that they do not wish to see divided in a property division decision by a court.