Showing posts with label legal advice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label legal advice. Show all posts

Monday, September 12, 2011

Divorce, Child Support, and Advice to Deadbeat Dads

[Photo from childfun.net]
As you can imagine, because we are Augusta, Georgia divorce lawyers who offer free initial consultations, every day, we receive numerous telephone and email inquiries about Georgia divorces.  In response, we earnestly attempt to give good, sound information about Georgia divorce law.  Also, we always encourage each caller or writer to discuss their divorce questions with their own divorce attorney.  Finally, we also always try to be polite to callers and writers to the Goolsby Law Firm, LLC!

Sometimes, we get questions about divorce which stump us.  In other words, divorce attorneys are not legal encyclopedias.  We simply do not always have the answers without doing legal research.

And sometimes, we get questions for which there are no good responses, or, at least, there isn't a response which the caller or writer wants to hear.  One example of this type of question involves inquiries from so-called "deadbeat dads."  I really don't like to use this term, because, as I have explained before, it unfairly casts a shadow over all dads and ignores the fact that most fathers DO, in fact, support their children.

But a fairly common question we receive from some so-called "deadbeat dads" is:  "How can I surrender my parental rights?"  The answer we generally give is: "You can't!"  In other words, generally, no Georgia judge would (nor should) allow a father to avoid paying child support and simply walk away from their parental responsibilities.  If your spouse won't allow you child visitation, then, generally, your best remedy is to take 'em back to court, in a contempt action, rather than to try to avoid paying child support!

Sometimes, I also want to add that I believe the caller or writer should stop procreating and should consider getting a vasectomy!  But I generally keep such advice to myself!  Like I said, we always try to be polite to callers and writers to the Goolsby Law Firm, LLC!

Friday, January 29, 2010

Divorce and Not Believing Everything You Hear!

Do you want some good advice? The advice is: Don't believe everything you hear! This advice is particularly true in divorce or child custody cases. If you aren't careful, you may get some really bad information "out there."
Believe me, as a divorce lawyer, I know what I am talking about. Every day, we get telephone calls and email from people who have questions about divorce, adultery, child custody, or some other aspect of Georgia family law. (Our divorce attorneys offer a free initial consultation to anyone who has a question about divorce, so, as you can imagine, we get a tremendous number of calls). And one thing we have learned is that there is a lot of bad information "out there" which people sometimes rely upon to their detriment.
For instance, I recently received one telephone call from a person who wanted to know if it is true that, in Georgia, you can no longer get alimony. Also, another caller wanted to know if it is true that, in order to prove adultery in Georgia, you have to catch your spouse and their lover in bed. In each case, we carefully answered "no" and discussed what it takes to get alimony, or to prove adultery.
The bottom line is that you can't believe everything you hear about divorce law, or about anything else! Instead, you should consult with an experienced divorce lawyer before jumping to any conclusions! And that is the best possible advice I could give to anyone today!