The new edition, which list Hugh W. Barrow, is available at news stands now.

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All divorces must be filed with a court.  No matter what type of divorce a person pursues, there are specific documents and procedures required by the courts. This article explores the procedures and documents that are required to begin any divorce.

Divorce Documents:

The initiating document is called the Petition for Dissolution, or Petition for short.  This is often colloquially referred to as “divorce papers” by spouses who are served with a divorce Petition. This document sets out general information about the parties (the husband and wife) as well as their marriage and any minor children born of the marriage.  This document must also contain the jurisdictional basis that allows the court to preside over the divorce. This document rarely contains detailed information about the case.  Because Kentucky does not require a showing of fault in order to get a divorce, the Petition rarely assigns blame or otherwise discusses the reason the marriage is broken.

Most Petitions contain the names, ages and occupations of the parties, the place and date of the marriage, the date of separation, and how long the Petitioner (the spouse asking for the divorce) has lived in Kentucky before filing the divorce. If the parties have minor children, the Petition must list specific information about the addresses of the children for the five years preceding the divorce filing.

The Petition also lists the relief sought, namely the divorce and any other financial relief such as child support and maintenance.

Along with the Petition, the Petitioner must file a case data sheet, which lists the names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, and phone numbers of all parties and minor children.

The Petition must also be accompanied by a form VS300, which lists much of the same information as the Petition.  This form is sent to the Department of Vital Statistics in Frankfort once the divorce is finalized.

The Filing Procedure

The Petition, case Data Sheet and VS300 are filed with the Circuit Court Clerk’s office.  In some counties, there will be a specific office for the Family Court division of the Circuit Court.  The Court will create a file for your divorce that will eventually contain all pleadings in your divorce.  At the time of filing, you will required to pay a filing fee, which will vary depending on the county.  In Jefferson County, for instance, the filing fee for a divorce filed by an attorney is $153.

Once the initial divorce documents are filed, the Petition must be served on the other spouse.  This can be accomplished in a number of ways, including by certified mail, by sheriff, or by personal process server.  Until the spouse is served with the divorce papers, the Court cannot move forward with the divorce process.

Summary

In summary, all divorces require at least the following 3 documents:

1) Petition for Dissolution

2) Case Data Sheet

3) Form VS300

These 3 documents are filed with the Circuit Court Clerk’s office and a filing fee is paid.  The documents are then served on the spouse.

This article is meant to give a simplistic overview of the initial divorce filing requirements. The contents of each case, like the details of each marriage, vary greatly.  The initial documents often set the tone for the entire divorce. For a more comprehensive overview of the divorce filing process please contact us to set up a consultation with an experienced Kentucky divorce lawyer.

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There are some requirements that will apply to all divorces.  First, the parties must have lived in Kentucky for 180 days before filing.  Second, the parties must have been separated for 60 days before the divorce can be final.  If the parties have minor children in common, the court will not enter a divorce decree until 60 have passed since the divorce was filed.  Moreover, divorcing parents must attend the Families in Transition program.  This divorce education program is mandated in all counties for parents of minor children and can take several weeks to complete.

Of course, if the parties settle all issues outside of court, the process can move forward very quickly.  Uncontested divorce can be accomplished in matter of days if the parties have no minor children in common.  In fact, the Petition, Settlement Agreement, and Decree can all be filed at the same time.

If the parties do have minor children, then the divorce will be finalized only after 60 days have elapsed after the initial Petition is filed, even if the parties settled all issues before filing.

Litigated divorces may take many months, or even years, depending on what issues cannot be resolved by agreement.  Some litigated divorces require a hearing only on one or two contested issues.  Because the hearing can be of short duration, it may only take a matter of weeks before the scheduled hearing.  If all issues must be tried before the judge, it will likely take many months before the Court can conduct the trial.

Most courts prefer that the clients attempt to resolve their issue out of court before scheduling a hearing or a trail.  In Jefferson County, the local rules of court do not allow for a judge to conduct a trial unless the clients have first attempted mediation (there are a few exceptions to this rule).

Divorces involving issues of custody often involve custodial evaluations, which require the children and parents to undergo an assessment by a trained psychologist.  This process itself may take several months.

In summary, some divorces may be final in less than one week, while others may take more than one year.  The only way to understand the likely timeline for your divorce is to consult with an experienced divorce attorney who can assess your needs and the likelihood of litigation.  Contact us at 502-589-9353 to set up a free consultation with our family law attorneys today.

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At some point, parents of children in divided families will have to contend with a child who does not want to visit with the other parent.  Often, the child is simply resisting a change in routine.  Transition can be tough for children, so it is not uncommon for children to resist transitioning to their second home.  Parents often interpret this resistance as a sign that the children are not bonded to the other parent, or worse, that the children do not want a relationship with the other parent.

A more difficult situation arises when a child expresses fear of the other parent or something at the other parent’s home.  Of course, if you believe that a child is truly in danger, no judge would expect you to put the child in harm’s way. You must, however, bring the concern to the attention of the court so that precautions can be taken and, if necessary, changes made to the visitation schedule.

No matter the age of the child, judges generally do not give the child control over whether or not they attend visitation with a parent. While the judge may weigh the wishes of the child in setting the visitation schedule, it is unlikely that the judge will allow the child any ongoing authority over the visitation.   Many child psychologists believe that allowing a child to exercise this kind of control places them in the middle of the conflict between the parents -something that courts try to avoid at all costs.

If your child is resisting visitation, it is best to address the problem before it gets out of hand.  First, determine if there is any real danger to the child and, if there is, contact the appropriate authority.  Second, contact an experienced family law attorney to learn about how to change your visitation schedule.

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There are, however, circumstances where the statutory grid is not used to calculate support.  The most common exception occurs when the parties have combined income in excess of $15,000 per month.  The statutory grid tops out at $15,000.  Consequently, the grid often is not used to calculate the support obligation, although the Court may simply calculate support based on $15,000 in income.

If the Court determines that child support is to be calculation outside of the statutory guidelines, the Court will look at the actual monthly expenses for the children. The law is clear, however, that Courts cannot obligated a parent to pay for private education.

In summary, a standard child support calculation will not take into account education expenses.

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I am writing this review of the LocalVox service in order to better educate small businesses before they sign on for this service.

Before I get into my experience with LocalVox, I would like to provide some background about my business and technical knowledge. I am the founding partner of a small law firm located in the United States. I am in charge of marketing my business and have historically been very successful in my online marketing endeavors. In 2012 my business expanded, added a new partner to the business name, and moved offices. Consequently, my business name and address were incorrect across the internet on many business directories.

I initially began attempting to correct all of online citations in house. This proved to be very time consuming for my staff. Because we were not able to move quickly enough to correct our business listings, our google maps listing disappeared from page one. I immediately began researching services to assist in quickly managing our business listings. While there were many such services, the LocalVox rep that I spoke with was very knowledgeable and appeared to understand what I needed done, as well as the urgency of the project. After hearing the costs ($750 for the,minimum contract term), I decided to go it alone. Needless to say, I eventually changed my mind and signed,on for the LocalVox Searchlight service. Here is a listing review provided to me by the LocalVox representative:

LocalVox report

This report clearly indicates the problems I was having with my business listings (incorrect address, outdated business name, etc.) This is also evidence that LocalVox understood that I hired them to correct this problem, not simply create new listings.

While I was primarily interested in correcting my business listings, I was also interested in other SEO services included with the LocalVox package. The Searchlight service was to include listings in 100 directories, google, bing and yahoo local page optimization, as well as other related SEO services. LocalVox promises access to a dashboard where you can manage your directory listings on approximately 100 directories. I was told that this would allow for my business information to be updated quickly and consistently across these various web properties. My business already had a listing on many of the directories. LocalVox offered a way to correct my listings, or so I thought. Once I signed up, I went back to the business of running my law practice.

Shortly after signing up for the service I received a phone call and was introduced to My Account Manager. I received an email with a questionnaire asking me general questions about my business name, address, and phone number as well is the type of law practice we engaged in. After this phone call, nothing else appeared to happen.

I began emailing my account manager on a regular basis asking for updates on my account. Shortly after I begin emailing I received a rather generic SEO report about my firm’s website. Several weeks into my contract I received a response from my account manager setting up the phone conversation with myself, the account manager and the LocalVox SEO specialist. During this meeting I was asked to send the login information for my already established google+ account.

Several weeks more passed. I begin to become curious about the work done on my behalf and started regularly monitoring my Google account. I also began searching for changes in the business listings online. I looked at getlisted.org as well as at the Yext powerlisings report. I quickly realized that no work had been done on my account and again emailed my account manager. I was promised that I would receive the detailed report demonstrating my new business listings within the week. This report never materialized.

Approximately five weeks into my contract I had not received any way to long in the the LocalVox dashboard and manage my listings, had not received a single report regarding the work done on my account, and could see no evidence of any business listings being created by LocalVox. At his point, I gave up on my account manager and again called the salesman who had originally contacted me about the LocalVox service. I begged him to look into the problem and to give me a report on the work done on my behalf. He was extremely apologetic and promised immediate action. He even called me back outside of business hours to ensure that my questions were addressed. Within days of this phone call, I began to see business listings being claimed by Lovalvox. At this point, I was satisfied that at least someone was working on my account.

The week following my frantic phone call to the LocalVox salesperson, I was contacted by my account manager and again promised a report. The account manager’s email read as follows:
“Great to hear from you. I hope you had a good Thanksgiving! I’ll have an update for you tomorrow afternoon after consult with my team in the morning. Also, I can have the full report to you in a week or two. In the meantime, I’ll send you a brief one with the directory listings we’ve listed you for with the email tomorrow.
Look out for my email—Thanks for reaching out!”

Again, no email ever materialized and no report was provided. LocalVox did set me up with a different representative who spoke with me on the telephone regarding my concerns. For the majority of 30 minute conversation he tried to dodge my questions regarding the lack of work on my account. Instead, he focused on what LocalVox would do for me going forward. Foolishly I decided to give him a chance to deliver and set up follow-up phone calls over the next weeks.

During one follow up phone call, which occurred on a Friday, I again asked him why I had not received a report on the listings created for my business, why I had not received any Google+ optimization, and why I had no access to the LocalVox dashboard. He again promised to provide all of these, with access to the dashboard promised the following Monday. What was delivered to me was an email, without active links, to a list of approximately 34 business citations that LocalVox claimed to have created. I immediately recognized that my business had previously been listed in many of these directories. Upon further inspection, LocalVox had not corrected my outdated listing, but had simply created a new listing, further adding to my duplicate listing problems. Worse still, the listings looked as if they were created by automated software, which I believe is the case. The listings were generic, contained a description that I did not approve of, and were not optimized in any way.

More egregiously, LocalVox was claiming to have created listings that I had created years ago. Some of these listings had customer reviews that predated my LocalVox membership by several years. Other listings contained pictures of employees that had not worked at my firm since 2011. Clearly these had not been created, nor had they been updated, by LocalVox.

Each and every time I tried to contact LocalVox about these issues, I was me with the same salesperson attitude and was pressured to continue my subscription. Not once did I receive an explanation for the lack of work and for the poor quality of the listings.
Of the 34 listings that LocalVox claimed to have created, at least 21 were duplicate listings. LocalVox had failed to even check to see if my business was already listed before creating the new listing.

As I write this review, my contract is at the end of its 3rd month. Here is a summary of the LocaVox service to date:

No business listings have been corrected
I have received 13 new directory listings
No access to the LocalVox dashboard
Not one single monthly report
No Google+ page optimization
Google+ page contained incorrect phone number until I removed it 2 days ago
Business is still displaying the incorrect name in the Google maps listing
Bing local page still displays the incorrect business name and phone number
No video has been created
$750 has been charged to my credit card

I have now requested that LocalVox stop all work. There is simply no sense in letting the problems continue to get worse. One week ago (January 14, 2013) I asked that LocalVox provide me with login information so that I can delete the duplicate citations that they created. I have not yet received this information and do not expect to.

I strongly urge any small business considering signing up with LocalVox to please reconsider. As improbable as it may sound, they have failed to deliver on any of the services that I signed up for. The quality of work is very poor. To date I have received only excuses, have been forced to dedicate an employee to cleaning up the LocalVox citations, and cannot get anyone at the company to speak with me about a resolution other than paying them more money to correct their mistakes.
At this point, my recommendation is to AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COSTS.

If anyone reading this would like to speak to me about my experience, they can contact me through this website.

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At the Law Offices of Scott David Stewart, our attorneys regularly meet with fathers requesting child custody related legal representation. These fathers want regular, significant involvement with their children. Fathers often believe that their best parenting efforts have been thwarted, through no fault of their own. The Court system may have worked to frustrate the father’s efforts. The Judge in the divorce may have ruled against the father. The opposing party may have pushed an agenda to minimize the father’s role in their children’s lives. Regardless of how it occurred, both father and child suffer when a father’s parenting role is diminished.

In Arizona child custody cases, both parents have their actions, judgments, and statements scrutinized by both the Child Custody Evaluator and the Court. One of the key components in a custody case is the level of each parent’s involvement with the child. When a father seeks significant involvement with his child, he must be committed, fully prepared, and have a plan.

The father in a custody case must convince the Judge or custody evaluator that he should be given equal access to the children for parenting time. If the father seeks primary custody, then it is absolutely essential that he establish the requisite dedication, character, and responsible nature to be there for his child “day-in and day-out.”

With our experience in fathers’ rights, we have learned to recognize some common mistakes that fathers make in their child custody cases. The suggestions below are a vital part of any father’s successful child custody case.

Child custody cases often involve accusations that the father hasn’t been spending time with the children. Because child custody cases can take months to resolve, and require full and accurate descriptions of parenting time, you should document — on a calendar or in a parenting journal — what occurred during parenting time. Failure to account accurately for parenting time in a child custody case may seriously damage your credibility. Document special activities with the child, such as a trip to the park, a swim at a neighborhood pool, a special events with friends, a child’s softball game, or time spent with extended family.

Father’s need to be involved in their children’s extracurricular activities. Whenever possible, adjust your schedule so you can be there, personally, to witness your child’s participation in these activities. If your child has a particular interest, such as math and science, then investigate the kinds of classes and activities that will help your child develop that interest. Think about activities that you would like to participate in, too. Your personal interest will show in your genuine enthusiasm. Look to activities that draw on interests your child has talked about.

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Once you’ve identified an activity, investigate implementation. Learn where your child can pursue the activity, and be prepared to show proximity to your home. Also, try to show how any actual or planned activities, such as swimming lessons or softball, will work into a proposed parenting schedule.

Make sure that you know who your child’s coaches are, and with any team sport, know who the child’s teammates are. Be knowledgeable not only about the position your child plays, but about the team’s overall performance record. Make sure that you are up to date on the team’s practice and game schedule.

Issues over a father’s uninvolvement in the child’s extracurricular activities may be the result of being “left out of the loop,” so to speak. If the activity was initiated by the mother, and she failed to consult with you, then be proactive and discuss the activity with her. Make sure that you save copies of emails and text messages on the topic. Maybe the mother doesn’t notify you of dates, times, and locations for games and practices. Don’t be victim to the whims of the other parent, and don’t leave yourself vulnerable to accusations of poor parenting. Do your homework, investigate and get your child’s schedule from a team-player’s parent, from the league representative, or from the organization’s activity website. Get your name on the email distribution list for newsletters, game times and locations, and practice locations and schedule changes. In that way, you will not be reliant on the other parent’s good will, and you’ll stay apprised of your child’s schedule.

The more involved you can demonstrate you are with your child’s activities, the stronger your child custody case will be. Don’t let yourself be characterized as an uninterested father with no time for the child because you’re a chronic no-show at the child’s activities. Get involved early on, arrange to get every schedule, show up at the child’s activities, and always stay connected.

To fully understand how your child’s education is progressing, there is perhaps no simpler method than to actively participate in the process. Help your child work through homework assignments and special event projects, such as the school’s annual science fair. A little guidance from an interested, supportive father goes a long way toward helping your child achieve, accomplish, and gain confidence.

Be knowledgeable about your child’s education. Be cognizant of your child’s strengths and weaknesses. Be aware of any problems at school and after school. Get to know all of your child’s teachers. The teachers will, in turn, get to know you because you’re a father who makes himself available and is fully engaged in the student’s homework and projects. These are all significant, persuasive factors that demonstrate how you have been consistently involved, focused, and engaged in your child’s education.

Of all the educational special events involving your child, probably the most influential is the parent-teacher conference. Attend the conference fully prepared to discuss all aspects of your child’s educational progress and society at the school. Be knowledgeable and apprised of every element of your child’s educational development. If you, as a father, desire equal parenting time with the child’s mother, or desire to be the child’s primary custodial parent, then it is absolutely critical that you show your parenting commitment and attend parent-teacher conferences as scheduled.

If you desire significant parenting involvement, then your commitment, preparation, and planning could not be better illustrated than with a well developed child daycare plan. Many fathers are unsuccessful in custody cases because their child care plan was inadequate or nonexistent.

You must be prepared to demonstrate:

1) How you will properly care for their child while you’re at work.

2) How you will make adjustments to your work schedule.

3) How you will be flexible with needed care for the child.

4) How you will transport the child to activities and events.

5) How you will be as involved in your child’s life as you claim you want to be.

When it comes to daycare you should be very knowledgeable about, and very familiar with, the people who will care for your child. Know the name of the person in charge of the daycare facility. Know whether there are records about your child’s activities and behavior and, if there are, obtain copies for your custody case. Determine whether you’ll drop the child off or pick the child up (or both) at daycare, and get any records documenting your having done so. Be very involved in the selection of daycare providers for your child, including the interview process of potential providers. Make sure you investigate any problems that the facility has presently or has had in the past.

To be fully prepared for your child custody case, when you speak with the child’s school, a daycare provider, or a medical provider, take the time to document who you spoke with. List the names, addresses, telephone numbers, and email contacts of the people you communicated with and summarize what you discussed with them.

Lastly, establish your ability to care for your child with supporting documents. For each and every aspect of raising the child — education, medical decisions, religious decisions, extracurricular activities, and the like — find something to document your involvement. Include formal and informal records, brochures, letters, emails, handwritten notes, and any writing that can be submitted in the child custody case on your behalf. Never miss an opportunity to collect evidence supporting your ability to parent your child.

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