Kids
Your family is our first priority
The well-being and future success of your kid(s) is something you likely spend a great deal of time thinking about. Whether you are a mom, dad, step-parent, or grandparent, you want to see your children thrive and build unbreakable bonds with them. We promise to care; we care about your children and their success and will do everything in our power to support you in protecting their well-being.
PARENTING SUPPORT
For Dads
A father’s rights lawyer at our firm can guide you through the legal process and help you understand how to make decisions that will support the vision you have for your family’s success.
PARENTING SUPPORT
For Moms
As a mom who wants to protect your child, and your relationship with them, preserving parenting rights, maintaining or increasing time with them, or have questions about child support you should connect with our team of experienced child custody attorneys. One of our family law attorneys will guide you though the legal process and provide the information you need to make the best decisions for your family.
PARENTING RIGHTS
For Grandparents
What legal rights do you have when it comes to your grandchildren? How can you help protect or support them during a divorce or other life changes? We compiled a wealth of resources to help you understand when and how our family law and estate planning attorneys can help.
A HAPPY MERGER
Blended Families
You went through a divorce, you have helped your kids thrive, and now you have fallen in love. It is time to merge your families. Our family law and estate planning attorneys can help you navigate the complexities that come with joining two families.
WORKING TOGETHER
Parenting Plans
There are many decisions to consider as part of a parenting plan: living arrangements, vacations, school, summer break, learning to drive, piercings, tattoos, extracurricular activities, military, and more. As different as each family is, as diverse as every family’s traditions are, each parenting plan is equally unique. An experienced family law attorney can craft a plan that meets your child’s current and future needs.
PARENTING PLAN
Modifications
- A parent is remarrying and moving to a new location
- The residential parent is forced to move to assist an elderly relative in their last years
- One parent has mental health issues
- There is something going wrong in the home where the child resides
- There is a job change or job location transfer at issue
COMPLEX CONSIDERATIONS
Guardian Ad Litem
A guardian ad litem is appointed by the court and serves the court in a fiduciary capacity. GALs, as they are often called, must have initial training and meet guidelines set forth by the courts they serve. A GAL makes recommendations to the court, but the judge is the final decision-maker.
GUIDING YOU THROUGH
Adoption
If you have decided that adoption is the path you want to take to grow your family, let our team of experienced family law attorneys help you navigate the complicated process of adopting a child and overcome any challenges along the way.
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SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS
Special Needs
Issues of custody, support, and property division are more complex to negotiate when a child with special needs is involved. You have to consider your child’s specific needs. Our family law attorneys will take the time to understand a “day in the life” of caring for your child and develop a plan to address your goals. Additionally, our estate planning attorneys can help ensure that your child is well cared for after you are gone.
SUPPORT
Adult Children
You spend 18 or so years preparing your child for adulthood, and in a blink of an eye, they are off. Let our experienced estate planning attorneys help make sure they are protected if they become incapacitated or preserve your wealth transfer if you choose to remarry or establish a committed intimate relationship in Washington.
FURTHER READING
Blog Posts
The law makes it easy for people to get out of bad marriages. Washington, like most states, acknowledges no-fault divorce. This means that if you want a court to dissolve your marriage, all you have to do is file for…
Washington state’s laws on non-marital relationships, including committed intimate relationships (CIRs), can be convoluted, especially in the absence of a cohabitation agreement. Given the ambiguity that exists for unmarried partners in Washington state, thinking about the future and what it could look like is more important than ever. This is especially true in terms of aging, incapacity, and death. Fortunately, you can address each of these issues in a comprehensive estate plan.
Family law and estate planning often intersect. This is particularly true when contemplating divorce, remarriage, or blending families.
At some point during your divorce case, friends and family members whose own marriages ended in divorce probably told you that it gets better, and it does. Of course, from your perspective, getting out of a bad marriage might be…
Co-parenting over a long distance when you are a non-residential parent does not have to equate to sacrificing involvement in your children’s lives. But it likely does mean you will have to make tweaks in your communication and parenting style to accommodate the new living arrangement.
When parents go through a divorce, child custody can be one of the hardest issues to deal with. But increasingly in American households, pets are part of the family, and separating can create similar concerns over who gets the family pet.
In today’s world of fast-paced decision-making and on-demand solutions, such as DIY divorces, it is not surprising that many couples contemplate divorce the moment they find themselves unhappily married. Our culture’s fickle mentality often seems to advocate for the idea…
In the wake of divorce or separation, co-parenting can feel stressful. Not only have you just gone through an emotional experience, but you are also now trying to figure out how both you and your co-parent can spend time with…
Far too many families end up fighting, or at least experiencing tension, over a family inheritance, but it does not have to be that way. Having counseled families for years, we offer the following advice to help your family avoid fighting over your property — while you are here and after you die.
Establishing paternity and parentage is important for many families and parents. Regardless of why you want to establish paternity and parentage, the process has the potential to be confusing, especially if you are unfamiliar with the terms and rules for…
As a mom of four (now adult) kids, I remember well the flood of emotions that came each time they went to my ex’s, especially during the early days of my separation and eventually after my divorce. Not only was…
In Washington state, if you are involved in a custody dispute, which involves difficult questions related to specific needs for your children or serious parenting deficits (such as mental health, substance abuse, or domestic violence), an evaluation service may be…
Divorce can be an emotionally grueling process, especially when you have children. In addition to coming to terms with how your own day-to-day is going to evolve, your children, too, will have to get used to seeing their lives change,…
For parents, divorce often raises many questions surrounding extracurricular activities. These questions usually include whether the children will get to participate in the extracurricular activities (sports, performing arts classes, music lessons, art classes, etc.) they did before the divorce, expanded…
Becoming a single parent, especially after being married and having a partner to share in the physical and emotional labor, can be a challenging transition. The role of single parent, even for those in a healthy co-parenting relationship with their…