Towson Divorce Lawyers

Top Rated Divorce Attorney Serving Towson, MD

Dealing with the breakdown of your marriage, navigating conflict with your spouse, and taking steps to get a divorce can be a difficult situation to deal with. Simply separating from your spouse, establishing a new home, and determining how to handle financial issues on a single income can be a lot to consider. If you will also need to address issues related to child custody, resolve legal matters, and handle complex financial issues, your case may seem overwhelming. You will need to make sure you make the right decisions and follow the right procedures, and you can do so with the help of a compassionate, experienced divorce lawyer.

At Silverman Thompson, our attorneys can provide the representation you are looking for. We will advise you on the legal issues that may need to be addressed during your case, and we can help you develop strategies and solutions that will ensure that you can achieve your goals for your divorce and move forward into the next stage of your life.

Issues That May Be Addressed During Your Divorce

The divorce process will involve multiple types of legal questions that need to be resolved before your marriage can be legally dissolved. The specific issues that may arise in your case will depend on your specific circumstances, including your financial situation and whether you have children. Our lawyers can provide guidance on the concerns that you may need to address, which may include:

Alimony

While many people believe that ongoing support payments will need to be made after a divorce is finalized, alimony is not a factor in every case. Spousal support will only be appropriate in certain situations, such as when one spouse earns the majority of the family's income, and the other spouse relies on that income to pay for most household expenses.

A spouse may request alimony, and a family court judge will look at issues such as each party's income and expenses, their standard of living, whether the recipient will need time to become self-supporting, and the financial resources available to each party. Our attorneys can advise you on whether you may be able to receive alimony or how you should respond to a request for spousal support from your spouse. We will work to put arrangements in place that will meet your financial needs going forward.

Division of Marital Assets and Debts

Maryland is an "equitable distribution" state when it comes to dividing property between divorcing spouses. Assets and debts will not need to be divided exactly in half, but they should be allocated in a manner that is considered to be fair while meeting the needs of both parties. Issues such as the length of the marriage, each party's financial situation, and their contributions to the marriage may be considered when determining what is fair and equitable.

As you work to complete the divorce process, you may need to address assets such as household goods, cars or other vehicles, real estate property, financial accounts, and anything else you own. If you are a business owner, a business valuation will usually need to be performed so that the right decisions can be made about ownership of the business going forward. The right steps will need to be taken to divide any retirement accounts or benefits held by you or your spouse, including using QDROs to divide 401(k) accounts without being assessed penalties or taxes.

Our lawyers can work with you to make sure all the assets you own will be considered correctly. If necessary, we can work with financial professionals to make sure assets are valued correctly and that the decisions you make about property division will protect your financial interests.

Child Custody and Parenting Time

For parents, concerns about children are likely to be some of the most significant issues addressed during the divorce process. Child custody may address both legal custody and physical custody. Legal custody will involve decision-making authority over important issues that will determine how children are raised. Physical custody, also known as visitation or parenting time, will detail living arrangements for children and schedules for when they will be with each parent.

Our attorneys can help you create a detailed parenting plan that will fully address all issues related to legal and physical custody. We can work with you to resolve disputes about how you and the other parent will make decisions related to your children, and we can advise you on the best options for creating a workable schedule for parenting time. We can also help you understand what other issues may need to be addressed, such as rules for communication between parents, changes that may be made to the parenting plan in the future, or methods for resolving potential disputes.

Child Support

Financial support for the benefit of children is an aspect of most divorce cases involving child custody. Our lawyers work to ensure that child support arrangements are fair and that payments are calculated accurately based on parents' incomes. We can help you put workable child support orders in place that not only address your children's basic living expenses, but also other costs, such as medical expenses, educational expenses, and child care expenses.

Options for Resolving Disputes

Depending on how well you can cooperate with your spouse during your divorce, you may be able to resolve your case by negotiating a marital settlement agreement. Our attorneys will assist with these negotiations, helping you communicate with the other side, offer proposals, respond to requests, and settle on terms that will be acceptable to you. If you believe that mediation will be beneficial as you work to resolve the issues in your case, we can provide you with representation during this process and help you protect your interests.

If your case involves conflicts that will not make negotiations possible, or if you encounter disputes that you are unable to resolve, your case may proceed to litigation. Our lawyers have the experience needed to handle litigation during divorce cases, and we will fight to protect your rights and interests as we advocate on your behalf in the courtroom.

Modifying a Divorce Decree

There are certain terms of your divorce decree that could be modified in the future. Modifications may be put in place by a court if circumstances have changed since the end of your divorce. Child support may be adjusted because of a change in either parent's income, a change in custody arrangements, or a change in children's expenses. Spousal support may be modified for similar reasons related to the parties' incomes, or it may be terminated if the recipient remarries.

Custody and parenting time orders may also be modified to address a change in circumstances. A parent's plans to relocate to a new area may be a reason for a modification request, or a parenting plan may be modified in response to changes in a parent's work schedule, changes to a child's needs as they grow older, or other changes that have affected a family.

Our attorneys can help you take steps to seek a modification when your family's circumstances have changed. We can also help respond to or defend against a modification request. We will help you make changes that will fit your financial circumstances and provide for your children's best interests.

Contact Our Towson, MD Divorce Attorneys

The team at Silverman Thompson is ready to assist you during your divorce. We will provide the legal help needed to ensure that you fully understand the issues that may affect you and will be able to make decisions that will provide for your family's ongoing needs. Contact our Towson divorce lawyers at 410-385-2225 to arrange a confidential consultation.