The laws gov­ern­ing fam­ily and fam­ily rela­tion­ships are expan­sive and reach many areas of our every day lives.  Dis­putes among and between close fam­ily mem­bers are often emo­tional and hard fought.

The stakes are often high–Who will have cus­tody of the chil­dren if we divorce?  How will the fam­ily busi­ness be divided?  Should we enter into a prenup­tial agree­ment before we marry?  How can I stop the phys­i­cal abuse? Who will take the kids as a deduc­tion on the tax return after we sep­a­rate?  What does it take to adopt our grand­chil­dren?  Why has some­one from the Depart­ment of Fam­ily and Pro­tec­tive Ser­vices taken my chil­dren?  The non-custodial par­ent is not pay­ing sup­port and I just can’t seem to make him or her under­stand how much the kids need it.

A “fam­ily” is no longer defined in the tra­di­tional man­ner as being com­posed of a mar­ried het­ero­sex­ual cou­ple with 2.5 chil­dren.   Sin­gle indi­vid­u­als are rais­ing chil­dren alone.  Het­ero­sex­ual and same sex cou­ples are seek­ing sur­ro­gates or are adopt­ing.  Peo­ple unre­lated by for­mal mar­riage are liv­ing together, bear­ing and rais­ing chil­dren.   Afflu­ent mid­dle aged peo­ple with grown chil­dren are mar­ry­ing for the sec­ond or third time. Addic­tions affect the abil­ity of some par­ents to prop­erly care for and pro­tect their chil­dren and are blind to eth­nic­ity, level of edu­ca­tion,  and social or eco­nomic sta­tus. Blended fam­i­lies are common.

Fam­ily law is com­plex.  Those immersed in the throes of emo­tion must have a sta­ble advo­cate.  Here, at Peter G. Milne, P.C., we  are under­stand­ing and com­pas­sion­ate but also objec­tive and focused.  We have the abil­ity to advo­cate for the posi­tion of our client and keep the big­ger pic­ture in mind. We wage every bat­tle in the con­text of achiev­ing the ulti­mate objec­tive, what­ever that might be.   Our task is not only to advo­cate for our client, but to pro­vide the best infor­ma­tion and most sound advice, so that he or she may make the best deci­sions for his or her fam­ily in times of upheaval and uncertainty.

The fol­low­ing are a sam­ple of typ­i­cal legal ser­vices we offer in the area of “Fam­ily Law”.   Con­tact us imme­di­ately if you need assis­tance or have questions.

• Coun­sel­ing and draft­ing of pre-marital agreements
• Draft­ing and exe­cu­tion of post-martial agreements
• Sep­a­ra­tion and divorce
• Pro­tec­tive orders to pre­vent domestic/sexual abuse and violence
• Cus­tody disputes
• Parent­age actions
• Divi­sion of mar­i­tal prop­erty and debt
• Con­fir­ma­tion of sep­a­rate property
• Vol­un­tary or invol­un­tary ter­mi­na­tion of parental rights
• Adop­tion
• Sur­ro­gacy Agreements
• Enforce­ment of court orders involv­ing sup­port or possession
• Rep­re­sen­ta­tion in child removal suits by the Depart­ment of Fam­ily and Pro­tec­tive Services
• Pseudo mar­riage con­tracts between same sex couples
• Tax plan­ning and treat­ment for separated/divorced spouses

The dark, uneasy world of fam­ily life–where the great­est can fail and the hum­blest suc­ceed.
— Ran­dall Jarrell