Marietta, Georgia, Divorce Law Blog

In the category of what has changed significantly about marriage in the 21st century, add the fact that more couples are eschewing joint bank accounts and electing to keep their finances separate.

Sociologists and others who study this sort of thing site numerous reasons why Millennials are electing to keep money separate after marriage. For starters, couples are waiting longer to get married, which means individuals have established themselves in terms of career and salary. Letting go of financial independence can be tough after you’ve had it for a decade or more.

There are a lot of questions you may have when going through a divorce. How much does a divorce cost? Do I have to go to court, or are there more amicable ways to end my marriage? How does mediation work in Georgia?

Fortunately, there are other options you can take when you know your marriage is over, instead of traditional litigation. Mediation is one of the most common ways for couples to resolve their differences in a divorce, because of its simplicity and cost-effectiveness. The following points illustrate how mediation works:

• A certified mediator will work with you and your soon-to-be-ex-spouse to decide such aspects as property division and parenting arrangements. Depending on the points you need to resolve, mediation may take as little as one or as many as several sessions.
• Your mediator might be a family law attorney with experience in mediation. Additionally, attorneys may become certified in mediation to better serve their clients.
• You have the right to speak with your mediator in a private session if you have concerns you wish to bring up without your spouse present. Keep in mind that your spouse may do the same.
• Mediation is a form of negotiation, and it may teach you and your spouse valuable cooperation and compromising skills, which may be especially helpful if you share child custody. Ending your marriage this way requires both of you to treat each other with respect, even if you do not always get along.

Yes, high-income couples can have an uncontested divorce. In fact, many do, and their divorces can be finalized in a mere two or three months. Whether a divorce is contested or uncontested is unrelated to how much money the couple earns, but rather depends on whether they are able to agree on issues (for example, child custody and property division).

Of course, couples of all income levels have a lot to think about when it comes to divorce, even if it is uncontested. Here is a look at a few considerations.

As a grandparent, your grandchildren are probably some of the most important and valuable people in your life, and to maintain strong relationships with them, visits are generally necessary. Family situations can prove quite complicated, however, and sometimes parents or others deny grandparents visitation, or do not permit grandparents to visit with grandchildren as much as the grandparents might like.

What recourse might you have, if you cannot see your grandchildren? In Georgia, you do not automatically have visitation rights just by being a grandparent, but there are avenues you may be able to take. If you wish to obtain legal visitation rights to your grandchild, you may try and do so through one of two methods.