Family Law

Family law consists of statutes and case decisions that govern the legal duties between and among individuals who share a domestic connection. Family law usually involves parties who are related by blood or marriage, but could also affect parties in more distant relationships. Family law in the United States developed within each state. As a result, American family law varies significantly from one state to another. Despite the differences in family legislation and procedure, new trends in family issues, as well as the federal government's desire to create a uniform system of family law, general principles have become increasingly shared in all states and territories.

Most of the cases involving family law arise from the termination of marriage or romantic relationship. Divorce and annulment are part of family law. Dispute on alimony, child custody, visitation and support accompany divorce and annulment. Divorce is a messy proceeding that requires the expertise of attorneys. Divorce is also a complicated law by itself, especially when it comes to the division of property. Laws on property division greatly from one state to another, thus an attorney handling divorce proceedings must not only be knowledgeable on divorce law, but also on property law. Family law also governs the relationship between two individuals before marriage in the drafting of prenuptial agreements. In prenuptial agreements, which are enforced upon divorce, couples can opt out from a state's default rules on property division, but the terms of prenuptial agreements must still adhere to requirements laid out by the state. In addition to defending a spouse in a divorce proceeding, an attorney also has the capability and knowledge to seek out assets that the other spouse may try to hide from the other spouse so that that property cannot be reached by any order directing the division of such assets.

In addition to divorce, one of the most common issues relating to family law is domestic violence, which does not just involve current or former spouses, but also children and other members of the family. Domestic violence is a criminal offense that is punishable by both fines and incarceration. Domestic violence cases also go through the same process as a criminal case, although, because of the intimate nature of the relationship of the parties, the cases are often emotionally draining. Plaintiffs in domestic violence cases need to hire an expert attorney to, not just argue on family law, but also on criminal law.

Another exhausting litigation relating to family law is child custody. In uncontested cases, child custody may go smoothly. Contested child custody cases are battles, with the parties often already distrustful with each other. When child custody cases arise from domestic violence, the battle becomes more wearisome as the aggrieved party would be zealous to win custody of their children and fight for a protective order against the domestic violence abuser. Child custody cases are also emotionally draining especially for children subject to such proceedings as they need to be present in the trial for the court to determine their best interest.

Another difficult case accompanying child custody would be child support. The determination of how much each parent need to contribute to the rearing of the child is lengthy and may require numerous modifications. The bulk of a family law attorney's responsibility in child support cases would be arguing for their clients in modification proceedings.

Areas of Law

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Real Estate Law

Real estate law governs the legal issues arising from the ownership, purchase, transfer, rental, titling, development, zoning, and loans related to real property. "Real property," which is used interchangeably with "real estate" and "realty" refer to the land and structures, including other tangible aspects of the two, such as permanent fixtures in the land and structures. Real estate law is comprised of numerous, and often conflicting, rules and regulations enacted by states and other local governments. Real estate attorneys thus are versed in different aspects of the law and often concentrate on specific areas.

One of the common issues arising from real estate law would be the sale and purchase of real property. It is customary for sellers to engage the services of real estate brokers to seek out buyers for their property. Typically, the seller and the real estate broker enter into a listing agreement under which the broker agrees to list the property so that buyers may find it. In exchange, the seller agrees to pay the agent a commission, which is based on the proceeds from the sale of the property. The brokering business is governed by law and are subject to certain requirements, including licenses to operate, the requirements of which vary from state to state. As part of their required professional conduct, real estate brokers, under the Federal Fair Housing Act, are prohibited from discriminating against prospective buyers based on race, color sex, among others.

The sale of real property is governed by another set of laws, which, again, vary from state to state. Because the seller and the buyer come to a meeting of the minds in the purchase of the property, the sale of property is generally governed by contract law. Under contract law, a sale agreement is required to be put into writing for documentary evidence in case there is fraud in either of the parties.

Of the requirements in the sale of real property is that the property must have an appropriate title and the title to such property must be marketable. This means that the title must be clean in that there are liens attached to the property. It is in this stage of the sale process that buyers often require the help of real estate attorneys to look into whether the title of the property is marketable. Following an attorney's assurance that the title is marketable, a deed of the land must be executed. Some states require that deeds must be placed on official record so that the whole world will be notified that there has been change of ownership. The deed requires a detailed description of the land, in terms of metes and bounds, which description must be filled up by land surveyors. To finance the purchase of a real property, the prospective purchaser often obtains a mortgage because the cost of purchasing the property may be too steep and the prospective buyer might not have on hand the cash required to make such a purchase. Mortgage is governed by another set of laws.



Areas of Law