By Rebecca Watts 

Munoz v. Munoz, NC Court of Appeals, August 3, 2021 (Custody)

During the marriage, the parties preferred not to place the child in daycare, and so they relied upon family help to care for the child and nearly always had a family member living with them and assisting in care for the child. At the time mother and father separated, mother, who is a member of the U.S. Army, was anticipating a deployment to Iraq. Mother and father entered into a temporary custody order by consent, which vested primary physical custody in father and allowed father and the child to relocate to California. Father and the child then relocated to California, where they were living with father’s grandmother and his uncle; father’s grandmother was acting as a live-in
care provider while father worked. After father and the child relocated, father learned
that she would not be deployed and so filed a motion to set aside the consent order.

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By Ketan Soni

All the divorce laws are still wrong. Nothing has changed in the past 30 days since my last blog post on child support. To be clear, the bonus and commission rules aren’t the only things wrong with child support. More to come on that in later posts.

I’m throwing out softballs to start. Please realize, too, that I’m purposefully taking an extreme approach. The things I write may, or may not, be my position if you see me in court or in mediation. Instead, these examples are meant to point out black holes in how things operate within our family law world.

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By Kristopher J. Hilscher

The following is a hypothetical illustrating problems and interplay between pension jurisdiction and divorce for military servicepersons.

The Initial Problem

Lisa approached Tom. The time had come. It was the “D” word they’d been avoiding. No, not a new dog . . . Lisa wanted a divorce. Tom knew the divorce would be complex as Tom served in the Army Reserves for nearly 15 years. Why now? What about the children? What about the house they bought last year? Despite Tom’s many thoughts and issues with the divorce, he knew it was time to call a lawyer and determine the best path between two places: marriage and divorce.

Tom’s lawyer Bill, as with most lawyers, advised him to file an action against Lisa requesting the relief Tom wanted such as seeing his children on a regular basis and obtaining a reasonable division of assets. Bill and Tom did not know that they may have inadvertently decided an important issue regarding Tom’s retired pay by filing.

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By Mitchell Kelling 

Each year, the Family Law Section is usually fortunate enough to have sufficient funds left over to make several donations. This year, the Council elected to make donations to the UNC School of Government in honor of Cheryl Howell and to the North Carolina Bar Foundation with the funds earmarked for Free Legal Answers.

The UNC School of Government, and specifically Cheryl Howell, is a valuable resource for family law attorneys. Cheryl Howell is a wealth of information and is always able to provide an answer when one is needed. North Carolina is lucky to have Cheryl, and the Council appreciates her devotion to family law. A donation of $500.00 was made in Cheryl’s name.

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