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If You Owe Back Support, Don’t Expect Your Stimulus Check

Posted on June 2, 2008 By Divorce Help Network

The IRS is treating the stimulus checks as if they were tax refunds. On their website, the IRS indicates that the amount of the stimulus check will be reduced or seized if :

  • You are single and your net income tax liability is less than $600. If you file Form 1040 net income tax liability is the amount shown on Line 57, plus the amount on Line 52.
  • You are married and your net income tax liability is less than $1,200.
  • You are single and your adjusted gross income (AGI) is more than $75,000. On Form 1040, AGI is the amount on Line 37.
  • You are married filing a joint return and your AGI is more than $150,000.
  • You owe back taxes that reduced your payment.
  • You have non-tax federal debts such as unpaid student loans or child-support obligations that reduced your payment.

If the IRS is reducing or seizing your stimulus check, they are supposed to mail you a letter of explanation.

So what do you do if you and your spouse have filed a joint return and your spouse owes back child support if you want to avoid having the IRS seize your share? Well, you may fall in the category of what the IRS calls an ‘injured spouse’. To get your share of the stimulus payment, you can file Form 8379, Injured Spouse Allocation. You will then get your share of these payments, and your spouse’s share will be applied to his or her past-due federal or state income taxes or non-tax federal debt such as student loans and child support.

If you are wondering where your stimulus check is, you can initiate an inquiry to the IRS by clicking here.

Also, remember that the IRS NEVER initiates any email to taxpayers, so don’t fall for one of those internet scams about receipt of your stimulus check!

Source for Post Ohio Family Law Blog.

Posted in Tax Issues, Child Support | Comments (0)

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Software to Assist With Parenting Issues

Posted on June 2, 2008 By Divorce Help Network

From the ‘Tech Corner’ of last month’s ABA Family Law Section’s eNewsletter:

Parenting Plan Technology


When you hear the term ‘timeshare,’ you might first think of real estate or condos in Las Vegas. But in the realm of family law, timeshare often refers to the time a child spends with each parent. In his ‘Tools of the Trade’ column in Family Advocate (Vol. 20, No. 3), Stephen J. Harhai wrote, ‘The fundamental problem in working out time-sharing issues is that it is hard to visualize or calculate the effect of a given plan without a lot of grunt work. We have spent untold hours marking calendars, counting days, writing explanations, and generally driving ourselves crazy getting a handle on complicated time-sharing arrangements.’ Though written in 1998, Harhai’s words still ring true today; however, now there are more technological advances at your disposal to assist with managing the schedules of separate households.

This category of software creates parenting plans based on agreed-upon or court-ordered visitation schedules, and also calculates percentage splits. Central to these programs is a calendar that displays visitation schedules as well as activity, holiday and vacation schedules on a daily, weekly or monthly basis with annual and monthly reporting features. This is essential because in many states, support is calculated based on the amount of time that each parent spends with a child. These programs make it possible to record and consequently measure parental time as well as scheduling changes.

While these tools can help family lawyers create compliant parenting plans for their clients, they may also be used by parents and mediators. Several have been developed specifically for collaboration between parents and caregivers and can serve as a means of record keeping for changing or gaining custody.

Following are some options available to navigate the complexities of custody and visitation agreements.

Parenting Plan Software for Attorneys


Custody Keeper, formerly ChildShare, offers a collaborative option for parents and caregivers as well as benefits to attorneys. Custody Keeper helps present a clear schedule that everyone will understand to facilitate joint or shared custody. It enables you to track or plan time spent with children, as well as track expenses, events, incidents, support payments, and allows you to keep daily comments. The multi-year calendar includes U.S., Canadian, and custom holidays; you also have the ability to print calendars and reports (for yourself, your clients, or the court) and export your schedules and reports in PDF format.

Custody X Change is a software package for managing child custody and maximizing timeshare for one party (or the other). Initially designed for family lawyers who wanted a tool to win more time for their clients without having to manually re-compute every option, it is now also available to parents. The software includes the ability to print out calendars and reports; you can also download a free trial version from the website.

Kidmate, created in 1996 to meet the need for creating visitation schedules and calculating percentage splits, was one of the first computer programs for negotiating custody between separating parents. Kidmate’s Timesharing Organizer creates timesharing and visitation schedules. In the event of an adversarial custodial matter, the Record Keeper module can help you document the history of the timesharing/visitation schedule. Kidmate’s patented Percentages and Day Counter feature analyzes schedules four different ways (Overnights, Total Time, Quality Time, and Day Counter) and displays all results on the screen for comparison. The Day Counter is used in many states for calculating child support and shows the cumulative number of days that children spend with each parent per year. (Note: Kidmate was reviewed by Stephen Harhai in Family Advocate, Vol. 20, No. 3.)

OurFamilyWizard is an online tool that enables parents to coordinate schedules, share information, make adjustments to the parenting plan and track shared expenses. Features include a detailed calendar where activities, events and other scheduled items can be viewed generally or in detail, including drop-offs and pick-ups. Journals can be set as shared or private and are color-coded for each family member. The OurFamilyWizard professional account has case management features that allow family law practitioners to create parent accounts, manage client databases, store important client documents online (judgment and decree, court orders, etc.), enable communication with clients, create client to-do lists, and more. An OurFamilyWizard account provides the ability to review case status by linking information to parent accounts.

Parenting Time Calendar by PCGreeting was written by a programmer and a family law legal assistant specifically for lawyers to generate parenting time schedules. It includes holidays for Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. Three versions of the Parenting Time Calendar are available: Single Year Standard, Single Year Deluxe, and 2 Year Deluxe. The Single Year Deluxe performs quality time calculations based on user-defined pickup and dropoff, and the 2 Year Deluxe allows the creation of two-year parenting plans.

Shared Ground is shared parenting calendar software that distributes time equitably between two primary caregivers. Defaults may be used or a custom-designed parenting plan may be created. The calendar can be synchronized with a Palm™-compatible PDA or exported to Microsoft Outlook. Shared Ground’s Percentage Calculator displays how much time children are with each parent and can be viewed monthly or examined as an annual distribution report. Shared Ground also includes sample parenting plans and defaults that can be customized. The Shared Ground Enterprise License was designed for divorce and family law attorneys and others involved in developing parenting plans for clients.

To encourage collaborative parenting and promote parental communication and cooperation, several vendors offer tools that enable the parents to develop their own parenting plans and visitation schedules. The plans can be presented to the court and stand a better chance of being approved when created by the parents.

Parental Collaboration Tools


KidsFirst! is a web-based parenting time tracker that can be used to develop parenting plans and visitation schedules. Parents have the option to share one account and answer the questions together, or create separate accounts and provide separate answers, which can be kept private from the other parent. If both parents have agreed to share answers, KidsFirst! compares the answers of both parents to show where the parents are in agreement or need to agree.

Shared Ground provides a Co-Parenting License or two-user single license designed to accommodate two primary Residential Parents (co-parents) or caregivers. This license entitles you to a single software key and two copies of the software program available for downloading from the website. It allows one single Parenting Plan to be created, edited and managed on two separate computers. It can be shared with extended family members, if they have a View-Only License.

The OurFamilyWizard® Parent Account provides access to private and shared family calendars with notifications and reminders, an expense log, journal, and message board along with online access to important documents (My Files).

Additional Parenting Time Trackers


OPTIMAL™, the Online Parenting Time Information Manager and Access Log, is an online tool that tracks parenting time and monitors custody compliance. OPTIMAL is designed primarily for parental record keeping; it enables parents to keep detailed records for scheduled parenting time and actual time, visit type (regular, denied, late, missed) denied and partial visitation, mileage and expenses. It also counts and displays overnights and provides time-stamps for use in court. A host of other features are also included.

Source:’ ‘ Parenting Plan Technology’ by Tonya Johnson, published in the ABA Family Law Section’s May 2008 eNewsletter.

Source for Post South Carolina Family Law Blog.

Posted in Parenting Time, Child Custody | Comments (0)

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7 Roadblocks to Successful Mediation

Posted on April 21, 2008 By Divorce Help Network

Mediation is a very popular and widespread process used to resolve disputes, especially in divorce cases. In many places in Texas and probably most other states, mediation is virtually a requirement before a case can go to trial. The reason is obvious — it works! My observation is that mediated cases settle about 90% of the time, or more.

For mediation to be successful, it takes a good, well-trained mediator. In Texas, we normally have attorneys present and participating with the parties in the mediation; some other states often have the parties attend mediation without attorneys. Both systems obviously can be effective. Success, however, is not guaranteed and should not be taken for granted. Here are seven problems that can prevent a successful outcome from mediation.

1. Lack of preparation by one or both sides. The parties need to have all the information and records at hand so they can make intelligent decisions. It’s also very helpful for both parties to have thought through their personal goals, needs and interests so they know what they should try to accomplish in the negotiations.

2. Unrealistic expectations. If one party has goals or ideas that are very unrealistic, agreement would be unlikely. It is normal for the parties to disagree about things, but sometimes there is no way to accomplish what one of the parties wants. An attorney should work with the client to help them reasonably define and describe what they want to end up with. If a party demands 80% of all the assets because the spouse has had an affair or drank too much or abandoned the family, usually the case is very unlikely to settle. As the Rolling Stones said, ‘You can’t always get what you want.’ The parties need to be realistic and keep in mind the costs of not settling.

3. Lack of commitment by a party. If one party or both don’t take the process seriously or don’t want to settle, there won’t be an agreement. Both parties need to see and feel the advantages to themselves from a settlement. Without commitment, the parties won’t stay in the compromise mode long enough to settle. They can easily become discouraged if there is not a quick, painless settlement.

4. Inability of a party to make a decision. I have seen situations where we have waited two hours or more for the other party to respond to a changed settlement proposal that wasn’t particularly complex. Some people don’t handle stress well and some don’t like to make quick decisions. The parties should learn in advance how the mediation process works and how decisions are made. They need to learn to approach the process as if it were an impersonal business deal. Participants should expect to face choices and they need to understand that they probably won’t be happy with everything that happens at mediation. Even highly educated people used to making tough decisions affecting others sometimes have hard times making decisions in mediation.

5. Positional bargaining. People who begin negotiations without clearly defining their goals and needs will usually begin by staking out a territory or percentage as a starting point and leave themselves room to compromise. Sometimes, both parties figure out a middle ground for a target and figuratively both take ten paces backward before negotiating. Some people want a percentage of the property, regardless of what their needs are. For example, many husbands will insist on a 50-50 split and some wives will choose a starting point of 70% or 65% of the assets, when it may be that certain assets would be preferable for one party, such as cash in the bank (with no tax consequences) versus funds in a retirement plan (with penalties for early withdrawal plus income taxes for the amount paid). Positional bargaining can make for easier negotiations, but the results may not be very helpful to either party.

6. A mentally ill participant. There are, of course, varying degrees of impairment from mental illnesses. Medication and counseling are often helpful for a patient. Sometimes having a close family member or friend present during the mediation can help the party be in a frame of mind to negotiate effectively. Without extra support and/or meds, a mentally ill party can scuttle the effort to settle.

7. A mediator perceived as biased for one side. Unless both parties have confidence in the quality and neutrality of the mediator, it is unlikely that the mediation will be successful. Some parties don’t trust a mediator who is a male or one who is a female. The location of the mediation or the mediator’s office may produce distrust by a party. If the mediator is seen as a friend of the other attorney or party, the mediator will probably not be acceptable. Attorneys should make sure that the mediator is someone who will be acceptable to both parties.

There are other potential pitfalls for mediation, but these are some of the major ones. If you are planning to go to mediation, you should work diligently in advance to be prepared, committed and ready to decide. Keep an open mind throughout the process so you have the best chance for success.

Source for Post Divorce and Family Law in Tarrant County.

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Why Does Mediation Work?

Posted on April 19, 2008 By Divorce Help Network

Mediation is a settlement process in which two parties meet with a neutral third party (the mediator) to resolve issues in a private meeting or meetings. In Texas, the most common type of mediation is the caucus method which usually consists of one session (sometimes two), with each party having an attorney present and the sides usually in separate rooms. The mediator shuffles back and forth between rooms, conveying offers, questions and suggestions. The parties rarely see each other in the caucus approach. In other states, there may or may not be attorneys involved and the parties usually meet and discuss the issues face-to-face.

Mediation began to be widely utilized in Texas to help settle litigation in the mid- to late-1980s. Since then, it has become very popular, especially with judges. It has proven effective, reasonably priced and safe for the parties. Nevertheless, I still have clients express doubts and frustration when they are ordered to go to mediation before they can go to final trial. They sincerely believe that there is no hope of settlement, usually because the other party is stubborn, crazy, stupid, angry, unrealistic, etc. I always explain (after mentioning that we have no choice if it is ordered by a court) that I have had a large number of ‘impossible’ cases settle through the use of mediation. Let me briefly explain why mediation works.

1. Mediation brings into a dispute a neutral third party with an objective approach to the case whose purpose is to get an agreement. Whatever the mediator does is seen as an effort to reach an acceptable agreement, not to advance the interests of one party at the expense of the other party. Because of the neutrality, a mediator can make tough suggestions and criticisms which will be heard very differently than they would be if made by the opposing attorney. The mediator can also make statements that a party’s attorney should (and may want to) make, but which could undermine the client’s faith in his or her attorney’s commitment to the client’s side. It is a way for a party to receive important information, even if it is not what the party wants to hear.

2. A good mediator can de-personalize the negotiations. Again, the neutrality is helpful. A mediator will usually emphasize the value of reaching an agreement outside of court and will try to shape the sessions into more of a business decision rather than something more personal.

3. The mediator usually helps each party understand the range of options, including the best alternative to a negotiated agreement. Often in a divorce, a party starts out with a set of ideas of what he or she wants and the party is unwilling or unable to conceive of other options or any reasons to consider other options. It is difficult for the attorney for such a party to bring up other options in some cases where the party is emotionally committed to a particular outcome. Because of the neutral role of the mediator, it is possible to explain and explore other options. A mediator can also help a party come up with new ideas by brainstorming with the party.

4. An important factor for the success of mediation is that it carries a sense of finality, a feeling that the end of a nightmare may be in sight. In Texas, mediation usually occurs fairly late in the process and after information is exchanged between the parties in ‘Discovery’. The parties are often really ready to end the litigation. One of the factors that often comes into play is that parties become more willing to compromise if they see the reward of wrapping up the divorce.

5. On a related point, when mediation occurs, a settlement may be achieved because the parties are usually worn down or worn out from fighting and arguing. They may be spent emotionally and so is their money. They just are up to fighting as much as they were originally. Sometimes, they have already collected their pound of flesh and they are ready to end the divorce. Unfortunately, in some cases, one or both sides are out of money to fight with or money to fight over.

6. Mediation is usually cheaper than a trial and in many areas is a required step before trial. Stable and reasonable parties (there actually are quite a few in the world) recognize the savings they can make by compromising in mediation instead of going to trial.

7. The mediator can play devil’s advocate for both parties and educate each party about possible problems with his/her approach. Creating a little uncertainty, or reality, can make the parties more open to adjusting their demands, positions and solutions. Sometimes, a party hears a contrary view for the first time from the mediator since some attorneys are uncomfortable or unwilling to disagree with their clients. Or a party may have just ignored differing opinions or suggestions.

Mediation creates an opportunity for parties to become educated about a number of things that impact of their willingness and ability to settle a case. Experience shows that amazing results can occur with a skilled mediator even in the most difficult cases. Every litigant should strongly consider, and even look forward to, getting into mediation so they can get the right result that is acceptable to both parties, work in a less stressful, private setting and save time and money.

Source for Post Divorce and Family Law in Tarrant County.

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Tips to Help You Get a Fair Divorce

Posted on April 18, 2008 By Divorce Help Network

The following tips can help you get a fair divorce and save you a great deal of time, stress, and money:

  • Once you have made the difficult decision to end your marriage, begin to focus on the financial issues as soon as possible.
  • Get a good attorney to ensure you receive an equitable settlement, and get the best attorney that you can afford.
  • Remember that most states determine the value of the marital assets (including retirement accounts) based on the date the case is filed with the Court.
  • Consider when to file your case and whether it might be worthwhile to file sooner or later if you know when significant financial events will occur, such as receiving a bonus at work.
  • If the mortgage is listed in your name (or both name) and your spouse will receive the house, insist that he/she refinance to remove your name from the mortgage as soon as possible.
  • Make copies of all recent financial statements, so that your attorney will have an accurate listing of the accounts, balances, etc.

Source:Parting Ways? Your Guide to a Fair Divorce published in the Erie Times-News.

Source for Post South Carolina Family Law Blog.

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