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In formulating an award of child custody, in addition to physical custody, a court must decide legal custody: the right to make major decisions on behalf of the child, including, but not limited to, medical, religious and educational decisions. 23 Pa.C.S.A. §5322(a). The statute indicates the court may award a parent the right to make decisions regarding a child’s religion, including, but not limited to, which holidays the child would […]

Divorcing couples often face disastrous tax consequences because they go from filing taxes jointly to married filing separately, which creates the highest tax burden for both spouses. But, there is an alternative. Under certain circumstances, parents with children can file as head of household. To qualify, a single or legally separated person must maintain a household for more than half of the taxable year which is the principal residence of […]

In Pennsylvania — just like the rest of the country — it is not uncommon for unmarried couples to have and raise children together, and for the most part, this arrangement will not lead to excessive legal friction until the couple decides to “split up.”  Fundamentally, the issue in Pennsylvania is that when an unmarried couple has a child together, paternity is not automatically established.  The father’s name is not […]

There are more than 1.3 million active duty American military personnel worldwide.  Military life is difficult for the entire family from the soldier that is deployed, to the spouse and children that stay at home.  And then there are military marriages.  Only military spouses can truly understand how difficult it is to be involved in a military marriage or why their rate of divorce is more than 50 percent. Considering […]

You likely use social media every day to keep in touch with family and friends, post photos of your weekend activities and share items from your news feed.  Facebook alone has 1.9 billion daily active users.  At a time when nearly everyone has at least one social media account, it is important to understand the way in which Facebook and other social media outlets can affect various legal proceedings (such […]