Child Custody

Musical artist Shakira and ex-partner Gerard Piqué, Spanish soccer star, announced they’ve reached an agreement regarding custody of their children. Together since 2011 but never formally married, Shakira and Piqué split back in June of 2022. Shakira has said in several interviews that she has wanted to shield their sons, ages 9 and 7, from…

When a marriage ends and there are children involved, the issue of child support must be discussed. The general idea of child support in North Carolina is to help equalize the financial burden of child-related expenses between the parents. Parties can agree that neither will pay child support. If a parent needs child support, however,…

We are approaching that time of year again when decisions need to be made about where and how children will spend their summer vacations. Whether or not you have an iron-clad court order that specifies who will be spending time where, when, and for how long, odds are there is still room for disagreement on…

When you have kids, your hope is to have a loving, stable family unit in which they can grow. Sadly, that may not always be the case. Child custody disputes are often among the most contentious disputes there are during a divorce, and things can escalate quickly. When one or both parents feel threatened by…

In North Carolina, both parents have an equal right to custody of their children. While the State used to follow the so-called “tender years” doctrine, which gave preference to the mother when the children were young, that is no longer the case. When a couple divorces, both parents are assumed to be equally capable of…