Karen Ball, Attorney at Law

With ContemporaryCouples.com, you no longer have to leave your relationship to chance. Using a telephone and Internet access, you can join gay & lesbian couples and singles from around the country in one of our live web seminars and start learning today from the comfort of your own home or office. Our interactive online training can help strengthen happy relationships, rebuild troubled ones, and teach singles the skills they need to find and keep the partner they want.

Ending an relationship may be a particularly upsetting event, involving many uncertainties and emotions. If an ending is unavoidable, or in your best interest, an attorney can guide you in protecting your rights.

Various procedures may be used to end a marriage that breaks down, including annulment, separation, dissolution or divorce.
If a marriage falls apart its termination will require a legal proceeding.  That court proceeding legally terminates the marriage and makes provisions for the parenting of minor children, family support, and division of property and liabilities. (more…)

In addition to the emotional side of ending a relationship (which may, in fact, be the largest) there are two basic prongs to get handled.  If they are addressed separately things can be kept clearer and decisions can often be made more easily.  Until all of the items shown below, in both parts of the case are resolved, written down, and approved by the court, there is no final judgment.

1. Split of assets and liabilities – the “things” – all relationships have this part! If there are no children, then it’s all about things.  (Some folks say, “It’s all about the money.”) (more…)

There are many tools that individuals and couples can use to work on their relationships, or decide what to do when a relationship starts to fail.  Here are tools with which I’ve worked and had success.

A.  For those having trouble in their relationships, and trying to decide what to do, I suggest the following: (more…)