The Practice of Family Law

Family law is a division of the civil law that regulates issues to do with marriage, divorce, prenuptial agreements, child custody, domestic violence and any other issues relating to the family. Family law cases are either heard in a civil court or superior court depending on different states. There are states that have entire family law divisions of the court due to a large number of cases involving family law; this may include special courts dealing with children’s services and domestic violence.

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Domestic violence: Domestic violence issues, even though they are primarily criminal in nature will almost always be handled in a family court since it appears to be the most effective way to have one judge dealing with all the violence, divorce and child custody issues; it is also in the family court where your Las Vegas family attorney will file domestic violence injunctions. If there are divorce proceedings during the domestic violence case or if the parties are still together but they choose to seek for divorce before the final judgment regarding the domestic violence case is entered, the Las Vegas family attorney may want to motion the court so that both cases can be amalgamated.

There are many times where the issues involving domestic violence will actually overlap the issues of the divorce case; it is quite common especially in cases where the parties have been separated as a result of domestic violence injunctions that the parties will also begin child custody battles. This means that you one attorney in Las Vegas handling this case will also have to take up the duties of a child custody lawyer in order to ensure that when one party is granted custody, the other part will get his or her visitation rights.

Separation agreements: The other area where the family law court also enters is in trying to review separation agreements in states where separation is allowed; whether the separation is mandated by the court or it has been entered into voluntarily. When parties have entered a separation agreement and one party fails to honor their end of the agreement, the injured party has the freedom to petition the court for an intervention.

Mediation: There are times when couples will start the process of dissolution of a marriage but they somehow believe that given a chance, the union will work; the family law court may require that the parties attend mediation in an attempt to get a settlement agreement before it can litigate the issues relating to the divorce case. If mediation becomes necessary, the court will actually provide a mediator at a low cost but the parties are also free to use their private mediator. However, if the court has entered a final judgment of the dissolution of marriage, it is expected that both parties will abide by the order.