If you are contemplating divorce, or involved in a divorce at this time, the depressed real estate market may be helpful for you.  Your homeis one of the marital assets to be divided in a divorce.  If your goal is to remain in the same home,  then now may be the time to offer to buy out your spouse’s interest, at a reduced rate! The length of time houses remain on the market (thus waiting to receive any equity), and the joint obligation to maintain the home mortgage pending sale (thus reducing cash flow), are best used as leverage if it is your desire to stay in the home.  The key is knowing how to work with what you have.  Look at what you are dealing with and say “how can I make this work for me?”  If you are able to look at the situation without expectation, you would be surprised with what you could find!

Have you ever looked at a situation and thought things could not get any worse, yet,  that experience brought more opportunity and rewards than you could have imagined?  If you can relate, and can share an experience where you turned lemons into lemonade, please share.  You are never alone, and always among friends!

Well the sun is here and the feelings of hope and anticipation of the summer months may inspire us to take notice and consider making needed changes in our own lives. 

If you have been wanting to make changes in your family life such as filing for divorce, modifying the existing parenting time schedule, or moving out of the state, you may need to gather supporting evidence now, while it’s available.  Teachers make great witnesses as they spend so much time with our children.  With the school year coming to an end, start the dialogue now as once school is out, it may be impossible to find your key witness!

Be prepared, too, to learn that our little sweethearts share so much of what happens at home with their classmates and their teacher! Have you been one of the parents whose little darling shared an embarassing moment from  home with their class? If so, please do share! Remember, you are never alone and always among friends. Don’t Fret, email Annette!

For those of you who do not know me, I am looking forward to this amazing new opportunity to get to know each other. If you have been a part of the Magic family, then you may have heard me on Magic talking about my family law firm, Annette J. Benson & Associates. I am thrilled to share with all of you, that in addition to practicing in family law, we have expanded to include estate planning, civil suits and other areas of law. Now having shared with all of you who I am, and how I may help you with your legal issues, I am looking forward to communicating with you on a regular basis about issues and topics that we face every day. I welcome your input as we begin our online conversation.

Speaking of online conversations, did you know that all emailed communications can be retrieved and are not privileged? This means, for the not so technologically advanced people like myself, that the delete button does not mean erasing! So, be careful what you write as it remains “alive” in cyberspace and can be retrieved. Have any of you dealt with the email you thought was “lost” that was later “found”? Don’t fret! Email Annette!