Annapolis Maryland Family Law Blog

It won't be long before school is out for summer. While your children enjoy this time of the year in Maryland, it's sure to bring some challenges to your life. This is particularly true if you're divorced and share parenting time with your ex-spouse.

Dividing parenting time during summer vacation can be difficult, especially since both parents want to spend as much time as possible with their children. Here are several tips that can help you avoid disagreements:

• Plan your schedule in advance: It's not possible to plan out the entire summer, as you never know when things will change, but a basic schedule will go a long way in keeping you and your ex on the same page. For example, if you plan on taking a vacation with your children, share the details of the trip with your ex as soon as possible.
• Talk to your children: Don't make plans without including your children, as you may schedule something that conflicts with another activity. When you include your children in all decisions, it's easier to settle on a schedule that suits everyone.
• Discuss childcare with your ex: During the school year, you may not worry about this as much since your children are accounted for during the day. However, during the summer months, questions regarding childcare often move to the forefront. Discuss this as soon as possible, to avoid a situation in which there's no one to watch your children during summer vacation.
• Remain flexible: Even with a schedule in place, there will be times when you have to make changes. For example, if you get called out of town for work, you may need to change the weekend that you visit with your children. If you're flexible yourself, there's a greater chance that your ex will take the same approach.

Maryland fathers who get a divorce are more likely to get a significant amount of time with their children or even share custody than they were several decades ago. The attitude of the legal system has shifted to one where legal custody is generally presumed. Courts are also more open to shared physical custody. However, this can present challenges if parents want equal time since it can be difficult for working parents to move children back and forth during the week.

One 2014 study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that in 1980, mothers in the state were awarded sole custody 80 percent of the time. In 2008, this only happened 42 percent of the time. According to one professor who specializes in family law, there are social trends that explain some of these shifts. Attitudes toward divorce and the legal system itself began to change after a surge of early baby boomer marriages in the 1950s and 1960s were followed by divorces. The high rate of custody for women reflected the belief at the time that children should be with their mothers.

When people in Maryland decide to divorce, they may think first about the changes to come in their family homes or to their personal relationships. However, there are also some technical changes that people may wish to make to protect their security and privacy after the end of a marriage. One of the first things that may be important to do is to change all of a person's major passwords. People who are married often share access not only to home accounts or online banking but even to email or messenger accounts.

As the divorce moves forward, any accounts that will remain private should have changed passwords. These include anything from personal credit cards to email accounts. Even in the most amicable of breakups, it is often a good idea to practice basic tech security. In addition, it can be important to perform a factory reset on shared devices. This is not meant to prevent the other spouse from obtaining relevant information during the divorce, but to prevent private material from lingering after the split is finalized.

Running a business in Maryland can be a very lucrative prospect for entrepreneurs. When an owner's marriage is headed for divorce, however, valuable business assets could be put in jeopardy. These assets, along with income derived from a business, may be considered marital property in a divorce.

It's wise for entrepreneurs to have some type of contractual agreement in place to keep business relationships and assets separate from the marriage. This is to avoid property division disputes and to ensure that each spouse receives what is legally theirs during the divorce process. A formal contract should clearly state things like percentages of investments from both spouses, roles and responsibilities in running the business. Furthermore, the parties must agree on the terms that will go into effect if the marriage is dissolved or the business relationship ends.