Mark A. Chinn Family Law Blog

Mississippi is in the lead nationally in extending the support obligation to age 21 (instead of 18) and in requiring parents to pay for college if the child has the ability to go and the parents have the ability to pay.  However, the right to go to college is not absolute.  A child must show proper respect to a parent if he wishes to take advantage of the expensive opportunity of a college education. This law first evolved with a case in 1980 where a child has refused to speak... Read More

Almost every divorce involves either the transfer of ownership or use of the marital home.  What most people don’t know is that the transfer of either title or use of the marital home triggers a loss of homestead exemption and they need to reapply.  See: Read More

It is quite common for parties to negotiate life insurance coverage for divorce agreements, but it seems quite uncommon to provide for disability insurance.  Of course, this insurance is not as common as life insurance and may prove too expensive for many couples, but insurance agents tell us disability is much more probable than we would... Read More

As a divorce lawyer, I am seeing social networking take an ever-increasing role in my cases.  Years ago, I first encountered this when opposing counsel produced a copy of a dating service posting by my client listing himself as single.  Since that time, I have seen many instances of people posting themselves as single, when in fact, they are not.... Read More

Your spouse has left the home.  You don’t know if they have a lawyer or whether divorce is imminent, but you are afraid or concerned because they have free access to the home.  What is the law, and what do you do?

Until a court order is... Read More

A lot of my clients talk with their spouses directly about settlement of divorce disputes.  Many times my clients want to know what to say.  I have developed a simple script for them to follow.  The simplicity is important, because they need to be able to remember the script under pressure. Here it is:
Read More

School admission forms become an issue in many custody cases.  In some cases, a Mother involved in divorce is angry at the Father, so she doesn’t list him on the school form.  In other cases, Father will list his new wife (the step mother) as the mother and neglect to list the children’s natural mother.  These documents then become cannon fodder for the opposing side to use against the person mis-filling out the form.  It is used to show... Read More

The question often arises, “Who will get the divorce if both parties are
guilty of adultery?” Or, “I might have been guilty of adultery, but she
was guilty of cruelty, so that’s why I committed adultery; who will get
the divorce?”  The answer is that a court cannot grant a divorce to
both parties.  The Judge must chose which person is the one to be
awarded the divorce. How a Judge might decide that is up for grabs,
... Read More

It is fairly well known that an Agreement for divorce on Irreconcilable
Differences is always subject to review by the Court for reasonableness,
particularly in relation to children and child support.  Thus, even
though parties might agree to something, a court could disapprove of it
and not allow the divorce to go through.  This obligation by the Court
creates an interesting dilemma in the seldom-used procedure of agreeing
to some terms and... Read More

Before
a court has entered some form of order,
each parent has equal rights to custody. Unfortunately, if parents
choose to,
they can play a vicious and destructive game of "keep away." Sometimes a
"keep away" strategy is necessary, but in such cases, court assistance
should be sought as soon as possible.



Until there is an order, neither parent can be guilty of "kidnapping"
in Mississippi. Some... Read More