Cortez Family Law

Has Thanksgiving been lost? Lost to cheap electronics, half-price clothing deals, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday? After passing this weekend finding infinitely more references in the press to the above as well as the debates and conundrums regarding the mid-night openings, it became apparent that Thanksgiving was indeed lost. It is lost in every respect, figuratively and literally. The question now being posed is: Should it be found, and why should today’s public even care?

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One of the aims of the Cortez Family Law bLAWg is to present our readers with a better understanding of the legal process. Today’s bLAWg will delve into mind of the average attorney, with an emphasis on those of us who practice family law as a specialty. To put it another way, we want to establish a better understanding that attorneys are real human beings who expend a great deal of energy and deliberation on case work. Working towards fulfilling this aim, I wanted to spend some time today addressing some of the established negative clichés and misconceptions concerning practitioners of the legal profession. Continue reading →

I presume all my readers know that paternity is determined these days through DNA testing, also referred to as genetic testing.  Parentage isn’t questioned in every family law case, but when it is alleged I am certainly glad for a testing mechanism which achieves near-absolute certainty in my cases (~99.999%, as the tests assert). I can’t imagine dealing with the levels of uncertainty from the days when parentage had to be proven through other means.

So with the recent news of Justin Bieber and his paternity suit, I thought I’d wax reminiscent on some of the history of parentage cases before addressing how it relates to the teen idol. But if you want to get right to the Bieber part, click here. Continue reading →

Getting the exact custody arrangement you want can be as tricky as walking a tightrope over a pit of alligators. You really don’t want to mess it up. The consequences are severe and long-lasting.
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With this being Halloween, allow me to postulate a little on the realism of family law proceedings in Family Court.  Without frightening our clients too much, I would compare family court (at times) to the vampires of lore.

First, vampires cannot come into your home unless someone invites them.  Once the vampire is in your home, you cannot force it to leave.  And once it’s in, it can do things over which you have no control. Because no one would knowingly invite such a destructive force as a vampire into one’s home, the vampire generally has to seduce and trick one of the occupants into inviting it.  Continue reading →

Cortez Family Law prides itself in its mediation techniques and capabilities. Mediation can take place through a variety of mechanisms. First, you and your spouse may believe you have resolved all of your issues and only want an experienced family law attorney to review the documents, make revisions if necessary or get the paperwork drafted and filed with the court. I would call this an uncontested divorce. An uncontested divorce, as described above is a divorce whereby you and your spouse have agreed on every aspect of your divorce. Cortez Family Law could review the documents, or review your agreement and then draft the documents to ensure that every aspect of your divorce is properly addressed. Continue reading →

Holidays are a very difficult time if you are newly divorced or living apart from your child. But it doesn’t have to be. In the 16 years that I have practiced family law, I have yet to see a case that I was involved in that did not eventually find some viable, if not happy medium. Really. But I constantly harp on my clients to work on their co-parenting. And one area that we really push is for shared holiday time. Continue reading →

This is the inaugural post for “Our bLAWg –The Ins and Outs of Family Law in New Mexico. We hope you find it both informative and a beneficial use of your time. In some of our upcoming bLAWgs, you will find useful information of father’s rights, how to handle holiday visitation, and the benefits to a mediated, collaborative or uncontested divorce. Continue reading →