Law Office of Joanne Kleiner

Archives for April 2023

Apr 08

When your co-parent is an alcohol abuser

Co-parenting With an Alcohol Abuser

Alcohol abuse is a factor that can lead to a Pennsylvania divorce. For former couples who have children and wish to co-parent, alcohol abuse might pose an additional challenge as it can constitute a risk to the children’s safety when a parent is under the influence of alcohol.

How Is Alcohol Abuse by a Parent a Risk to the Children?

Taking care of children is a demanding job. The adult responsible for the children’s well-being should be constantly aware of what the children are doing, what they need and what must be done to keep them healthy and safe. A parent who is responsible for the children but is under the influence of alcohol might not be able to fulfill those responsibilities. Instead, the children’s safety is put at risk. Some of the risks the children might be exposed to include:

  • Lack of adult supervision
  • Exposure to unnecessary and dangerous situations
  • Increased chance of suffering from child abuse or neglect
  • Riding in the car while the parent is driving under the influence of alcohol

How to Deal With Your Concerns

In most cases, it is considered beneficial to the children if both parents are involved in their lives even when those parents are divorced. However, considering the increased risks that can lead to harm for the children when a parent struggles with alcohol abuse, you might be confused about how to address this when you are trying to set up a co-parenting relationship.

It may be a good idea to speak with your divorce lawyer and share all your concerns. You should also keep clear records of any time the other parent was inebriated and where you felt their alcohol abuse could have posed a risk to your children’s safety. This can all be done in preparation for seeking legal channels to keep your children safe, particularly during a separation or divorce where the parents might be potentially sharing custody.

What Is Your Legal Recourse?

While you might want to continue supporting the relationship between your children and their other parent, you will also want to continue keeping them safe. You can work with your divorce lawyer to do this. As part of your custody agreement, you can request monitoring for the co-parent who struggles with alcohol abuse. Ideally, you want your co-parent to admit to the abuse, if they have not done so, and to seek a way to control it. Some of the ways a parent can be monitored for alcohol abuse include:

  • Participating in a 12-step rehabilitation program
  • Working closely with a sponsor who can support them in their journey to sobriety
  • Submitting to random testing completed by a third-party
  • Using Soberlink, a breath test machine that uses facial recognition and can send the results immediately to the other parent or an ankle device that measures the use of alcohol
  • Using an interlock device, which measures the use of alcohol before allowing the person to drive their vehicle, whenever the parent will be driving with the children

Supporting Your Co-parent Through Their Journey to Sobriety

Getting sober can be full of challenges. As a co-parent who wants the best for their children, you might want to support the addicted parent through the journey, encouraging them to take the necessary steps towards sobriety. However, you should also expect that there might be relapses and that those can continue to pose risks to the children. Keeping your divorce lawyer up to date with any developments is important as part of documenting the issues that might make monitoring necessary.

Dealing with a co-parent with alcohol abuse issues can be challenging. Finding a Pennsylvania divorce attorney who can support you and understands that your family is your priority might help you cope with the problems that alcohol abuse creates. Contact us at the Law Office of Joanne Kleiner for a confidential consultation. You can call us at 215-886-1266 to make an appointment to visit our Jenkintown offices.

Apr 04

Pre-divorce dissipation of assets

Safeguarding Against Pre-Divorce Asset Dissipation

The dissipation of marital assets is when one spouse misuses marital assets either maliciously or simply through poor decision-making and, in doing so, denies the other spouse a fair share. Divorce lawyers caution that not every poor decision is asset dissipation, but it is generally an unreasonable expenditure that disenfranchises the other spouse. Therefore, it may be necessary to protect assets that could otherwise be wasted with no legal recourse to reclaim them.

Communicate With Your Spouse

Divorce experts recommend open and honest communication between estranged couples whether you are working on the marriage and considering divorce, separating, or in the process of getting divorced. If communication between the two of you is positive, an effective approach is to establish a new budget for this new period in your lives and to agree that no major financial decisions are made without mutual consent.

Attend Divorce Counseling

A struggling marriage is an incredibly stressful situation that will only become more taxing and traumatic as you move forward into the actual divorce phase. Mental health professionals encourage spouses to attend divorce therapy either individually, as a couple, or both. This can make the communication discussed earlier easier and more practical.

Another point to consider is that wasteful spending during a divorce often is not a malicious or even a calculated move but rather the byproduct of a manic episode. The potential is even higher in people who suffer from a mania-related disorder, and attending counseling provides that spouse with resources and tools to deal with the intense emotions that they are experiencing.

Sign a Postnuptial Agreement

A postnuptial agreement is similar to a prenuptial agreement except that you sign it after you are married as opposed to before. These have become increasingly common as they provide a couple a means to update the marital agreement as they get older and their needs, wants, and goals change.

Disentangling two lives is often complex and only more complicated the longer the couple has been together. Many couples decide to get divorced but put it off to get everything organized, and a postnuptial agreement is a way to do that. You can agree on:

  • Spousal support
  • Child custody and support
  • Division of assets and liabilities

Discuss Spending Concerns With Your Lawyer

It is recommended that you seek representation from a divorce lawyer as soon as you recognize that there is a likelihood of your marriage coming to an end. Your lawyer will be able to provide you with personalized advice that helps you protect your assets. A lawyer can also take steps on your behalf, and that may include filing for divorce. Once that process is set in motion, both you and your spouse have to file a financial affidavit called a Statement of Net Worth. That affidavit can make it much easier to prove that wasteful spending occurred.

Close Joint Financial Accounts

The process of disentangling your lives financially should begin with the termination of any financial accounts for which you are jointly responsible. These can include:

  • Credit cards
  • Home equity lines of credit
  • Joint checking and savings accounts

Track Spending and Keep Receipts

Carefully track all spending that occurs during this period, including your own. If you notice an unreasonable expenditure, write it down, and keep any receipts or other official documentation related to it. If there is documentation that you may lose access to later, make copies of it, and store those copies in a safe place and somewhere other than the marital home.

Assistance With Protecting Your Marital Property

If you are considering divorce or are in the process of divorcing and fear the misuse of marital assets by your spouse, the Law Office of Joanne Kleiner is here to help. Joanne Kleiner is a Pennsylvania family law attorney with more than 25 years of experience in handling divorces, and she has dealt with many cases involving the dissipation of marital assets. To schedule a confidential case review at our Jenkintown office, call us at 215-886-1266 or use the contact form on our website.