Ice and Snow Closing Frederick County Courthouse

It is surreal today, in a pretty way, at the Frederick Courthouse.  That is a marked departure from the usual surrealism of a courthouse.  The ice and rain which appeared overnight have frozen on the branches of the trees and everything else.

Snow closings are plaguing the divorce and custody courts in Frederick and the rest of Maryland this year.  I cannot remember a year when the courts were closed more often than this season. 

Of particular note is the closings have occurred sometimes several days in a given week.  The court offices just begin to figure out how to jockey the cases around when BAM it is another closing.  This week the courts were closed Monday and Wednesday of the same week.

From 2014-02-09

If you want to appreciate the impact of this situation think about this.  With some variation the life of a divorce or custody case in Maryland starts 1st the  “Initial conference.”  The initial conference takes about 2-10 minutes once they call your case.  The sole purpose of the initial conference is to select the other dates in your case including dates for the final hearing.

When your lawyer appears for that initial conference the dates which the court offers are usually months away at best.  Yet because the initial conferences don’t take a long time they are scheduled 10-25 at a pop.  So if the court is closed on a date when they had scheduled  25 cases to set court dates and there are 2 courtrooms doing initial conferences that is 50 cases.

That means 50 cases are going to have a rescheduled initial conference and each one has at least 2 people involved. Those cancelled initial conferences will be re-set after the already scheduled initial conferences so the “new initial conference will be at least a month.  So will ALL the court dates the court offers for the case. 

Enjoy the day with your kids and admire the icy wonderment.  The hangover will last at least one month for 100 people who just want it to all be over:(

The Custody Place

19 North Court Street Frederick Maryland 21701

301 865-1101

Dealing With The Sale Of The Marital Home

A frequent problem in divorce cases is that the parties are unable to agree on what to do with their house after the divorce is over. The Maryland law dislikes keeping unmarried persons as co owners to real property after a divorce. The solution is reached sometimes by agreement, and other times by court order.

As with virtually everything else in a divorce, an agreement is the best way to go. In an agreement resolving issues of the marital home usually one spouse purchases the interest of the other. This is usually accomplished by both spouses taking the appraised value, minus the mortgage and splitting that equity.  Some can refinance.

Another solution sale of  the property to someone other than spouses. In such an event with a traditional sale, the home is placed on the market, real estate agents charge 6 percent, and the parties sell to a third party keeping whatever profits there are, after the mortgage and other closing costs are paid . As is so often the case on the issues contained in a divorce, there maybe no agreement as to how to dispose of the home.  What happens then?

When the parties are unable to agree what to do with the house, the court orders a trustee.  The trustee is essentially the new court appointed owner.of the property.  He has the powers of an owner.  He can make repairs to the property, determine who comes and goes from the property and to sell or dispose of the property anyway he believes would bring the highest and best gross proceeds to the sale.  That trustee is also paid a commission.

This brings us back to the beginning and my recommendation that people reach agreements on their homes. Imagine the following scenario:  Two divorced parties are lucky enough to have a modest 75k of equity in their 500k home, despite the current economic times.

They are not able to reach an agreement on who has the house or how to sell the house. A trustee is appointed who gets 5% off the top.  There goes 25k. The trustee appoints a realtor who gets 6%.  There goes 30k.  Then there is the appraisal....the closing costs...a small repair...and thats it zero!!

The Custody Place

19 North Court St Frederick Maryland 21701

301 865-1101

Licensed To Wed

In Maryland, happy couples who are seeking to tie the knot must first obtain a marriage license from the county clerk in the county where they seek to be married.  That much is clear and Frederick divorce and custody lawyers will direct you to the Maryland family law code at section 2-401 if there was any doubt.  But what happens if you don’t?  What happens if you wake up after a night at Cactus Flats face down in a bowl of roasted peanuts, with a beer tab on your left hand and a handful of wedding pictures in your right hand? 

Well to start with, you and your betrothed are both guilty of a misdemeanor and will pay a fine of $100.00.  Whoever performed the ceremony is guilty of a misdemeanor and a fine not to exceed $500.00.  Are you legally married?  No but, you are illegally married.  Huh?

What I mean is that your marriage ceremony was not legal but it is a marriage in the eyes of the law none the less.  Your marriage is not void.  You are not eligible for an annulment and if you want to be unmarried you need a divorce the same as a couple who was married in front of the whole town with a license, a preacher and all the trimmings.  It’s similar to the calls that Frederick custody and divorce lawyers get from people who have only been married months, weeks, days or hours.  Those people still have to get a standard divorce, and so does anybody married without a license

Timothy Conlon, Esq.  The Custody Place.

Custody Attorneys in Frederick Maryland

The Custody Place

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301-865-1101

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FREDERICK MARYLAND 21701