Recent Comments

I only saw parts of ASU-Texas while at the gym last year, its the only playoff i've watch in like 5 years.

First, know that you are loved by your friends, family, and TKP community.

Having gone through a divorce, I do have a few thoughts based on experience and based on being an attorney in a field unrelated to family law. My divorce was fairly amicable, but even though it was amicable, it was pretty difficult. Therapy has helped me quite a bit. I (like everybody) have had minor mental health issues throughout life, but many issues were amplified as a result of the separation process.

For the actual proceeding, you have two options: court or mediation. Court will have a few proceedings that end up in a state awarded judgement defining the separation of assets, alimony, child support, etc. Ultimately, the state court's system decides what they believe is the correct outcome. Mediation is a process in which you and your spouse agree to mediate with a mediator that is essentially a family law attorney that specializes in mediation and some states require the mediator to have certifications. Mediation will end in a judgment as agreed upon by the two parties, sanctified by the state. When considering between court and mediation, it depends on the complexity of the divorce, the amicability between the spouses, the costs, and whether the spouses prefer an outcome that is determined by them or by the state. Overall, mediation is way cheaper.

The other major decision is whether to hire your own attorney. For the court system, you will want your own attorney as self-representation can end very badly. For mediation, you can go either way or somewhere in the middle. The mediator can be representative of both parties and with full transparency to each party, can work through all the issues and make sure each party is fairly represented as agreed. Or, either party can hire their own attorney and work with mediator. Or, either party can hire an attorney for a specific task (for example, preparation of documents, final review of judgement, etc.).

Ultimately, my opinion is that deciding between court and mediation and representation of lawyer depends on the situation. Mediation only works, however, if both parties agree mediation is the way to go.

My former spouse and I decided to divorce via mediation. She did have her own attorney review the final judgement, but we each primarily self-represented and worked with the mediator. Overall, the process was fine. The mediator wasn't perfect, but good enough. I do have on major regret on the process and that's because the mediator's process did not account for tax implications of alimony. I would have computed different terms based on tax implications and I do think our mediator failed at helping us navigate the terms in the context of taxation and did not consider the changes from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which took effect in 2018.

(Side note regarding taxation and my personal experience: My divorce was in 2020 and I personally did have a single thought about taxation of alimony. I was unaware that taxation of alimony had changed in 2018. The mediator was silent about taxation. And her general guidance on determining alimony payment was the same she had been using her entire career. But, the law permanently changed the burden of taxation from the recipient to the payer. Prior to 2018, alimony recipients were required to report their alimony income and pay a tax on it. Payers of alimony were able to write off the alimony, reducing their income. Now, recipients receive alimony income with no requirement to report or pay taxes on it and payers cannot write off the alimony. THIS IS A HUGE CHANGE.)

Last thoughts: Be deliberate when considering your financial situation after divorce. The economy sucks and is not getting any better. I personally acted like my finances would figure themselves out, but in reality I went from a dual income with a standard set of monthly payments to an alimony-reduced single income with pretty much the same amount of monthly payments.

Notre Dame is my second team, so that argument doesn't work to well for me haha. I just like watching Miami getting exposed, not to mention they lost to two teams that weren't that good anyway and probably should have been left out.

Personally speaking, I'd rather eat glass. I hope Miami gets blown out.

I'm always happy to see bama blown out.

Much rather see the chaos like this than the blowouts many of these games have been in the past

OU having a stroke now turning what should have been a rout into a football game

Bama just got their first 1st down, 9.5 minutes left in Q2.

I'll be pulling for Miami tomorrow night:

3 things I've been psyched for at the end of this year 1) Stranger Things 5 2) CFP 3) Fallout season 2. Still haven't seen episode 1, don't know when I'm going to find time to watch it.

Yeah, so far Alabama looks outclassed.

Live look at Venables on the sideline