When the marriage ends and the house, the money and the children are on the table
A divorce in Baltimore is never only one question. There is the house, the accounts, the retirement savings, the debts, and, where there are children, who they live with and how decisions about them get made. Each of our divorce attorneys has extensive experience in dealing with the issues that arise during a matrimonial dispute, and the first meeting at 201 North Charles Street is for sorting those questions into an order, so that you know which are urgent and which can wait.
A divorce is filed in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City or for the county where the case belongs, and filing starts a process with its own paperwork and its own rules about what each side discloses and when. Carl E. Tuerk, Jr., in Baltimore practice since 1972, handled divorce alongside his injury and business work, and W. Timothy Sutton, in practice since 2003, took divorce cases too. You work directly with an attorney, not a paralegal.
Custody and parenting time, decided by the child's best interest
Maryland courts divide custody into two parts. Legal custody is the authority to make major decisions about a child: schooling, medical care, religious upbringing. Physical custody is where the child lives and how the days are shared. A judge can give either part to one parent or to both, and parenting schedules run from alternating weeks to every other weekend with a weeknight dinner. The question the court asks of any arrangement is what serves the best interest of the child, not what either parent would prefer.
That standard looks at the child's actual life: who has done the school runs, how far apart the two homes will be in Baltimore traffic, what the child's health and routines require, and how each parent speaks about the other. Records matter, so keep the school calendar, the medical appointments and the messages between you, and bring them to the office. An attorney uses them to build a parenting plan that the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, Baltimore County or Anne Arundel County can approve.
Agreements first, mediation next, and court when it must be
Most divorces settle on paper before anyone testifies. A marital settlement agreement sets out how property is divided, whether support is paid, and how the children's time is shared, and a judge can make it part of the final decree. Getting there usually means exchanging financial information, then negotiating between attorneys. The firm can also resolve disputes at a table, and its mediation practice, with a court-certified mediator in W. Timothy Sutton, is one way a family does that.
When the two sides cannot agree, the case goes before a judge in the Circuit Court, with a hearing or a trial on whatever remains open. Some issues can be settled while others are decided, and a case can end in both ways at once. The attorney you meet is the attorney who prepares the case with you. Tell the office at (410) 539-0300 which of the house, the money or the children is the hardest part, and the plan will be built around that.
