Family Law Litigation

In high-asset cases, the court utilizes a forensic audit to determine the "standard of living" established during the marriage, which then serves as the baseline for spousal maintenance and child support calculations. This audit is intrusive and exhaustive, covering every bank statement, tax return and credit card transaction from the past decade. If the court detects any unaccounted-for spending, it can trigger a claim of "dissipation of assets," leading to heavy financial penalties. We provide the forensic financial oversight needed to protect your separate property and ensure that the marital estate is valued with absolute precision.

During the discovery phase of Family Law Litigation, the opposing attorney has the right to demand internal business records, client lists and profit-and-loss statements to value your company. This process is often used as a leverage tactic to disrupt your operations and force a disadvantageous settlement. If you fail to comply with these invasive requests, the court can issue sanctions or appoint a receiver to take control of your business. Our firm acts as a formidable barrier against these fishing expeditions, utilizing protective orders to safeguard your trade secrets and business sovereignty.

The judge frequently relies on the recommendations of a Guardian ad Litem or a custody evaluator who conducts a brief and often biased investigation into your parenting skills. These reports can include private medical records, school interviews and psychological testing results. If an evaluator views your lifestyle or discipline methods as "unstable," they can recommend a permanent reduction in your parenting time. We manage every interaction with these court agents, ensuring that your strengths as a parent are documented and that any biased reporting is challenged through aggressive cross-examination.

Family courts are historically resistant to changing a child's living arrangement once it has been established, even on a temporary basis. If you move out of the marital home without a formal custody order, you may inadvertently create a "status quo" where the other parent is the primary caregiver. The court will then prioritize this "stability" over your right to equal time, making it nearly impossible to regain a balanced schedule later. At SJKP LLP, we file for emergency temporary custody orders the moment litigation begins, protecting your parental bond from the very first day.

The duration of maintenance is typically tied to the length of the marriage, but in long-term marriages, it can become a permanent obligation that only terminates upon death or remarriage. The amount is determined by a complex set of statutory factors that consider "earning capacity" rather than actual income. If the court believes you are "underemployed," they can impute a higher income to you, forcing you to pay based on money you do not actually have. We specialize in deconstructing these income imputations and proving the other spouse's ability to self-support to minimize your maintenance exposure.

It is a common tactic for a lower-earning spouse to remain intentionally unemployed or underemployed during the litigation to secure a higher support award. This "strategic poverty" is a form of bad-faith litigation designed to drain your resources. We utilize vocational experts to perform an audit of the other spouse's skills and the current job market, providing the court with the evidentiary proof required to issue a "Gavron Warning" or a "Step-Down" order that compels them to become self-sufficient.

A finding of contempt is a public judicial record that signifies a willful refusal to follow the law. For individuals in highly regulated industries—such as finance, medicine or law enforcement—a contempt order can trigger a professional licensing review or a termination of employment. The opposing party knows this and will use the threat of contempt to extort concessions in settlement negotiations. At SJKP LLP, we provide a strict compliance roadmap to ensure you never give the other side the opportunity to attack your professional reputation.

If the court determines that one party is "unnecessarily prolonging the litigation" or acting in bad faith, it can order that party to pay 100% of the other side's legal fees. This "fee-shifting" can amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars, effectively bankrupting the sanctioned party. We utilize these sanctions as a tactical weapon against uncooperative spouses, filing for attorney's fees the moment we detect stall tactics or the concealment of evidence, ensuring that the cost of the conflict falls on the person who caused it.

The moment you are served with a protective order, you lose your leverage. You cannot enter the home to retrieve evidence, you cannot speak to your children to counter alienation and you are viewed by the court with a presumption of violence. The other spouse establishes a "possession" of the home and the children that the court may be reluctant to change for months. We treat these orders as legal emergencies, moving immediately to bifurcate the allegations and demand a full evidentiary hearing to expose the tactical nature of the claims.

Under federal law, any person subject to a final protective order or a domestic violence conviction is permanently barred from owning or possessing firearms. Even a temporary order can trigger an immediate surrender requirement. If you are a hunter, a collector or an individual who relies on a firearm for professional duty, this is a permanent deprivation of your Second Amendment rights. Our firm manages the legal defense of these claims with absolute rigidity to ensure that a temporary family dispute does not turn into a permanent loss of constitutional liberties.