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Conservatorships for Elderly or Mentally Challenged Individuals

In this era of scattered families, the people who are mentally marginalized due to age, substance abuse or mental disabilities are often left in a vulnerable position to be taken advantage of by third parties of unscrupulous family members. It is common for a young family member to be living with a grandparent to be taking money from the elder, using their credit card or having a parade of their friends in the house who may take advantage of the senior or mentally disabled individual. As one social worker put it “these people may as well have a target drawn on their backs.”
Fortunately, the state of Tennessee has laws that can protect such individuals. The conservatorship laws are quite specific and do an effective job of protecting the financial and healthcare interests of people with diminished capacity. It is not a matter of just getting one individual appointed to look after the ward, but the court will actually oversee what is going on in the...

Nashville Bar Journal Article on Collaborative Divorce


COLLABORATIVE FAMILY LAW COMES TO NASHVILLE

(Originally published by The Nashville Bar Journal, December 2011-January 2012)

Mediation Helps Children Maintain Better Relationships With Both Parents

A comparision of outcomes of mediations and going to court was the subject of a 12 year study by Dr. Robert Emery, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Children, Families, and the Law. Here is a link to a summary of his findings: http://emeryondivorce.com/divorce_mediation_study.php. Dr. Emery found that in the group that mediated, the non-primary residential parent was more likely to spend more time with their children and have more frequent contact, in the long run.

Collaborative Family Law: Minimizing the Negative Affect of Divorce on Children

 Irwin Kuhn and Dot Dobbins practice collaborative divorce and family law in Nashville to help minimize the negative affect of divorce on children. This article in the Wall Street Journal, The Child-Focused Divorce, notes that the intensity of a divoce can not only affect grades and behavior when children are young but also their relationships when they get older. online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904537404576552631228768332.html

Collaborative Family Law in Nashville

Irwin Kuhn and Dot Dobbins were among the first group of Tennessee attorneys to be trained in collaborative divorce and family law practice which focuses on out of court divorce agreements. The training took place in Nashville at Vanderbilt University Law School. Dot and Irwin participated in additional training with Chip Rose during the summer of 2010 and the fall of 2011. Chip is one of the nation's premier collaborative divorce trainers.

Opinion on Overnight Visitors with Unmarried Parents

     Many Tennessee courts and attorneys by reflex insert parenting plan provisions prohibiting residential parents from allowing overnight visitation by “paramours” or “members of the opposite sex to whom they are not married”.

When One Parent Wants to Move

What happens in Tennessee when one parent wants to relocate? When one of two parents involved in raising a child wants to move, there are various steps required by Tennessee law.

First of all, there are specific requirements setting out when and how the parent who wants to move must give notice to the other parent.
If there is a dispute between parents about the move, there are many factors that will be considered.

Defining Terms used in Probate and Wills

A will is a document that directs the distribution of a person’s property after he or she dies. It is “admitted to probate” after death in order for the probate court to oversee the distribution in an orderly fashion that can be relied upon by others to establish property rights.

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