Book Review: Divorce and the Special Needs Child
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By Margaret "Pegi" Price; 288 pages. Subtitle: A Guide for Parents
A family attorney with personal experience in both divorce and special-needs parenting, Price clearly lays out the legal issues involved when the parents of a child with disabilities go to divorce court. Sample documents, checklists, and questionnaires help readers take into account many present and future complications they (and their lawyers inexperienced in special-needs issues) may have failed to consider, and ensure that decisions made now don't create disaster in the future.
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Pros
- A thorough and informative look at special-needs issues to consider in divorce proceedings
- Inludes many sample documents, checklists, and questionnaires
- Author has experience as both a lawyer and a parent
- Offers lengthy list of resources for different states and disabilities
- Enables parents to help their lawyers advocate effectively for children with disabilities
Cons
- If you're looking for help with emotional issues of divorce, that's not this book's aim
- Discouraging to think that one's attorney may not be of great help in these vital matters
- Repeats some questionable statistics as though they were gospel
- Paints a scary picture of the future for primary caregivers and adult children with disabilities
- Type size appears smaller than normal, especially on sample documents and checklists
Description
- Chapter 1: Your Child's Special Needs
Chapter 2: How to Hire a Good Divorce Lawyer for Your Special Needs Case - Chapter 3: How Does a Case Go through Divorce Court?
Chapter 4: What Is Different about Your Case?
- Chapter 5: Child Custody & Visitation
Chapter 6: Child Support - Chapter 7: Alimony (Maintenance or Spousal Support)
Chapter 8: Property Distribution & Retirement Accounts - Chapter 9: How You Can Help Your Lawyer Get the Best Result
- Chapter 10: Tying up Loose Ends
- Chapter 11: Life after Divorce
- Chapter 12: What to Do When Things Change in the Future
- Chapter 13: Resources
Chapter 14: Bibliography - Chapter 15: Checklists References Sample Documents Glossary Index
Guide Review - Book Review: Divorce and the Special Needs Child
Divorce is rarely easy, particularly when children are involved, but when one of those children has special needs, the degree of difficulty soars. Not only is it extremely disruptive for kids who don't do disruption well, and extremely challenging for parents who lose whatever support they were getting from a spouse -- details like child support and spousal support and custody and future planning take on a dimension that most lawyers and judges can't appreciate.
Unlike a lot of her legal peers, Margaret "Pegi" Price has plenty of experience in those subjects. She's the parent of a child with autism, she's been through a divorce personally, and she's a family lawyer who specializes in divorces involving children with disabilities. She shares that expertise in a book that's straightforward and serious, more concerned with making sure you think of everything that will impact legal decisions than with the personal and emotional aspects of a family break-up. She reminds readers to consider things like the replacement cost of equipment and the reduced ability of the primary caretaker to put money aside for retirement.
Throughout the book, Price provides sample legal documents filled out the way she would recommend for families of children with special needs, along with checklists and questionnaires aimed at helping parents consider every aspect of special-needs parenting that needs to be considered by the court. Thoughtful and thorough consideration of all those resources will help parents help their own lawyers be the best advocates for children with disabilities and their families.
Disclosure: A review copy was provided by the publisher. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.
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