Family Law Article by Richard Crouch, Attorney at Law, Crouch & Crouch, 2111 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 550, Arlington, Virginia 22201; (703) 528-6700; crouch@patriot.net
The legal research company Virginia Online has completed its yearly review of all the spousal support decisions from the Virginia Court of Appeals, published and unpublished. One can only call the coverage and its analysis exhaustive. Virginia Online has in the past distributed its yearly roundup to its own subscribers, and this year it is offering this unique product to all takers at $25.00.
Most practitioners have probably wished at times they could have such a mathematical analysis of the recent alimony decisions from our appellate courts, setting forth the amounts awarded, upheld and reversed, the income levels of the parties, length of marriage, fault factors, and other relevant circumstances in tabular form.
In the end a mathematical tabulation is only that, and a practitioner may come away with a feeling of wishing there were enough known facts to extract some useful generalizations for the benefit of clients. Author John Fishwick does try to help the process along with some quasi-subjective comments in a few cases where data are missing or are peculiar, or potentially misleading. Probably some attorneys will feel that they have uncovered a gold mine while others will wonder whether the information can be put to valuable use at all.
The one message everyone will probably take home is that the courts, at both trial and appellate levels, still appear to be wildly unpredictable. Even with that generalization it is possible that unique fact elements or procedural circumstances which defy this kind of analysis have contributed to the appearance of unpredictability and the cases were all soberly, impartially, rationally and consistently decided.
For what it is, the package from Virginia Online is exceedingly thorough. After a number of paragraphs giving numbers of cases having this element or that, falling above or below this or that level in various classifications, there follows a rundown of the same cases individually set out by name, date, etc. The report can be obtained from:
Virginia Online Legal Research Company
P.O. Box 601
Roanoke, Virginia 24004-0601
1-800-569-3854
540-345-9559
requests@vaonline.com
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