Please note all names in these actual case studies are fictitious.
Divorce, Domestic Violence, and Child Custody Case
Domestic Violence Restraining Order against Drug Addicted Spouse
Dave’s wife was unable to abandon her drug abuse issue so he filed for divorce and custody of their 12 year old daughter. His wife, upset at the pending split, retaliated by physically attacking Dave and bringing a false claim against him alleging he had been abusing their daughter.
An emergency child custody evaluation found that the wife’s claims were unfounded and permanent domestic violence restraining orders were issued providing “only” supervised visitation with the daughter pending other court orders like random drug testing and counseling.
Dave felt empathetic to their daughter’s desire to spend time with her mother so he allowed an unsupervised visit. Sadly, the wife’s drug abuse had escalated to involvement with a drug cartel and prostitution exposing his daughter to very unsafe scenarios.
Dave requested Buncher Family Law to again file restraining orders and file for full legal and physical custody of their daughter.
In her deranged state of mind, his wife devised a plan to kidnap the daughter from summer camp and leave the state. Fortunately the police pinged the daughter’s phone and recovered her swiftly and safely.
Buncher Family Law returned to court where the judge ordered a five year criminal and family law restraining order against the mother until the daughter turns 18 years of age. Once Dave’s daughter was safe and legally protected, he was able to proceed with obtaining the divorce.
Marvin Action/Palimony Case
Marvin Claim Settlement in Non-Marital Relationship with Promise of Retirement
After dating for a year, Barry suggested Donna quit her lucrative career, sell her home, move into his home and help him operate his business in hopes of growing it large enough to eventually sell and live out their dream of traveling the world in retirement. In good faith Donna agreed.
And for 17 years she gave her time and energy to Barry, his practice and investments for no actual compensation. They never legally married but executed a joint will, had joint checking accounts, invested in residential and commercial properties, and purchased vehicles and boats together, although the title of all of these were in Barry’s name only. Throughout all of these years, and for all intent and purpose, they lived as a married couple.
After the sale of the business they had both worked so hard to grow, Barry left Donna. He refused to give her a dime of the estate she had devoted herself to building. Donna filed a complaint with an attorney who was unfamiliar with Marvin Action cases and gave her very poor guidance. Donna could sense her case had been compromised and looked for new counsel. Fortunately, she turned to Buncher Family Law where we quickly took action to correct errors made and turned the case completely around.
We obtained a multi-million dollar settlement for Donna, who immediately began realizing her retirement dreams, without Barry.
She travels, lives part time in China and Europe, and is passionate about her charitable causes. She sends cards and emails to our firm frequently sharing her adventures and always her heartfelt appreciation for our expertise and correcting the wrong.
Providing Donna with the life she deserves was, and is, incredibly rewarding for us.
Mediation Case
High Asset Couple
Throughout their marriage Sally and Joe accrued many assets and sometimes this can create complicated issues in high asset divorces. With a Certified Family Law Specialist and extensive experience in business litigation, our team was able to assist Sally and Joe to successfully navigate these challenges.
Divorce Case
Use of Private Judge for Resolution
After six years of a languishing divorce case, Eric was fed up and decided to take action moving on from his family law attorney, who simply wasn’t paying attention to his case or his needs. Eric was referred to us by another attorney who understood that family matters move forward with alacrity at our firm.
Eric is a successful businessman with a very busy and demanding schedule which included frequent cross country trips. Unfortunately, his marriage had come to an end and he was frustrated that after six years, there was still no resolution to the divorce filings.
Eric is a dutiful father and wanted to be certain his children and even his soon-to-be ex-wife would be provided for. But at the same time, he also wanted to move on and get some closure in his life. Unfortunately, neither of their lawyers seemed to be interested in that.
Once the case came to our firm we immediately took action and obtained a trial date. We initiated communication with the spouse’s attorney and paved the way to take the case to private mediation with a retired judge. During mediation, we kept the discussions on track, focused on substance rather than emotion, and ultimately reached a complete resolution of all issues that made both parties happy.
All of this happened quickly, and within a few weeks, we ended the six years of wasted time, energy and money.
At Buncher Family Law, we take our responsibility to our clients very seriously. Helping Eric move on from an extended idle and begin to rev his engine again was very gratifying for us.
Divorce Case
Bigamy
During the course of his re-election campaign, the media uncovered the fact that Peter and his wife were not legally married because his divorce papers from his first wife had not being filed properly.
Fortunately, we were able to mitigate the circumstances and settle the case quickly so that Peter’s run for office would not be negatively impacted.
We worked closely with Peter, his first wife, and his press secretary to discretely process the divorce.
In addition, we assisted the press secretary in getting the facts straightened out with the press. Peter moved on with his campaign and was successfully re-elected to office.