Family legal disputes can be extremely complicated, delicate, and expensive. Decisions you make today can affect your life and the lives of your children long into the future.

For these reasons, it is important that you retain a lawyer who is experienced in resolving family legal issues and who can stay calm for you during a trying time.

At Shrader & Goad in Amherst, Virginia, our attorneys have more than 50 years of combined experience in meeting the legal needs of Central Virginians. We meet with our family law clients personally to discuss their goals before taking legal action. By doing this, we explore the range of possibilities available, while helping you decide which options are best for your unique circumstances.

Divorce and Separation

Virginia is among a small number of states that still allows for divorces on fault-based grounds. This means that if one spouse causes the marriage to break down, the other can petition to break the marriage contract.

However, state law also allows for divorces on grounds of separation when no specific conduct can be identified as the cause for the marital breakdown. Divorces on grounds of separation often end with divorce settlements that are negotiated out of court and that set the terms for a wide range of post-marital issues, including child custody and visitation, spousal support, and other concerns.

Every divorcing person’s circumstances are different, and so are their legal needs. Settlements are generally quicker, cheaper and less emotionally draining for everyone involved. To that end, our lawyers work hard to help clients forge lasting and meaningful divorce settlements that meet their needs as well as those of their children. However, we realize not all divorce can end so cleanly. In such cases, we aggressively pursue our clients’ goals while providing effective and cost-efficient litigation services.

At Shrader & Goad in Amherst, we help clients throughout Virginia to complete their divorces while meeting their objectives for asset retention, child access, and other considerations that come with the end of a marriage.

Elder Law

Many people worry that by putting a loved one into long-term care, they will deplete their lifetime assets. This does not have to be the case.

At Shrader & Goad in Amherst, Virginia, we assist clients throughout Central Virginia, including married adults and adult children of elderly people, with preparing for the personal and financial challenges of old age using the legal tools provided by estate planning.

Likewise, our lawyers frequently help clients who have become ill suddenly and need emergency help to prepare for long-term nursing care. We also assist clients whose loved ones died or became incapacitated suddenly, without providing a will or much other estate planning groundwork.