April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month

The signs of child abuse and neglect are not always as obvious as a broken bone or bruise. Being able to identify whether a child is the victim of abuse or neglect is the first step to helping to protect a child.  

Signs of abuse can include a regression in development, such as bed-wetting or thumb-sucking, fear of going home, increased absences from school, poor hygiene, wearing clothing inappropriate for the weather or that is too small or too big for them, or displaying inappropriate sexual behaviors.  

If you suspect child abuse or neglect in the State of Delaware, you must report it under Delaware law. 16 Del. C.  § 903. Every Delaware resident is a "mandatory reporter" of suspected child abuse or neglect. 

Reports must be made by calling the the Department of Children, Youth and their Families' 24-hour child abuse and neglect hotline at (800) 292-9582.  For more information about the reporting process, please visit this web page.

I am often asked what happens when I make a report?  The Department will do one of three things when a report is received:

1. Accept the report and investigate the allegations;
2. Refer the report to law enforcement for investigation; or
3. Document the report, but not investigate the allegations.

All reports to the Report Line are reviewed by a Division of Family Services' supervisor as part of the decision-making process. A case that is accepted for investigation by the Division of Family Services will be transferred to an investigation caseworker. If you are interested in what happens as part of the investigation, click here.

In addition to making a report, you have the option as a relative or non-relative of a child to file a Petition for Guardianship of a Minor in the Delaware Family Court.  Once approved by the Court, a guardian may exercise the same powers, rights and duties respecting the care, maintenance and treatment of the child as a parent typically would. The guardian takes responsibility for the health, education and welfare of the child. A parent may still be entitled to visitation and contact with the child and continues to have a responsibility to financially support the child, irrespective of any visitation schedule.  

Children who are dependent and neglected or abused by their parents may be taken into the custody of the Division of Family Services, if no one steps forward to provide the child with a safe and stable environment. The Division of Family Services has a duty to make reasonable efforts to locate a relative placement for a child taken into custody, but if none is available, the child will be placed in a foster home. A future blog post will address what rights you may have to visitation, contact or placement of a child currently in foster care.  Please check back next month. 

To learn more about filing for guardianship of a minor child, visit the Family Court website or schedule an initial consultation with a family law attorney.

Supporting Kind to Kids Through the Delaware Charity Challenge

Spring is right around the corner and that means it is time to lace up our sneakers and pound the pavement for some worthy causes in the coming months.

Our first race is the Delaware Charity Challenge. The event will take place on Saturday, April 30, 2016 at Brandywine Creek State Park. Our team is proud to run the co-ed 5K to support the Kind to Kids Foundation.  

Kind to Kids provides education services and life experiences to the 700 vulnerable children living in foster care in the State of Delaware. Kind to Kids representatives recently dropped off toys and school supplies to a six year old girl who came into Delaware’s foster care system due to physical abuse. She looked up and quietly whispered, “Thank you for caring about me.”  

This inspiring organization is unique in that it accepts donations of tickets to local events, in addition to cash donations, to offer life experiences to foster children. Your donation may offer a child his or her first opportunity to see a play at The Playhouse, watch a show at The Grand, or enjoy a professional sporting event.

As a sponsor of the Family Section for the Wilmington Blue Rocks, the Yeager Law Firm receives the benefit of free tickets to several games throughout the year. It is our pleasure to help give children in our State foster care system the opportunity to cheer on our local baseball team by donating some of our tickets to Kind to Kids.

The Yeager Law Firm raised $410 for Big Brothers Big Sisters during last year’s Delaware Charity Challenge and we would love to beat that total this year. As a bonus (and a bit of a surprise!) we also won the women's 5k race.   

The Yeager Law Firm team for the 2015 Delaware Charity Challenge.

Help us reach our goal this year! Our donation page is here: https://www.crowdrise.com/Yeager-Law-Firm and check back here for a full recap of the race in May.

Bringing Cheer to Delaware Children

The holidays are a time for family, fun, and Thanksgiving. The Yeager Law Firm is a proud participant of the Annual Toy Drive sponsored by the Young Lawyers Section of the Delaware State Bar Association in connection with the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program.  

The goal of Toys for Tots is to deliver, through toys, a message of hope to needy youngsters in our community that will motivate them to grow into responsible, productive, patriotic citizens and community leaders.

We are collecting new and unwrapped toys for newborns through age 12. The deadline for donations is 5 P.M. on Thursday, December 10, 2015.  Please feel free to drop your donations at our office or email me at julie.yeager@yeagerfamilylaw.com to arrange a pick up.

Thank you and happy holidays!

The Final Step of a Property Division Matter is the Qualified Domestic Relations Order. Do you have one?

Did you know that a Court Order is required to divide your former spouse's pension as part of a divorce? Did you also know that it is the responsibility of the non-employee spouse to submit an approved Court Order, typically called a "Qualified Domestic Relations Order" or "QDRO", to the pension plan administrator to receive pension benefits?  

Since the passing of the Retirement Equity Act in 1984, QDROs have been the approved method by which a non-employee spouse ("alternate payee") can receive a share of the employee spouse's ("plan participant") pension without violating the the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). A QDRO is drafted by the attorney for the alternate payee subsequent to a parties' divorce and after the entry of a property division order by the Family Court. The QDRO is signed by the Family Court judge and submitted to the pension plan administrator for processing and approval.  

A pension can be the most significant marital asset in a divorce, even more valuable then the former marital residence. Yet sometimes it is forgotten. Under current Delaware law, a former spouse is typically entitled to 50% of the marital portion of the other party's pension. This figure is determined by using the Cooper Formula. If each spouse has a pension, then each will receive 50% of the other spouse's pension. 

Upon request, the Family Court will typically award a pre-retirement and post-retirement surviving spouse annuity, which entitles the alternate payee to continue to receive his or her pension benefit for life. Without a surviving spouse annuity, all pension benefits may halt upon the death of the plan participant.    

While QDROs are quite commonplace in 2015, I am finding that parties who were divorced in the 1980's and 1990's, when QDROs were still relatively new, may have overlooked this requirement. I have represented many clients who were divorced 25 to 35 years ago and just recently learned there was no QDRO on file while preparing for their retirement.  

The good news is that it may not be too late. As long as the plan participant is still living and you have a property division order that entitles you to a portion of your former spouse's pension benefit, a QDRO can be drafted directing a portion of the plan participant's prospective monthly pension benefits to you. 

The bad news is that you may not be able to ever recoup some of the benefits lost due to your delay. A plan administrator will not entertain a QDRO that tries to award retroactive benefits. Accordingly, if your former spouse has been collecting pension benefits for years, you may have lost out on thousands of dollars of paid benefits. Moreover, you may have lost your right to a survivorship annuity. 

While the Family Court may be willing to entertain a request for recoupment of lost pension benefits upon the filing of a new petition and a hearing, a survivorship election, once made by the retiring plan participant, cannot be changed.  

If you are currently going through a divorce and your spouse has a pension or you were previously divorced and awarded a portion of your spouse's pension but you do not have a QDRO in your records, I strongly recommend that you seek the advice of an attorney experienced in drafting QDROs, such as The Yeager Law Firm. Contact us here.

Please help the Yeager Law Firm support Child Inc.’s toy drive

Calling all gently used DVDs, electronics, and toys! The Yeager Law Firm is participating in Child Inc.’s fall drive and we are helping collect goods to support young residents who live in Child Inc.’s battered women and children’s shelters.

Child Inc. is a non-profit agency that serves children and their families who are victims of domestic violence. They offer domestic violence services, domestic violence treatment programs, youth services, and family support and education services.

We’re happy to support this wonderful organization and give to those in need. We’ll have a collection box for gently used toys, electronics, books, and DVDs in The Yeager Law Firm offices until October 29. Please feel free to stop by with any donations, or email me at julie.yeager@yeagerfamilylaw.com and I’ll be happy to coordinate a pick up.

Yeager Law Firm Falls For Autumn Running

I was never a runner. I never thought I could be a runner. In high school, I signed up for track on orders from my basketball coach that I could either play soccer or run track, but I had to do something to stay in shape in between winter and summer seasons. My high school track coach assigned me the 800-meter race. I was terrible. After an entire spring season, I still had trouble running a mile non-stop. It was quite a humbling experience for an alleged athlete.   

At 32 years old, I decided to try running again. It was not easy at first, but once I started to see results, I was addicted. I enjoy pushing myself to run faster and farther than ever before.  To conquer what I previously thought impossible! So if I can run and support a local organization at the same time, I am happy to do it! 

The Yeager Law Firm has entered teams in several 5Ks this fall to support worthy causes. First up was the Faithful Friends 5K and Mutt Mile at Bellevue State Park on Sunday, September 20. Faithful Friends is a private, nonprofit animal welfare organization with a No Kill shelter serving Delaware and we have participated in their local 5K for the past 2 years. It was a great trail run with friends!

Not even a week later on Saturday, September 26, we toured the Nemours Mansion and Gardens during its Run for Kids 5K to support the Kids with Confidence organization. Kids with Confidence aims to raise money to help correct physical differences that affect children’s self-esteem and confidence. The private grounds are immaculately kept. It was a joy to see the gardens in full bloom despite the chill in the air. And for an added bonus, a member of our team, Grettel Huber, took third place in her age group!

Top 5 Changes to Delaware Child Support Formula, Effective January 1, 2015

The Child Support Formula used by the Family Court in the State of Delaware to calculate a parent’s child support obligation is updated every four years, with the most recent revisions going into effect on January 1, 2015. It is important to know how the Child Support Formula has changed to understand how it may impact your family situation. You can then make an educated decision about whether to file a Petition for Modification of Child Support, based on the most recent updates.

Every 2.5 years, either parent may file a petition to modify child support, seeking either an increase or decrease in the support obligation. If your child support order was issued within the last 2.5 years, a petition to modify child support may be filed only if there has been a "substantial change in circumstances" through no fault of the petitioning parent and so long as the resulting obligation increases or decreases by 10% or more. Substantial changes include changes to income, health insurance cost or availability, daycare or private school tuition, number of minor children ordered to support, or the number of other minor children to support. Leaving a second job is not a substantial change in circumstance.  

The Child Support Formula is a rebuttable presumption. Every new petition is initially scheduled for mediation, unless there is a history of domestic violence between the parents. The mediator will run a child support calculation, inputting the parents’ income and deductions into the Child Support Formula. If no agreement is reached, a hearing before a commissioner is scheduled.  The commissioner will take evidence on the parties’ income and deductions and run a child support calculation using the Child Support Formula, just like the mediator before him or her. Only in rare circumstances has the Family Court found that a parent has successfully rebutted the presumption of the Child Support Formula over the other parent’s objection and entered a child support obligation based on something other than the Child Support Formula.   

The Child Support Formula is evaluated and updated every four years, with the most recent updates going into effect January 1, 2015. The Family Court will use the revised Child Support Formula to calculate any child support order entered after January 1, 2015, irrespective of whether it is a Petition for Support or a Petition for Modification of Child Support. Here are some of the significant changes in 2015:

• A parent now receives the same allowance for supporting one minor child who is not at issue in the support order as two or more children. The Child Support Formula has long recognized adjustments for support that parents provide to other minor children who are not of the current union. The Child Support Formula reduces the amount of available income a parent has to support the child(ren) at issue in the petition by taking into consideration other minor child(ren) a parent may have from other relationship(s). Prior to this revision, the Court multiplied the parent's available income by 83% if there was one other child, 73% if there were two other children, and 67% for three or more children. Under the revised Child Support Formula, a 70% adjustment is made for one or more other children.   

• The number of overnights to trigger a "parenting time adjustment" for the support payer has been revised. Prior to January 1, 2015, a parent may be entitled to a 10%, 20%, 30%, or 40% adjustment to his/her support obligation based on the number of overnights the child(ren) spend(s) with the parent. The requirement for a parenting time adjustment has been simplified under the revised Child Support Formula to the following: 80 to 124 overnights per year for a 10% adjustment and 125 to 163 overnights per year for a 30% adjustment. The revisions allow parents more flexibility with the visitation schedule without fear of implicating the child support order. The revised Child Support Formula also lowered the number of overnights to establish "shared placement" from 175 to 164 per year.

• The revised Child Support Formula eliminates "de minimis" orders of support in shared placement arrangements. In cases where parents have equal incomes and allowable expenses, no support is paid by either parent to the other. With near-equal income, the result can be a very low “net” order that one parent is required to pay the other. In light of the administrative cost of collecting and disbursing these amounts, and the minimal benefit the children derive from their payment, an obligation of less than $50 per month is considered "de minimis" and the Court will enter a zero order.

• Every parent will be presumed to have a minimum monthly gross earning capacity of not less than $8.25 per hour, 40 hours per week ($1430 per month) as of January 1, 2015. Except for shared placement arrangements, a minimum order for one child is now $100 per month and two or more children is $160 per month. The "minimum gross earning capacity" is adjusted biannually to remain consistent with minimum wage.

• There is no longer a requirement that the support recipient pay the first $350 of unreimbursed medical expenses annually. Except where parents share placement of their child(ren), the child support recipient was previously responsible for the first $350 of the child(ren)’s unreimbursed medical expenses each calendar year. The remainder was divided between the parties pursuant to their respective primary percentage shares of total net available income. The Court felt this created difficult accounting issues for parents with little added benefit. The revised Child support formula now issues responsibility for all unreimbursed medical expenses in accordance with the primary shares, as is the current practice for parents sharing placement of their children.

You should consult with an attorney to see if you would benefit from a modification of your current support order based on the newly revised Child Support Formula. The Family Court also provides an online tool to give you an idea of what your child support payment may be under the newly revised Formula.

Family fun at Wilmington Blue Rocks

As far as I’m concerned, there is not a better way to spend a warm summer evening than with friends and family watching a baseball game. From catching Cubs games on TV as a kid with my father and brother to attending Phillies games with my husband, first at Veteran’s Stadium and now at Citizens Bank Park, baseball has always been a fun, family-friendly way to bond with the people I love most.

That is one of the many reasons that the Yeager Law Firm has been a proud sponsor of The Family Section at Frawley Stadium for the Wilmington Blue Rocks since 2012. Section K is an alcohol-free zone where families can come enjoy themselves in a clean, wholesome atmosphere. We are glad to be a part of providing an affordable event that the whole family can enjoy.

Watching the Blue Rocks play right in downtown Wilmington unites our community and gives us something to root for. What I love best about minor league baseball is being able to watch a player’s progression from the single-A Blue Rocks all the way up to a Major League Baseball team. Watching others achieve their dreams is something special.  It makes you believe almost anything is possible. And with the Blue Rocks playing in the 2015 Carolina League Playoffs, we’ll have an extended season right in our own backyards.

See you at the ballpark!

The Yeager Law Firm and friends enjoy a night with Rocky Bluewinkle