Hinds County Attorney, Bridgette Clayton, has qualified to run for Hinds County Chancery Judge!
“After much prayer and consideration, I am honored and excited to announce that I qualified for Hinds County Chancery Court Judge, District 5-3, on today.”
“I am ready to serve the citizens of Hinds County with God serving as a Lamp unto my feet and the Light unto my path as I seek election for this judicial seat to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly before my God. Micah 6:8”
I am requesting your prayers and support during the campaign as well as on Election Day which is November 3.
Please be on the lookout for future campaign information. Thank You!
Matthew Thompson is a Chancery practitioner and knows-well the power, authority and responsibility that Chancellor’s have and the knowledge and wisdom they should possess. Attorney Bridgette Clayton has all of those qualities and then-some!
Please support Bridgette Clayton for Hinds County Chancellor!
Believe it or not, there are not many Mississippi Legislators that are lawyers!
Saturday Night Live compared the Mississippi Legislature to a hissing possum. It was funny…
“Whew!” you say? Not so fast. Our legislators make the laws. This may be the one instance more lawyers could help!!
There is proposed legislation with terminology, words, that do not mean what you (and our legislators) think they mean. Words matter. Legal words matter.
There’s a marked difference between May and Shall in the eyes of the law.
So, legislators, Please contact me at any time about any questions regarding proposed legislation. If i have an opinion I will share it. If I am unqualified to comment I will admit it, and if you ask that our discussion remain confidential I will honor that.
Let’s get this right the first time. Its too important to not to.
Matthew Thompson is a 20-year practicing lawyer, law school professor, author of the family law text book in Mississippi and not afraid to speak out and speak up. Contact him via email or phone. Matthew@ThompsonLaw.ms or (601)850-8000
At least 2 bills are pending to sort of make Mississippi Divorce Law make common sense…
Senate Bill 2018, Brice Wiggins seeks to make 2 tweaks to family law.
Eliminate the willful and obstinate requirements of Desertion/Abandonment. Current law requires; a spouse’s “wilful, continued and obstinate desertion” for a period of a year is grounds for a divorce. Miss Code Ann. § 93-5-1 (2004).
The New proposed law states, Fourth. * * * Continued * * * desertion for the space of one year.
and adds a 13th ground
Thirteenth. Upon application of either party, the court may grant a divorce when the court finds there has been an irretrievable breakdown of the marriage and that further attempts at reconciliation are impractical or futile and not in the best interests of the parties or family.
an Identical House Bill also includes the above revisions. HB0496 sponsored by Representative Denton.
Why is this common sense, sort of? 48 other states have true, no fault divorce statutes. Mississippi does not. You can read why that matters here, here and here…
Why is it common sense? The law and legislature cannot make someone be a spouse or partner regardless of the status of the marriage.
Mississippi has proposed these common sense changes every year since I have been paying attention. It ain’t happened yet….
Matthew is a family law and divorce attorney in Mississippi and is in favor of some common sense changes in the law.
Thirteenth. Upon application of either party, the court may grant a divorce when the court finds there has been an irretrievable breakdown of the marriage and that further attempts at reconciliation are impractical or futile and not in the best interests of the parties or family.
Secondly, a Joint Custody bill was proposed. There were several iterations of this legislation, but the gist of it was that the Court was to assume that Joint Physical Custody was in the best interest of the child when parents could not agree (and, even if they could) and if the Court found Joint Physical Custody was not in the best interest of the child it had to state why. (There were some issues with the proposed legislation as it was drafted, but this Bill found some traction and was discussed and bandied about for weeks…ultimately to no avail).
(2) * * * (a) There shall be a presumption, rebuttable by a preponderance of evidence, that joint custody and equally shared parenting time is in the best interest of the child. If the court does not grant joint custody and/or equally shared parenting time, the court shall construct a parenting time schedule which maximizes the time each parent has with the child and ensuring the best interest of the child is met. (b) Upon petition of both parents, the court may grant legal and/or physical custody to one parent.
Both bills failed and there are limited changes to MS Family Law. A blog for another day.
Matthew Thompson is a Family Law Attorney in MS and is in favor of some common sense changes in Mississippi Law.
I have written several times on sometimes just not being ready. I have seen multiple instances of person just not being ready…
What are the signs of Not Being Ready?
Things are moving TOO Fast.
The divorce process is actually fairly slow in Mississippi. It is typically at least 60 days with the average cases taking closer to 90 days, if uncontested. If contested, the case could take 6-18 months. A few take even longer!
Things are TOO Emotional.
Of course divorce is highly emotional. In some respects you may never “get over it.” However, the best results require that you treat the financial aspects as a business transaction. If you are so focused on the emotion, getting even or some other aspect, you’ll regret it later.
It makes NO Sense.
If you are in a brain fog and cannot explain in plain terms what the lawyer has explained to you, you may not be ready. I don’t expect you to know every legal term of art, but there are some very important concepts you need to understand.
These are just a few indicators of Not being ready. Be on the lookout for these signs in your spouse and/or yourself. Recognizing these issues will allow for them to be better handled.
Matthew Thompson is a Divorce and Custody lawyer in Mississippi and warns you that negotiating a divorce when you are not ready may result in regret.
This change involves the time period a non-custodial parent would have to provide child support and certain other child related benefits. It could impact health insurance, extra curricular expenses and school expenses- unrelated to college. The vast majority of other states is 18 or 19 years of age- for age of majority.
Another change is adding a ground for divorce if your marriage is irretrievably broken.
Irretrievable breakdown means that the marriage is broken beyond repair, this quasi-no-fault ground tells a court that at least one spouse wants to end the marriage, which generally should be enough for a judge to grant a divorce.
This is a potentially significant change and would align Mississippi divorce law with 48 other states. This change would significantly streamline the current fault vs. consent requirements.
In June of 2021, the Mississippi Legislature established this task force to study Mississippi’s domestic relations laws and to develop recommendations to the Legislature and the Mississippi Supreme Court to recommend needed changes in MS Family Law.
Members of the task force included;
• Senate Judiciary A Chairman Brice Wiggins of Pascagoula and House Judicial A Chairman Angela Cockerham of Magnolia; • Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Griffis of Ridgeland, Chancellor Troy Odom of Brandon and Chancellor Jennifer Schloegel of Gulfport, appointed by Supreme Court Chief Justice Mike Randolph; • Court of Appeals Judge David Neil McCarty of Jackson, appointed by Court of Appeals Chief Judge Donna Barnes; • attorneys Mark A. Chinn of Jackson, Donna S. Smith of Columbus, A. Regnal Blackledge of Collins and Diandra Hosey of Jackson, appointed by the Mississippi Bar; • attorney guardians ad litem Melissa B. DiFatta of Pascagoula and Lee Ann Turner of Starkville, appointed by the Mississippi Bar; • Division of Child Support Enforcement Senior Attorney J. Michael McCauley of Bay St. Louis, appointed by Mississippi Department of Human Services Executive Director Robert G. Anderson; • Professor Deborah Bell of Oxford, Senior Faculty in Service at the University of Mississippi School of Law, appointed by Dean Susan Duncan; • Professor Shirley Kennedy of Jackson, Director of the Family and Children’s Law Center and Director of Child Advocacy Programs at Mississippi College School of Law, appointed by Dean Patricia Bennett.
Kudos to this fine group of lawyers, judges and academia for much needed changes in MS law.
Matthew Thompson is a family law and defense attorney in Mississippi and welcomes common sense changes in family law.
Everyone wants a good deal, myself included. However, often in life you get what you pay for!
We’ve all seen the advertisement for the $500 divorce. That could be a really good deal if everything is agreed, it’s just drafting papers and sending for entry.
But, is it a good deal when it doesn’t work? Is it a good deal when it does work, but you weren’t advised of your rights. You did not know about all of the financial and equitable relief you could have gotten.
I’ve seen agreements where the parties agreed to maintain a million dollar whole life insurance policies. They had no idea what that meant or what expense that really involved.
I’ve seen agreements that have not included the correct child support and included terms so onerous a Court would never order it otherwise.
My advice is this, if you spent more than $500 to get married, plan on spending more than $500 to get divorced.
Matthew Thompson is a civil litigation attorney in Mississippi.
(601) 850-8000 - - BowTieLawyer.MS 