Wyomissing Pennsylvania Legal Blog

If you have been ordered by a Pennsylvania court to pay child support, you may wonder how long you will have to pay. It can sometimes be difficult to make your payments and put a financial strain on you, so it is understandable that you want to plan for when your support order ends. When a court makes a child support order, it may includes an end date. Otherwise, you have to follow the general laws. 

According to the Department of Human Services, you are expected to provide financial support in most cases until your child is 18 years old. However, there are many exceptions which may apply in your case. For example, if your child has a disability or debilitating medical condition, you may be required to continue paying support long after he or she turns 18. In addition, if your child has not yet graduated high school when he or she reaches age 18, support is usually continued. 

Having a will is a good idea to prevent issues after your death. It can enable you to ensure your assets are distributed the way you want them to be and to provide for your minor children. However, if your will is not properly written and created following Pennsylvania law, then it could be deemed invalid by the court, leaving your assets in the hands of the state. 

Fortunately, the Pennsylvania General Assembly has laid out the guidelines for writing a legal will. The requirements are rather simple and require attention to the signatures included in the document. You must sign the document to make it valid. If you cannot sign, you may make a mark to represent your signature as long as you have two witnesses who also sign to validate your mark. You may also have someone else sign on your behalf, but there must be two people to sign and it must be done in your presence. Signatures must go at the end of the document, but if there are words after the signature, they will not invalidate the will. 

Your pets are a part of the family. When you get a divorce in Pennsylvania, it may become a struggle to figure out where the pets go. Do you get them or your spouse? Who has the right to a pet? Are pets handled by the courts in the same way as children? When it comes to Pennsylvania law, CBS explains that pets are considered property in a divorce.

This can make things difficult. You probably do not look at your pet as property, like it is a piece of furniture or a car. The idea of dividing the ownership of pets based upon property rules can be upsetting, but that is the way the law sees pets. In fact, the highest court in the state set precedence in a case involving a man trying to get visitation rights for his dog after a divorce. The ruling became known as Barney's law and stated clearly that pets are property. They are not subject to vistation and other custody rights. It also says that whoever has physical custody of the pet gets to keep it, and even custody agreements that may have been included in a divorce agreement are not enforceable.

One of the important aspects of forming a business in Pennsylvania is deciding on the business form you will use. You have options, but the most common for a person forming a business by themselves is a sole proprietorship, as explained by Entrepreneur. This business form is the easiest to create because it requires no legal steps. You are operating the business as the sole owner, so you do not have to worry about partnership agreements. You are not forming a legal entity, such as a corporation, so you do not need to file any special legal documents in forming your business.

As a sole proprietor, you may only need to file forms to set up your business name if you are not using your name as the business name. You also have to handle taxes, licenses and permits, but you can do all this easily because you are the sole owner of the business and can sign all the necessary documents yourself.