Lawyer Bill

05/26/2026

Military Divorce in Tennessee: A Different Set of Rules

I have a lot of respect for the men and women who serve this country. And one of the ways I try to show it is by making sure that when they come through my door going through a divorce, I know the rules that apply specifically to them. Because military divorce has a different […]

05/19/2026

What Your Social Media Is Saying to the Judge

A client of mine posted a photo on a Friday night. Just a normal night out. Friends, drinks, big smiles. Nothing she would have thought twice about. Her ex’s attorney showed it to the judge the following Tuesday to argue she was an irresponsible parent. She kept custody. But she spent money she di...

05/12/2026

Co-Parenting When One of You Doesn’t Want To

Let me settle one question before we get into the harder stuff. Mother’s Day belongs to mom. Father’s Day belongs to dad. In almost every parenting plan I have ever written or reviewed, these holidays go to the respective parent regardless of whose regular weekend it is. That part is generally n...

05/05/2026

How Child Support Gets Calculated in Tennessee

If I had a dollar for every time a client told me what they thought child support was going to be based on what their neighbor said, I could retire. (I am not retiring. But I could.) Child support in Tennessee is not a negotiation. It is not based on what seems fair to either […]

04/28/2026

Material Change in Circumstances: The Hardest Standard in Family Court

People call me all the time wanting to change their custody order. And the first thing I have to tell almost all of them is the same thing: Wanting to change it is not enough. Feeling like things are different is not enough. Even being right is not always enough. To modify a parenting plan […]

04/21/2026

Irreconcilable Differences: What That Actually Means in Tennessee

I had a client tell me once that she wanted a divorce because her husband chewed too loud. She was not joking. Or rather, she was joking about the chewing, but she was not joking about wanting out. What she was really saying was what most people mean when they say irreconcilable differences: this ma...

04/14/2026

In my mind this is what my mailbox will look like when I arrive home today. Happy "National Be Nice To Lawyers Day" to all who celebrate!

04/14/2026

Divorce and Taxes: The Questions Nobody Thinks to Ask

I am going to be upfront about something. In law school, I avoided the building where they taught tax law. I have made peace with that decision. I still do not sleep particularly well in April, but that is another matter. I am not a tax expert. I am a family law attorney. But every […]

04/11/2026

Put the Phone Down. They Are Watching.

I’ll confess something. I, Bill Jones, guy who should absolutely know better, was sitting at a red light on Poplar last Tuesday and caught myself reaching for my phone. Just instinct. Somebody texted me and my hand went for it like a reflex. Everybody feels the pull. That’s the whole problem. We...

04/07/2026

The Best-Interest Factors Just Changed. Here’s What That Means.

I had a client once who did not want a divorce. He did not understand why his wife wanted one. What he kept saying, every time we talked, was that he wanted everyone to have a soft landing. So when it came time to work out a parenting plan, he agreed to a step-up arrangement. […]

04/02/2026

That AI Chatbot Cannot Keep Your Secrets

I need to tell you something that might change how you use your phone tonight. A federal judge ruled earlier this year that when you type your private legal questions into an AI chatbot, those conversations are not protected by attorney-client privilege. They are not work product. They are discovera...