Our Practice Areas

Our firm is dedicated to knowing the law and procedure to help you through this complicated and emotionally charged process. With over 30 years of experience, the Willick Law Group has seen and litigated almost every possible scenario from the most common divorce involving just the change in status from married to single to the most complex divorce and annulment cases involving jurisdiction and high value asset division.

From your first meeting during a formal consultation, you will see that our focus is on you and your case. Family law is all we do! As such, we stay abreast of the most recent changes in the law and apply those changes properly to the conclusion of your case.

As a firm dedicated to family law, we realize that the most important asset of any family is their children. We make sure that the custody and support of your children is the paramount issue in your case and work closely with you and any other professionals deemed necessary to achieve a result that is in the best interest of your children.

We have litigated and resolved thousands of child custody and child support cases. We are at the forefront of the child support laws and have developed the ONLY court approved child support arrearage calculator that takes into account not only the principal arrearage, but includes the statutory interest and penalties required by Nevada law. We make sure that all arrearages are calculated correctly whether you are paying or receiving the support.

When divorcing, the parties must either make a division of property that they both agree is fair or allow the Court to divide the property and debt equally.

The Willick Law Group has extensive experience in obtaining proper valuations and working with opposing counsel to resolve issues with property and debt division.

No matter the complexity of your case, you can count on the Willick Law Group to consider all of the factors involved and ensure a equal and fair division of your property.

Millions of Americans are covered by private employer-sponsored plans. In order to properly divide this valuable asset upon divorce, a “Qualified Domestic Relations Order” (“QDRO”) is required. Virtually every private employee-benefit plan in the United States today is qualified under, and governed by, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, known as “ERISA,” and the Retirement Equity Act of 1984, which provided that certain domestic relations orders, containing specific terms, must be accepted and honored by ERISA-qualified pension plans.

 

Under the federal ERISA/REA statutory scheme, any judgment, decree, or order dealing with alimony or support for a spouse, former spouse, child, or other dependent made according to local domestic relations law is considered a “domestic relations order” under federal law. It becomes a “qualified” order, or QDRO, and must be recognized and enforced by an ERISA-qualified plan, when it creates or recognizes one of the listed classes of persons as an “Alternate Payee” with a right to receive all or any portion of the benefits normally payable to a participant in that plan.

 

The drafting of QDROs can be a time-consuming and complicated process. The governing statutes require specific language and information to be included into every ERISA-based QDRO, and prohibits certain other terms. In addition to federal regulation, each individual pension plan usually adopts its own rules and regulations when determining whether to accept/honor a proposed QDRO. Some plans are very specific and will not honor a QDRO unless it complies exactly with their rules. This requires a certain amount of patience and specific experience dealing with varying pension plan policies and procedures.

 

This is where QDRO Masters at the Willick Law Group comes in. We have decades of experience drafting these orders and are well-versed in the intricacies of plan procedures. Should you require the drafting of a QDRO we hope you choose the professionals at QDRO Masters.

Premarital agreements (sometimes called “prenuptial agreements”) executed before then are evaluated under the case law decided previously. A premarital agreement must be in writing and signed by both parties, and can govern questions of property, debts, and alimony, during life and upon death. Such an agreement may not decide child custody, visitation, or support.

Generally speaking, the most important factors governing the validity of a premarital agreement are the common-sense ones of full disclosure and availability of independent counsel. The best way of avoiding later claims of oppression, fraud, duress, etc., is to ensure that none such occurs, so that there could be no evidence of any such behavior. Premarital agreements should be negotiated as far in advance of the wedding ceremony as possible, since agreements signed on the eve of (or even during) the wedding ceremony have been struck down as having been inherently signed under duress.

WILLICK LAW GROUP has considerable experience drafting and negotiating all such types of agreements, and litigating the validity of those agreements that are involved in divorce cases. Where appropriate, we will draft, or review, any premarital, postnuptial, or marital settlement agreement. As with most things, the best way of avoiding challenge to such an agreement is to make sure it is properly put together in the first place. When a client’s case requires attacking or defending such an agreement, this firm’s substantial familiarity with all aspects of such agreements has proven to be of substantial benefit.

The WILLICK LAW GROUP maintains an active practice in appeals of family law cases, and has done so for more than 25 years. We sometimes appeal from, or defend against, cases in which we were trial counsel. More often, we are retained to prosecute or defend appeals that were handled by other law firms at the trial level. We are admitted to practice in the Nevada Supreme Court, the Federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court. Some of the decisions in which we prevailed on appeal are referenced below, with links to the decisions and orders, and to our briefs in those cases.

The lawyers of the Willick Law Group, and particularly Marshal Willick, are frequently asked to draft “Friend of the Court,” or Amicus, Briefs for the Nevada Supreme Court on family law topics on behalf of the State Bar of Nevada Family Law Section. We draft these briefs either alone or in conjunction with other attorneys.

If yoiu have a case that may need an appeal or have an active appeal and need experienced counsel to get you through the complex appeal process, the Willick Law Group is the right choice.