Sep 01, 2006  |  By: JOSHUA LYNSEN  | COMMENTS     

evolving legal practice, and knowledgeable guides are essential.

“It’s important to work with advisers who are staying current on the laws that affect these issues,” Kapp said. “The laws are changing very quickly. They are changing what seems like month to month.”

Organizations like Equality Maryland and Equality Virginia maintain lists of qualified, local attorneys.

Scurti, who’s on the Equality Maryland list, said the state’s lack of laws governing gay couple separations is problematic.

“Not all judges understand our relationships,” he said, “and you’re at the whim of the interpretation of a particular judge.”

“If you have a judge that’s less than sympathetic to our relationships, they’re going to bend over backwards to not allow the case to go forward, or do a strict reading of the law that may not be beneficial to any of the parties.”

But he said lawmakers — or judges — eventually will define a standard procedure.

“I think that the judges are becoming more educated about our relationships, because they’re seeing these issues crop up more than ever, and are being forced to deal with it,” Scurti said. “As that happens, we’re going to develop a body of law that helps us to understand how to deal with our breakups.”