Custody practice areas
Not every custody problem fits the standard schedule-and-support template. A deployment order, a surrogacy agreement, a grandparent raising a child, or a situation that needs relief this week rather than next term each raise their own procedural questions. Law Offices Of SRIS, P.C. handles these matters in Virginia, Maryland, the District of Columbia, New Jersey and New York.
Emergency and temporary relief
Where a child faces immediate risk, courts can act before a full hearing. In Virginia, Va. Code § 20-103 allows the court to enter pendente lite orders during the pendency of a divorce, including custody and support of minor children and exclusive use of the family residence. Preliminary protective relief in Virginia proceeds under Va. Code § 16.1-253.1. Emergency relief is deliberately narrow: it addresses risk, not the long-term arrangement, and a temporary order granted on a thin record is often revisited quickly.
Third parties and parentage
A grandparent, stepparent or other caregiver seeking custody faces a higher threshold than a parent does, because courts give weight to the primacy of the parent-child relationship. Parentage disputes — including those arising from assisted reproduction and surrogacy arrangements — are decided under each state’s own parentage law, and the enforceability of an agreement varies considerably by state. These matters are worth resolving before a dispute rather than after.
Military families
Deployment creates custody problems that ordinary orders do not anticipate: who exercises the deploying parent’s time, whether that time can be delegated to a family member, and whether a temporary change becomes permanent by default. Most states have adopted deployment-specific custody provisions intended to prevent deployment itself from being treated as a change in circumstances. Building the answer into the order is more reliable than litigating it under orders.
Pages in this section
- Emergency custody orders
- Military parent custody and deployment
- Surrogacy and parentage disputes
- De facto custody and third-party or grandparent custody
Speak with Mr. Sris
Mr. Sris is a former prosecutor and the owner and founder of Law Offices Of SRIS, P.C., which has practiced since 1997. He is admitted in Virginia, Maryland, the District of Columbia, New Jersey and New York. Of Counsel attorneys handle matters alongside him. To request a confidential consultation, reach our location at (888) 437-7747. Consultations are by appointment.
Last reviewed: August 21, 2026.
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