On Your Case: A Comprehensive, Compassionate (and Only Slightly Bossy) Legal Guide for Every Stage of a Woman's Life

by Lisa Green

Overview

Television legal analyst and attorney Lisa Green offers something new: a witty, direct and empowering legal guide for women, filled with accessible information they can employ to understand and respond to common legal issues throughout their lives, from dating, marriage, and kids to jobs, retirement, aging parents, and wills.

Lisa Green has an urgent message for women of all ages, especially those who consider themselves fully briefed on nutrition, personal finance, good schools, and great bargains:

What about the law?

Whether or not you invite it into your life, the law will find you. When it does, will you be ready to respond?

In On Your Case, Lisa fills a long-standing gap in women's bookshelves with a thorough, compelling and occasionally hilarious guide to the range of legal issues women can expect to confront throughout their busy lives. Leveraging her professional training as a lawyer and her personal experience as a wife, ex-wife, mother, and daughter, Lisa explains common, even complicated, legal issues in practical, easy to understand terms. Sharing true stories, from jaw-dropping court cases to her own personal challenges, Lisa explains how readers can make the best possible decisions when problems arise. And legal problems will arise, Lisa counsels, so women need to get smart, and get ready.

In her warm, yet firm, voice, Lisa guides readers through the potential legal issues around:

• Relationships: Online dating, pre and postnuptial agreements, engagement and marriage
• Separation and Divorce: Splitting without anxiety, child custody and support, pet custody disputes
• Babies, Children and Teens: Pregnancy and adoption, advocating for a special needs child, misbehaving teens
• Work: Employment and household help
• Domestic violence
• Social media
• Midlife and elder care: Wills, medical decisions and power of attorney
• Legal Help: Hiring a lawyer, DIY

As Suze Orman demystified personal finance and put women in the driver's seat of their own financial future, Lisa Green now does for the law. With On Your Case, Lisa empowers you by equipping you with the tools you need to take care of yourself, your assets, your family, and your career.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062308009
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	02/23/2016
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	1,140,152
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Lisa Green is a lawyer and legal analyst. After earning her law degree at New York University, she was a litigator in private practice before joining NBC News, first as a lawyer and then as a senior producer for Weekend Today and as an NBC News legal analyst. Lisa continues to make on-air appearances for NBC News and MSNBC, and she has written and blogged about legal issues for msnbc.com and published articles in Barron's, the National Law Journal, and the Wall Street Journal. Lisa lives in New York City, where she serves as communications director for a major New York law firm. She is the mother of two young adults.

Table of Contents

The Caveat Page ix

Introduction: Your Friend at the Bar 1

Part 1 Relationships and the Law

1 Launching a Relationship: When Is Online Over the Line? 9

2 Cohabitation: Does Practice Make Perfect? 16

3 Marriage Basics 24

4 Common-Law Marriage 34

5 Civil Unions and Domestic Partnerships 38

6 Prenuptial (and Postnuptial) Agreements 42

7 Four-Prong Problems: Who Keeps the Engagement Ring? 53

Part 2 Separation and Divorce

8 Separation Without Anxiety 59

9 All About Annulment 67

10 Divorce: Getting Started 70

11 Divorce: Property and Support 84

12 Child Custody 102

13 Child Support 114

14 Fighting Over Fido: The Pain of Pet Custody Disputes 121

15 DIY, Mediation, and Collaborative Divorce 127

Part 3 Babies, Children, and Teens

16 Making Babies 137

17 Adoption 150

18 School Support 160

19 Advocating for a Special Needs Child 175

20 Your Misbehaving Teens 185

21 Campus Safety 204

Part 4 Employment Issues

22 On the Job 219

23 Household Help 242

Part 5 Protecting Yourself

24 Online Essentials 255

25 Domestic Violence 264

Part 6 Later Life Issues

26 Taking Charge I: Medical Decisions and Powers of Attorney 279

27 Taking Charge II: Estate Planning 290

28 Managing Mom, Dad, and Other Older Loved Ones 306

Part 7 Finding Legal Help

29 Hiring a Lawyer, or Doing It Yourself 321

Afterword 333

Notes 335

Bibliography 371

Acknowledgments 373

Index 377

Editorial Reviews

Will serve as a trusted resource to show the layperson her legal rights and options…The topics [Green] discusses… are absolutely necessary for women to lead proactive and independent lives. Part reference, part self-help, Green’s winning book will empower women through knowledge of the law.” — Kirkus Reviews

“Green’s confident voice resonates like a smart, funny girlfriend giving solid counsel over a glass of wine. It’s personal, practical, and backed up with plenty of legal reality. This book will appeal to women with legal troubles and to those hoping to avoid them.” — Library Journal

“Lisa Green’s compelling and breezily conversational book gives us the tool kit we’ve been waiting for to wise up and open our eyes. It’s a must-read for all women—and the earlier, the better.” — Lee Woodruff, New York Times bestselling author of Perfectly Imperfect: A Life in Progress

“What sort of woman needs the straight-shooting, absurdly entertaining legal advice Lisa Green lays out in On Your Case? Mothers, daughters, wives (current and ex), those in the workforce and those at home… in other words, every one of us. I wish I’d read it twenty years ago.” — Jean Chatzky, best-selling author and financial editor, NBC Today

“Lisa Green is every woman’s cheerleader, best friend, and advocate when it comes to the legal matters that affect our daily lives. You can defend your rights when you know your rights. I will give it to every woman I know—I loved it!” — Adriana Trigiani, New York Times bestselling author

“On Your Case should be on every woman’s bookshelf. I would call it an insightful encyclopedia and brilliantly crafted.” — Judge Judy Sheindlin

From the Publisher

Lisa Green’s compelling and breezily conversational book gives us the tool kit we’ve been waiting for to wise up and open our eyes. It’s a must-read for all women—and the earlier, the better.

Lee Woodruff

On Your Case should be on every woman’s bookshelf. I would call it an insightful encyclopedia and brilliantly crafted.

Judge Judy Sheindlin

Lisa Green is every woman’s cheerleader, best friend, and advocate when it comes to the legal matters that affect our daily lives. You can defend your rights when you know your rights. I will give it to every woman I know—I loved it!

Adriana Trigiani

What sort of woman needs the straight-shooting, absurdly entertaining legal advice Lisa Green lays out in On Your Case? Mothers, daughters, wives (current and ex), those in the workforce and those at home… in other words, every one of us. I wish I’d read it twenty years ago.

Jean Chatzky

02/01/2015
Attorney and NBC and MSNBC television analyst Green wants women to understand the legal issues they may encounter throughout their lives. In plain, often humorous prose, the author covers relationships, marriage, divorce, children, employment, estate planning, domestic violence, and more. Green explains the law and advises readers on the course to take when things get complicated. Each chapter is well documented and full of specific examples from real cases that demonstrate how the law really operates and provide cautionary advice for readers. The "On the Job" chapter analyzes the challenges for women at work and discusses everything from how to handle unwanted sexual advances to the rights nursing mothers have while working. In the section entitled "Estate Planning," Green explains wills and trusts and provides an excellent list of suggestions to help avoid battles over estates. Highlighted text throughout provides practical wisdom on such issues as campus safety, surrogacy agreements, and how to behave during a divorce. The author uses her own experiences to good effect, sharing dramas and missteps with self-mocking insight. VERDICT Green's confident voice resonates like a smart, funny girlfriend giving solid counsel over a glass of wine. It's personal, practical, and backed up with plenty of legal reality. This book will appeal to women with legal troubles and to those hoping to avoid them. [See Prepub Alert, 8/18/14.]—Joan Pedzich, formerly with Harris Beach PLLC, Pittsford, NY

Library Journal

2014-12-07
A guidebook of practical legal advice for women to enrich their professional and personal lives. Unlike other commentators in the ongoing conversation on whether or not women can "have it all," Green, an attorney and legal personality by trade, dispenses advice about one of the most overlooked yet important aspects of life: law. Rather than proselytize about the condition of women in society, the author offers her legal expertise specifically to women who might otherwise think they've figured it all out. However, she argues that they crucially lack the pragmatic value of a basic understanding of civil law. Green's advice is not merely for the courtroom. Her evenhanded and easily understood council is designed for "taking informed action." In one chapter, Green breaks down the legalities of online dating, citing one particularly horrible example in which a woman was stabbed and beaten after her match.com date. She also tackles the issue of whether or not marrying is preferable to "cohabitation." Green's advice ranges far beyond relationships, marriage and divorce. Other subjects include child-rearing, work issues, end-of-life care and various forms of social media etiquette. While it may seem pedestrian at first, Green's advice is detailed, exceptionally well-researched and, above all else, helpful. Her anecdotes and case studies are relevant and often spotlight high-profile celebrity cases for resonance—e.g., Anna Nicole Smith's fight for her late husband's estate. Most importantly, the legal quandaries Green addresses are commonly experienced problems, and her primer will serve as a trusted resource to show the layperson her legal rights and options. Ultimately, the author is a realist who understands that the topics she discusses may not be the most exciting or comforting, but they are absolutely necessary for women to lead proactive and independent lives. Part reference, part self-help, Green's winning book will empower women through knowledge of the law.

Kirkus Reviews