Legal Question in Family Law in Virginia

Re: A married woman who had an affair.

You should consider contacting a family law attorney asap. The "forgiveness" issue you are talking about, pertains to the grounds for a divorce--not necessarily an issue at custody. If an affair is condoned, or forgiven, by subsequent relations between H& W, adultery is usually not available as a grounds for divorce. There are many factors taken into account with regard to custody. A lawyer can help with this.

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Re: A married woman who had an affair.

You ask two legal questions:

1. If your husband forgives you for an adultery can he use it as a ground for divorce?

2. Will evidnece of adultery affect a custody decision?

1. If one commits a marital fault (which adultery is one) and is forgiven by the spouse by resuming marital life (including sex) that is called CONDONATION, that is the other spouse condones the fault act, forgives it and cannot thereafter use it as a ground to divorce the other.

2. Unless the adultery materially affected the children (they were exposed to the lover or brought to the place where the adultery was committed) it usually has no great affect upon the custody decision. Alot of people will use it as an example of bad moral decision and imply that it would affect any parental decision made - this is not necessarily true and most courts don't make the connection.

Good luck.

Re: A married woman who had an affair.

Your affair will have very little effect on whether your custody rights are affected with your spouse. You should contact a family law atty asap, if for nothing else, a initial consultation to get educated about the process.

Re: A married woman who had an affair.

Regarding your affair, the only real question, legally speaking, in a custody tussle between you and your husband would be what provable deleterious effect did it have on your children and their perennial best interests and what does it say about your fitness to continue parenting these children in your accustomed manner?

Realistic answer: Probably not much at all(in both cases) and therefore it (the affair) would likely not be a major or dispositive factor in any custody dispute between you and your husband.