One of the most frequent inquiries I receive are from potential clients who wish to seek legal guardianship of a child whose welfare is believed to be at risk. However, merely expressing concern that a child may not be safe is not, in and of itself, sufficient to create a minor guardianship. There are several […]
child support, children, custody, minor guardianshipMass murder in America weighs heavily on my mind, as I am sure it does yours as well. It seems as if life has become very cheap these days, and that taking a gun to the streets, or the movie theater, or the school, or the nightclub, has become almost normative. As a domestic relations […]
A few days ago, one of my esteemed colleagues commented on the role of a family law attorney by stating that it is our job to “stay neutral” and to not pass judgment on our clients. He asserted that he chooses to “not blindly accept allegations of one angry parent against the other” because, in […]
My son called me recently and asked “What do you know about Parental Alienation Syndrome?” (PAS) He explained that he asked because a friend is going through a divorce and is alleging that his estranged wife is attempting to turn the children against him. My son observed that he had often seen his friend with […]
Recently, Steve Thorpe of the Detroit Legal News interviewed me for his regular feature, “Asked and Answered.” The topic was a recent Michigan Court of Appeals ruling in a case where the divorced parents disagreed on whether the children should receive childhood immunizations. As you may know if you follow this legal blog, I am very […]
It is indeed an exciting time to be practicing family law – there are changes in the wind, and today, I would like to remark on one of them that I see coming – prenuptial agreements and gay married couples. Once upon a time prenuptial agreements (prenups) were the sole province of the rich and […]
Ben Stevens, who writes the South Carolina Family Law Blog, reports the following:
“The recently retired Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, Leah Ward Sears, wrote a compelling article for CNN.com in which she called for the end of ‘disposable marriage.’ Her brother committed suicide, and she suspected that his bitter divorce, in a no-fault divorce state, at least partially contributed to it.
Usually spouses live together for a while after filing. Suppose you see correspondence from your spouse’s lawyer in the mail. Should you open it? Is is OK to hide it?
family law agenda, child and dependent care tax credit, child care expenses, adoption, family medical leave, adoption rights, same-sex marriage.
Divorce is hard on children. It can be particularly hard on them at holiday time, as described by the authors in the article below, which presents excellent advice on how to ensure that, in spite of separation and divorce, children can still be children and have fun on the holidays. Children, Divorce and the HolidaysHow […]
children, custody, divorce, divorce family, families, holiday parenting, holiday visitation, separated, separated family, visitation schedules