RICHMOND, Va. — A West Virginia family court judge who went to the house of a litigant and supervised the search for items he allegedly failed to turn over to his ex-wife was not entitled to judicial immunity in a ...
Read More »Inability to reconcile not a basis for unfitness finding, appeals court rules
A mother’s inability to remedy a breakdown in her relationship with her 14-year-old child was not a sufficient basis for a finding of parental unfitness, the Massachusetts Appeals Court has ruled. The child nominated her maternal grandmother and uncle as ...
Read More »Federal court lacks jurisdiction over domestic relations dispute, judge rules
RICHMOND, Va. — Where the only discernible claim in a pro se complaint was for alimony and child support, the federal courts are divested “of power to issue divorce, alimony, and child custody decrees,” a federal judge in West Virginia ...
Read More »Mother must pay half of school tuition
RICHMOND, VA — There was sufficient support for the circuit court “to deviate from the child support guidelines to include the cost of the child’s private school tuition[.]” and to require the mother must abide by her previous agreement to ...
Read More »Louisiana launches website for complaints about state’s child welfare system
Louisiana officials have launched a new website that allows the public to file complaints related to the state’s child welfare system or any other agency that provides services to children. The website, www.Kids4.La, is for the state’s child ombudsman, recently ...
Read More »Maryland property not subject to Virginia law, Va. judge rules in estate dispute
RICHMOND, Va. — Where the decedent died intestate, the disposition of real estate he owned in Maryland is governed by Maryland law, a Fairfax County judge has ruled. Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Richard E. Gardner issued the ruling in In ...
Read More »Parent and child can be opposing counsel in divorce case
A parent and child working as attorneys can represent opposing parties in a divorce proceeding provided that their clients consent in writing to that arrangement, the Rhode Island Supreme Court Ethics Advisory Panel has ruled. “Ordinarily, this situation creates a ...
Read More »Court rules Va. grandparent visitation statute unconstitutional
Virginia’s newly amended nonparental visitation statute — Code § 20-124.2(B2) — is unconstitutional because it doesn’t require showing that the grandchildren will suffer “actual harm” without the visitation, a Washington County judge has held. The grandparents claimed that, under the ...
Read More »Divorce law firm sharpens litigation skills with in-house trial schools
ST. LOUIS — Dylan R. Briggs eagerly wants to keep improving his trial skills. It’s called the “practice” of law for a reason, he thinks. But there’s an issue. “In our business, we very rarely have the opportunity to have ...
Read More »Man, surrogate should have known child did not share his genes, court rules
ST. LOUIS — A man and the surrogate mother of a child he believed to biologically be his sued St. Luke’s Episcopal-Presbyterian Hospitals and Dr. Sherman J. Silber for not informing them of the man’s low sperm motility test results, ...
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