Maryland Family Law Maryland family law opinions and commentary

The House of Delegates and Senate have passed conflicting legislation to raise the minimum age for marriage in Maryland from 15 to 17. The House voted 100-35 on March 16 for a measure that would prohibit 17-year-olds from marrying someone ...

The Senate passed legislation Monday night to raise the minimum age for marriage in Maryland from 15 to 17. With the Senate’s 45-0 vote, attention shifts to the House of Delegates where similar legislation awaits consideration. Under current law, 15-year-olds ...

Suspension from school can continue to be regarded as a probation violation for juvenile offenders, Maryland’s top court ruled last Thursday in rejecting concerns that it cedes a judicial function to the discretion of school administrators whose vague standards of ...

The protection criminal defendants have against their spouses testifying against them would not apply in cases when the wedding occurred after the alleged crime was committed, under legislation the House Judiciary Committee considered Wednesday for the third time in as ...

A Cameroonian father is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to restore his parental rights that were terminated by a Maryland court he claims had no personal jurisdiction over him because his sole contact with the state was his daughter, who ...

Family law legislation this coming Maryland General Assembly session will be aimed at protecting low- income residents going through divorce, children of jailed guardians and people being stalked by technologically savvy ex-spouses. A bill will also be reintroduced for the ...

The we’ve-always-done-it-that-way defense has failed in Maryland’s second-highest court, which ruled in late July that a finding of a child in need of assistance must be proven with evidence and testimony rather than just presumed based on a referenced social ...

An adult intimately involved in a child’s upbringing cannot be regarded as a “de facto parent” with a claim to visitation or a share of custody unless both of the youngster’s legal parents consented to and fostered the child’s parent-like ...

A divorcing couple’s fight over the fate of their frozen pre-embryo will return to trial after Maryland’s second-highest court ruled Thursday that a judge’s decision to await an agreement between the warring spouses was premature because the wife wants to ...

One parent’s incessant and insulting criticism of the other to their child does not give rise to a compensable claim of intentional interference with parental relations by the criticized parent, even if the child does not want to visit him ...