Due Process Requires Ex Parte Notice, Even in Family Law Matters
by Virginia Leen
If you represent men in family law matters in Washington, it is common to have a client come into the office with a stack of papers — the first one being a court order already signed by a judge, kicking your client out of the family house, limiting or completely restricting time with his children, and ordering payment of bills and support. The orders contain a date to return to court approximately two weeks later so that he can present his side of the story. In almost every case like this I have seen, the man was given absolutely no prior notice that the ex parte orders were being sought, and given 20 minutes to gather his wits and personal property. After practicing family law in Los Angeles County for seven years prior to moving to Washington, I was shocked by this.
wsba.org/media/publications/barnews/bn-sept10-due+process+requires+ex+parte.htm.
In the Bronx, young single fathers (16 -24) who want to bone up on their parenting skills can participate in the Bronx Fatherhood Program.
The program runs the gamut from teaching dads how to properly feed and bathe their children to teaching them how to interact with their kids’ mothers, so they aren’t denied access.
Most students probably didn’t have good family role models growing up.
Despite this, one alumnus of the program spends several hours every day after work with his toddler daughter.
For him, every day is Father’s Day. That’s the good news.
The bad news is that, according to recent studies, dads are now struggling as much as moms with juggling family responsibilities and work.
This is attributed to a combination of the lengthening work day and dads shouldering more domestic responsibilities.
Read more in this New York Times article: For a Young Parent, Lessons in Fatherhood and this New York Times article: Now, Dad Feels as Stressed as Mom.
North Carolina Husband and Wife have two children.
Husband works as corrections officer.
Wife files for child custody, support and alimony.
Trial court orders Husband to pay ,100 in monthly child and spousal support.
Husband quits his corrections officer job after entry of the support order. …
And joins a religious commune which forbids members from making money outside the commune.
Husband fails to pay court-ordered support.
Wife files for contempt.
Husband defends on the basis of religious freedom and inability to pay.
Trial court finds that Husband’s new religious beliefs are genuine. …
And holds Husband in contempt anyway.
Husband’s change of religious heart flies in the face of the court’s order.
Husband appeals.
Appellate court affirms and holds Husband to his court-ordered support payments.
Read more in this Courthouse News Service article: Faith Is ‘Irrelevant’ to Child Support, Court Says.
In a fascinating study, divorce was found to be contagious. According to a study at the Framington Heart Study, a person whose friend or sibling gets a divorce is more likely to get divorced
As detailed in the study , the researchers found that:
Divorce is the dissolution of a social tie, but it is also possible that attitudes about divorce flow across social ties . . . We find that divorce can spread between friends, siblings, and coworkers, and there are clusters of divorcees that extend two degrees of separation in the network. We also find that popular people are less likely to get divorced, divorcees have denser social networks, and they are much more likely to remarry other divorcees.
The “contagious” nature of divorce is unlikely to be caused by shared environmental factors because friends who live far away are just as influential as those who live close by. But, having children mitigates the susceptibility to being influenced by peers who get divorced
The study concludes that attending to the health of one’s friends’ marriages serves to support and enhance the durability of one’s own relationship, and that divorce should be understood as a collective phenomenon that extends far beyond those directly affected.
An upstate New York mental health professional (Evaluator) has been arrested for allegedly falsifying his credentials … for the purpose of securing contracts with government agencies to perform court-ordered psychological evaluations.
Several charges were brought against him, some of them felonies.
The institutions reportedly granting some or all of his degrees were not legimate educational institutions, but rather pay-for-a-degree mills.
The Evaluator reportedly performed numerous court-ordered psychological evaluations over the years, which played decisive roles in child custody and timesharing rulings in family court cases, among other cases.
If the Evaluator is convicted, it could spur a significant amount of family court litigation in the communities he served.
Read more in this Glen Falls [NY] Post-Star article: Special prosecutor assigned in false credentials case and this West Palm Beach Examiner article: Doctor under contract to Saratoga Public Defenders Office arrested, alleged phony college degrees.
It’s the digital equivalent of waving at someone from across a crowded room.
And yet a Tennessee woman was arrested last month for “poking” another user on Facebook.
According to an affidavit filed with the Sumner County General Sessions Court on Sept. 25, Shannon D. Jackson of Hendersonville, Tenn., allegedly violated a legal order of protection that had been previously filed against her when she sent a virtual “poke” to another woman on Facebook.
The Facebook poke feature can be used to convey a variety of meanings, including simply saying “hi” to friends, according to Facebook. When you poke someone, an alert pops up in the corner of that person’s Facebook page notifying them of your poke.
Although Jackson declined to comment, her lawyer, Lawren Lassiter, told ABCNews.com that his client was “extremely shocked” when the police arrested her.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/AheadoftheCurve/tennessee-woman-arrested-facebook-poke/story?id=8807685
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