Family Law Prof Blog

30-Year-Old Divorce Ends

From the Times of India:

NEW DELHI: They were together for less than a day yet fought a prolonged battle for over 30 years to get rid of each other. The Delhi High Court on Monday brought down the curtains on a three-decade-long divorce battle between a couple that had spent just half a day together after tying the knot in 1982. It granted the divorce decree to the husband who accused his wife of deserting him on the very day of the wedding.

Read more here.

MR

Baker: "The Failure and Promise of Equity in Domestic Abuse Cases"

Jeffrey Baker (Faulkner Univ. Jones School of Law) has posted "The Failure and Promise of Equity in Domestic Abuse Cases" on SSRN.  Here is the abstract:

In a generation, American law has experienced dramatic reforms in response to domestic abuse. Feminist activism prompted and has driven these reforms and a deeper cultural understanding of domestic abuse, and recent legal innovation has yielded more effective options for victims of domestic violence. Virtually all of these reforms built upon existing legal structures to afford specific process and remedies to victims of domestic abuse, but why were innovations necessary if existing legal structures could have intervened on their own extant authority? 

Customary, common law equity might have intervened effectively to interrupt violence in homes, to render injunctive relief for the protection of women and children, and to examine the dynamics of family violence. Despite this promise, equity failed for centuries as a means to protect victims of abuse in families. Now, equity has evolved, and society and culture are far better illuminated on matters of gender justice and the dynamics of intimate violence. Feminist reforms have taken root and flourished, and thelaw now empowers courts to intervene regularly in family matters. A persistent problem rises when lawmakers attempt to craft broad standards to address individualized, customized abuse. Equity can expand the tools available to courts to render justice for victims, especially victims who are not subject to physical violence. Equity can be an interstitial supplement when general law cannot accommodate unique, specific relationships that are abusive and violent. 

This Article considers why traditional, common law equity failed historically to address domestic abuse and examines how equity now intersects with other legal remedies for victims. It concludes with a call to refine and improve equity in light of an illuminated, modern understanding of domestic abuse and gender justice, while claiming the old moral demands of a good judicial conscience, one that will suffer no wrong without rendering adequate, preventative and moral relief.

AC

Divorce Linked to Earlier Death, Like Cigarettes

From MSN:

Better to have loved and lost than never loved at all? Er, maybe not. A new study entitled "Divorce and Death" appearing "Psychological Science" shows that broken marriages can kill at the same rate as smoking cigarettes.

Indications that the risk of dying is a full 23 percent higher among divorcées than married people surprised even the researchers, who didn't think life expectancy would be slashed to ages comparable with smokers, heavy drinkers, and the obese.

Read more here.

MR

Electronic Bracelets for Weight Control

From the New York Post:

A group of Long Island students will soon be wearing controversial electronic monitors that allow school officials to track their physical activity around the clock.

The athletics chair for the Bay Shore schools ordered 10 Polar Active monitors, at $90 a pop, for use starting this spring. The wristwatchlike devices count heartbeats, detect motion and even track students’ sleeping habits in a bid to combat obesity.

The information is displayed on a color-coded screen and gets transmitted to a password-protected Web site that students and educators can access.

Read more here.

MR

Seductive Damages in Zimbabwe

From the metro zimbabwe:

Zimmetro — A woman whose married lover lied to her that he was single is claiming US$2 000 in what she calls seductive damages. Eustina Marikiti has taken former boyfriend Moses Crater to the Harare Civil Courts seeking damages.

“I want US$2000 as seductive damages because I was in a relationship and we used to be intimate. He didn’t tell me the truth that he was a married man,” said Eustina.

Read more here.

MR

 

British Courts on Adoption of Baby Resulting from Affair

From the Independent:

A Muslim man who had a baby with an unmarried woman has been told that his daughter must remain with an adopted family because there is too great a risk that his love child could become the victim of a so-called “honour killing”.

Three senior judges today ruled that a “desire to preserve the family’s honour” among the mother’s relatives meant placing the child with the father was simply too dangerous.

Describing the case as an “exceptionally difficult adoption proceeding”, the Court of Appeal ruled that a family court judge had been right to insist that the child be brought up by Muslin foster parents for her own safety.

Read more here.

MR

Proposal Planners

From the Daily Mail:

We're all familiar with how wedding planners can navigate us around the tricky maze of getting married.

But now a new industry has emerged, for helping men pop the question in the first place.

Proposal planners have discovered a demand for lavish scenarios, be it white doves, helicopter rides, a favourite musician - all with a photographer on hand to record the magic moment.

Read more here.

MR

CA Family Law Changes

From PR Web:

Major changes in California’s divorce law are expected in 2012 per changes to California Family Law Code 3042. The changes are a result of the Elkins Family Law Task Force’s final report and recommendations from April 2010. The new legislation will affect how, when and if minor children can testify in divorce and custody cases, and what will be expected of them, the parents, family law attorneys, and the court itself.

Read more here.

MR

Child Custody Battle under Indian Child Welfare Act

From WLTX.com: 

Lowcountry couple with a Midlands connection is working to get back the little girl they adopted two years ago, after a judge granted custody to the biological father under the Indian Child Welfare Act.

"I'll always remember her crying when we had to - we had to walk out of that office and leave her there," says Melanie Capobianco. Two years ago, she and her husband Matt first helped to welcome Veronica into the world.

According to their website, her birth mother selected the Charleston couple to adopt her and they remain close. They also say her birth father signed a document saying he wouldn't contest the adoption. But after a court battle, Veronica's birth father claimed custody under the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978.

Read more here.

MR

Facebook Stalking in Family Law...Again

From the London Telegraph:

The popularity of social networking websites has seen an increase in breaches of guidelines against unplanned contact with hundreds of adopted children unexpectedly hearing from their natural families.

In the worst cases, some young people taken into care in the 1990s have seen relationships with their adoptive families completely break down after hearing from their biological parents.

Read more here.

MR

CO Divorce Waiting Period Proposed

From the Denverpost.com:

A state lawmaker who wants to make it more difficult for parents to divorce said he initially had no idea that legislators a decade ago killed a similar proposal dubbed the "Dr. Laura" bill.

Sen. Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud, said he believes his proposal stands a better chance because it makes exceptions, such as in cases of domestic violence or sexual abuse.

The bill would require parents who have minor children and are considering divorce to first undergo educational instruction "that tells them how this impacts their children," he said. Then there would be a waiting period before filing for divorce.

"We have made it just too easy to bail out of a marriage," Lundberg said.

Read more here.

MR

 

In Malaysian News...

From the StarOnline:

A TRAINING manager in Kuala Lumpur was fined RM500 by the Syariah Court for divorcing his wife inside a car on his birthday three years ago, reported Harian Metro.

Hasbullah Hashim, 53, was charged under Section 124 of the Islamic Family Law Act for divorcing outside the court without permission.

Read more here.

MR

Modern Common Law Marriage

From the Huffington Post:

When live-in lovers decide to call it quits, the parties' relationship is not always severed by a simple division of their furniture. If romantic partners have been cohabitating for a lengthy period of time and have commingled their assets and debts, their break-up in any jurisdiction may quickly give rise to disputes about the division of home equity, bank accounts and/or the payment of credit cards and other debts. However, when cohabitating parties end their relationship in a state which recognizes common law marriage, broken hearts are sometimes followed by a legal dispute which goes to the very heart of the matter. In divorce court, the parties' case begins with their conflicting responses to the critical question, "Are you married?"

Common law marriage is fully recognized in nine states and the District of Columbia. In seven additional states, common law marriage is only recognized for limited purposes or if the marriage arose prior to a certain date.

Read more here.

MR

Wedding Dress Theft

From kjrh.com: 

TULSA - Up to $70,000 worth of merchandise is stolen from a bridal shop in South Tulsa. Police believe the job was professionally done.

Bridal Palace was broken into early Tuesday morning. Thieves cut out the glass on the back door to enter. Detectives believe it took up to three hours to complete the job. 

The theft leaves soon to be brides and their bridesmaids without anything to wear.

 

Read more here.

MR

Divorce Bestsellers

The Huffington Post has a list of bestselling movies/books with a divorce featured in the plot.  Read it here.

MR

Indians Turning to Surrogacy Too?

Are Indians turning to surrogacy themselves after becoming an international fertility tourist destination?  From IBNLive:

New Delhi: Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao are among the first celebrities to talk about it openly, but how many Indians are turning to surrogacy? Or even know about the possibilities of IVF? It's a pressing issue given that 30 million couples in India struggle with infertility.

...

At this point, India doesn't have a law governing IVF or surrogacy but there is a draft bill in the works that aims to protect the rights of surrogates, and regulate the assisted reproduction industry in India estimated to be worth more than Rs 25,000 crore. That's even as a debate is raging worldwide.

Read more here.

MR

British "HP Divorces"

From the UK Financial Times:

People have long spread the pain of buying fridges, televisions and cars by paying in instalments. Now, many are bringing the same principle to the cost of divorce.

The number of cases ending in staggered payments rather than one-off settlements has risen by 50 per cent since 2008, when the financial crisis first began biting, according to Pannone, a Manchester-based law firm.

The practice has been dubbed “HP divorce” after the hire purchase agreements typically used to buy expensive consumer goods. Increased economic turbulence, job insecurity and the drying up of credit has fuelled growth in the phenomenon.

Read more here.

MR

Cahn's Review of Hartog's "Someday All This Will be Yours: A History of Inheritance and Old Age"

Over at Concurring Opinions, Naomi Cahn of George Washington University Law School recently reviewed Hendrik Hartog's "Someday All This Will be Yours: A History of Inheritance and Old Age" (Harvard University Press 2012).  Cahn wrote:

The book touches upon family law, trusts and estates, property, contract, commodification, and (of course) the role of legal history, and  it pulls these together  with wonderful complexity and intertwined themes.   It also should speak to many people on a personal level, whether they feel “’trapped’” into caring for elderly family members, well-compensated for providing this care, or simply honored to do so.

Read more here.

MR

 

Levi: "Marriage Equality for Same-Sex Couples: Where We Are and Where We Are Going"

Jennifer Levi (Western New England Univ. School of Law) has posted "Marriage Equality for Same-Sex Couples: Where We Are and Where We Are Going" on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

The legal landscape for same-sex couples seeking to marry has shifted dramatically over the last five years. On October 10, 2008, the Connecticut Supreme Court became the third state high court to rule that its state constitution could not sustain a statutory framework that excludes same-sex couples from marrying, following the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on November 18, 2003, and the California Supreme Court on May 15, 2008. Same-sex couples throughout the country have gotten married in Connecticut, Massachusetts, California, and in other countries throughout the world that provide full marriage equality, including in Canada. The Author discusses the developments in same-sex marriage in various jurisdictions.

AC