Family Law Prof Blog

State Spotlight: North Carolina, Green v. Carter

From North Carolina Lawyers Weekly:

The trial court did not have a legal basis to order plaintiff to pay child support.

We reversed the trial court’s order and remanded for further proceedings.

This case raised the issue of whether plaintiff, who is not the child’s parent but who is a person acting as a parent, can be required to pay child support under North Carolina General Statute Section 50-13.4(b). Based on long-established North Carolina law, the short answer is no: plaintiff cannot be required to pay child support unless she is the child’s mother or father or she agreed formally, in writing, to pay child support. The long answer required us to interpret North Carolina General Statute Section 50-13.4(b), which governs both primary liability and secondary liability for child support. The difference between primary and secondary liability for child support is that a person may be held secondarily liable for child support only if the people who are primarily liable – the child’s parents – cannot adequately provide for the child’s needs.

Because the parties are women who were previously in a romantic relationship, never married, and share custody of the child equally, the trial court determined that plaintiff is primarily liable to pay child support, as a “parent,” based on a novel “gender neutral” interpretation of North Carolina General Statute Section 50-13.4. But based on the well-established law, the trial court did not have a legal basis to order plaintiff to pay child support. Instead of being “gender neutral” in application, the trial court’s interpretation of North Carolina General Statute Section 50-13.4(b) created a different result than would have been required under the law if the parties to this case had been a heterosexual couple. North Carolina General Statute Section 50-13.4(b) has the same application to both same-sex unmarried couples who have a child by in vitro fertilization as to unmarried heterosexual couples who have a child by in vitro fertilization if the male partner is not the donor of the sperm; neither can be required to pay child support.

Further, the General Assembly has given instructions in North Carolina General Statute Section 12-3(16) on when a statute may have a gender-neutral interpretation, and Section 50-13.4 is not covered by this statute. In addition, plaintiff also could not be secondarily liable to pay child support because this would violate established precedent addressing child support liability for a person standing in loco parentis to a child, regardless of gender.

Reversed and remanded.

Read more here.

Read Green v. Carter here.

 

Belgium Ex-King may be Fined for DNA Test Refusal

From BBC News:

A Belgian appeals court has ruled that former King Albert II is to be fined €5,000 (£4,370) a day if he refuses to undergo a DNA test.

In February, he refused to undergo such a test in a case aimed at proving he fathered a love child in the 1960s.

A court in Brussels ordered the 84-year-old ex-monarch to provide a saliva sample in three months or risk being presumed to be the father of Delphine Boël, 50.

The ex-king denies the paternity claim.

Read more here.

Brazilian Twin Brothers Forced to Pay Child Support After Inconclusive Paternity Test

From Fox News:

Twin brothers in Brazil are being forced to each pay child support after a paternity test was unable to confirm who the father of a newborn baby is.

The identical twins refused to admit who the father of the baby girl was in an attempt to avoid making support payments. After additional DNA testing was done and returned inconclusive, a judge made the decision to hold them both accountable for supporting the child.

The brothers, whose identities remain anonymous, have been using their physical similarities to trick women into thinking they were the other person.

“They each used the other’s name, either to attract as many women as possible or to hide betrayal in their relationships,” the ruling judge wrote in a statement.

Read more here.

Anthem Indiana Joins Indiana Legal Services to Provide Medicaid Consumers Access to Free Legal Services

From The Associated Press:

Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield Indiana (Anthem) today announced the launch of a new medical-legal partnership pilot with Indiana Legal Services to improve the health and quality of life of Medicaid consumers in Central Indiana through free legal assistance. This first-of-its-kind partnership will offer legal counseling for issues with housing and utilities, income support, education and employment and family law, including guardianship, child support, child welfare and custody.

The program will be available to all Central Indiana Medicaid consumers, including those in the Healthy Indiana Plan (HIP), Hoosier Healthwise, Hoosier Care Connect and traditional Fee-For-Service.

“This program exemplifies Anthem’s commitment to not only providing healthcare services but also looking for innovative programs that help address other issues that impact health and quality of life,” said Dr. Kimberly Roop, Medicaid plan president at Anthem Indiana. “We know Medicaid consumers have a broad range of civil legal needs and providing access to attorney services will help remove a social barrier to their overall well-being.”

Read more here.

Pregnancy and Divorce

From Lawyers.com (Gerard F. Miles):

Couples going through a divorce are amid one of life’s most stressful episodes. When there is a pregnancy involved, the emotions and tension are amplified. When a baby is on the way, an already difficult situation becomes even more complicated. During a typical divorce, emotions run high as each decision and agreement are legally formalized. It can be dizzying for anyone trying to prepare themselves for the next phase of their life; one without their spouse. When a pregnancy is involved, a child brings the concerns for an additional person into the mix.

Working Together to Be Apart
Divorcing couples may benefit from an intermediary who can help to fairly divide their marital assets. Beyond that, a counselor may be able to help both divorcing parents remain focused on the future needs of the baby, who will surely benefit most from a peaceful and well-considered parental breakup.

Parental Planning
Parents want the best for their children, and children fare much better in life when their parents work together to address their needs. Often, these needs are best assessed even before the baby arrives. Typically, parents planning for a baby discuss all aspects of preparations. This is crucial in instances where co-parents will be living separately. In these cases, it is worthwhile to come up with a parenting plan.

Read more here.

Gay Singaporean Man Can Adopt Son Born Via Surrogacy

From CNN:

A gay Singaporean doctor has won the right to adopt a child he fathered in the United States through a surrogate, in a landmark ruling for the socially conservative country.

On Monday, Singapore's High Court overturned a 2017 ruling in which a district judge said the man could not legally adopt the child because he was conceived through in vitro fertilization -- a process limited to heterosexual married couples in Singapore -- and brought to term through surrogacy, which is technically banned.

Under Singapore law, children born out of wedlock are considered illegitimate and do not have the same rights as those born to married couples, unless legally adopted.

Read more here.

Canada's 'Use-It-Or-Lose-It' Parental Leave Comes Three Months Early

From iPolitics:

Soon-to-be-parents will be able to access extra weeks of leave three months earlier than expected.

This year’s federal budget announced additional weeks of “use-it-or-lose-it” leave for non-birthing parents.

The federal government initially set June 2019 as the start date — but now the Liberals say parents can become eligible for the extra weeks in mid-March.

Only parents whose children are born or adopted after March 17 will be able to take advantage of the additional weeks.

Read more here.

Mandatory Paternity Leave for Hongkongers A Mistake

From South China Morning Post:

A pro-establishment lawmaker representing catering sector employers continued to oppose a Hong Kong government proposal to increase statutory paternity leave from three days to five, claiming the benefit itself should not even exist, as demands for more would be “never-ending”.

Tommy Cheung Yu-yan, an executive councillor and chairman of the business-friendly Liberal Party, said on Thursday that the granting of paternity leave should be left to the employer’s discretion rather than being a statutory right, as the city had a “severe shortage of workers”.

“Every year, it’s like this. When the government proposes to add two days, labour unions and lawmakers demand more meat on the bone,” he said on a radio programme. “Some will want seven days, others will call for 10.”

Read more here.

Supreme Court Decision Gives Local Dads New Hope on Fighting for Paternal Rights

From WPTV (West Palm Beach):

Local fathers have been fighting a Florida law for years, and now they have the Supreme Court on their side.

A judge decided a Florida law can no longer keep biological fathers from trying to establish paternal rights in cases where the child was born to a mother married to another man. 

Christopher Farrell got to hold his son once months after he was born.

"It gets emotional; it hurts at times trying to think how far he’s progressing, what's his speech like? Is he saying different words? What's his favorite animal?" said Farrell.

Three years ago, he found out his then-girlfriend was pregnant, and he put together a nursery at his Loxahatchee home for his soon to be son. During her pregnancy, Farrell said she got back with her husband and cut off all ties with him. 

Read more here.

Countries That Guarantee Paid Paternity Leave

 

From NPR:

What do China, India, South Sudan and the United States have in common?

They are among the 92 countries where there is no national policy that allow dads to take paid time off work to care for their newborns.

According to a data analysis released on Thursday by UNICEF, the U.N. children's agency, almost two-thirds of the world's children under age 1 — nearly 90 million — live in countries where dads are not entitled by law to take paid paternity leave. In these countries, this policy is typically decided by employers.

The data, mapped in an interactive chart produced by World Policy Analysis Center at UCLA's Fielding School of Public Health, allows users to scroll over a country to see its policy on paid paternity leave: no paid leave, less than three weeks (for most countries, that means one week or less), three to 13 weeks or 14 weeks or more. Users can also compare this data with paid maternity leave around the world. According to the center, 185 countries guarantee paid leave for mothers, with at least 14 weeks of leave in 106 countries.

Read more here.

 

 

Fifth Third Bank Offers Paternity Leave

From Fox 17 Morning News:

Giving fathers paid time off after the birth of a child is becoming more common but, while it comes with great benefits for the family, some dads may hesitate to take advantage of it.

A big concern for some new parents is how much time do you take away from work, whether it's due to pay issues, or because of what a particular job requires.

In Grand Rapids, Fifth Third Bank is now offering employees paternity leave of a month off, fully-paid.

Read more here.

Legal Father Can't Set Aside Paternity

From The Indiana Lawyer:

A legal father seeking to set aside paternity of his two non-biological children has lost his appeal to the Indiana Court of Appeals, which found the father failed to meet the legal requirements for paternity rescission.

After E.S.F. gave birth to B.M., B.S.M. signed a paternity affidavit for the child knowing he was not the biological father. He signed the same affidavit for O.M., though he suspected he also might not have been his biological father, either.  

Several years after the children were born, E.S.F. filed petitions to establish support of B.M. and O.M. based on the paternity affidavits. The Marion Circuit Court entered judgments of paternity and support, which B.S.M. moved to set aside under Indiana Trial Rule 60(B). He also moved for genetic testing of the children.

Read more here.

2 year statute of limitations applies to set aside a paternity and child support order, even if fraud exists.

2 Year Statute of Limitations Still Applies in Fraudulent Paternity Suit

From Missouri Divorce and Family Law:

Mother and Father (T.B.) had a baby in 2000.  Mother told T.B. he was the father, and he signed an affidavit acknowledging paternity.  The Family Support Division made an administrative determination that T.B. was the legal father, and ordered T.B. to pay child support for the child in February 2001.

Sometime prior to June 2010, to clear her conscience, Mother told T.B. that he was not the biological father.  Father filed a declaration of non-paternity on August 27, 2012.  He attached a DNA test report showing he was not the biological father of the child.  T.B. sought relief under Rule 74.06(d), asserting that Mother had perpetuated fraud against him by making false statements to him that he was the biological father when she knew he wasn’t.

The trial court concluded that T.B.’s right to bring an action for extrinsic fraud was foreclosed by the statutory time limit for him to contest paternity, which had run.

T.B. appealed.

Read more here.

New Poll Shows Strong Support for Paid Family Leave Programs

People say "Yes!" to Family Leave Programs

From ABC News:

Time off from work to care for a child or relative is codified in federal law. Now, an overwhelming majority of Americans 40 and older want that time away from the job to be paid.

An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released Friday said 72 percent support paid family leave. Democrats were more likely to back it, but Republicans also expressed strong support. Overall, support was stronger among people age 40-64 and among women.

At least 19 states are considering paid family leave laws, but only three have active programs. New York, the latest to approve it, will launch its program in 2018.

"There is a lot of interest and a lot of momentum," said Ellen Bravo, executive director of Family Values @ Work, an advocacy group. "We hope that over the next five years a critical mass of states will win these policies."

Read more here.

Could Paid Parental Leave Happen in Indianapolis?

From Fox 59:

Paid parental leave is a growing trend across the country. New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island and California all have laws requiring paid leave for new parents.

On Tuesday, San Francisco became the first city in the nation to require employers to give six weeks paid parental leave, but could it happen in Indianapolis?

Lawmakers say it’s a great idea, but are unclear at this point if it can become a reality in Indianapolis.

Councilman Jeff Miller says any discussion on paid parental needs to be well thought out and local businesses need to be included in the conversation.

“It would take a lot of research on our part. You know it’s very early to say what would or wouldn’t work in Indianapolis, but what I do like is we have examples being put out there that we can look at, monitor,” said Councilman Miller.

In Indiana, parents can take up to 12 weeks off a year through the Family Medical Leave Act, but it's unpaid.

Parents say this could be big for all Hoosier families if it becomes a reality.

Read more here.

Paternity Leave: How Britain Compares With the Rest of the World

From The Telegraph:

A new incentive was launched in Sweden this week encouraging fathers to take three months paid paternity leave. Like several European countries, Sweden has a ‘daddy quota’ of paid time off that’s allocated to couples as a unit, but only allowed to be taken by the father and therefore lost if he chooses not to take it. The new 30-day extension, which came into force on January 1, follows a successful increase to two months in 2002.

It's a policy designed to ensure men take more of the childcare burden, and the latest change is expected to be embraced by fathers in Sweden, which was the first to introduce gender-indifferent parental leave in 1974. Already, men there take an average of three months off work to look after their newborns; in Britain less than 10% exceed the statutory two weeks, often citing a fear of falling behind in the rat race.

Currently UK fathers are eligible to take one or two weeks paid leaveany time within 56 days of the birth. As a result of changes championed by Nick Clegg in 2014, there is also an option of taking between two and 26 additional weeks off, with each extra week subtracted from your partner's remaining allocation.

The Scandinavian stances on parental leave – as with so many other social policies – may make the UK's seem staid and imbalanced, then, but how do our rights compare with fathers around the world?

 

Read more here.

"Super Dads" are Challenging Gender Roles in South Korea

From Business Insider:

Chung Sang-hoon, 34, has taken a year off of his intensive sales job to stay at home with his children.

Taking paternity leave was previously unheard of in South Korea. Now, a small group of "superdads" are joining a growing, government-encouraged movement.

"The reason I took childcare leave is I want to be different from my father's generation," Sang-hoon said. "Everything is definitely worth it, from preparing breakfast to doing the dishes. I can live for the sake of values I find important."

His wife, Jeon Jeong-mi, said her husband taking paternity leave has been a huge help to her career.

"I can work without feeling pressure," she told Reuters. "I don't have to worry about home. And I do not have to go home early. Also, I do not need to feel sorry for my kids whenever I go to work in the morning."

These "superdads" are challenging gender roles in South Korea, where men are expected to work long hours and be minimally involved with raising kids.

The country's rigid gender expectations have led South Korean women to believe they're being punished in the workplace because they may have to take time off to care for their kids down the road, per Reuters.

As a result, South Korea has the lowest birth rate of wealthy nations, which is why South Korean President Park Geun-hye has made increasing the number of men who take paternity leave a priority — both to address the low birth rate and to give women's careers a boost.

Read more here.

Men More Likely To Take Paternity Leave for Son, Research Says

From NBC News:

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced recently that he would be taking two months off when his daughter is born. We don't know when his wife, Priscilla Chan, is due, but the announcement prompted an immediate discussion of paternity leave and parental benefits.

It turns out Zuckerberg isn't the type of Californian who normally takes paternity leave. Newly published research suggests that men are more likely to take time off when they're having a boy than a girl. They are also more likely to take time off when they work in female-dominated occupations (which tech is most certainly not).

California is one of only three states that has legislation providing paid family leave for all full-time employees. In fact, the U.S. is the only industrialized nation that doesn't have a national paid family leave policy.

A team of professors from Columbia University, the University of California-Santa Barbara and the University of Virginia used data from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey to study the effects of California's Paid Family Leave program (CA-PFL) on parents' decision to take time off when their children are born. The law was passed in 2002 and took effect in 2004.

The data show that men were 46 percent more likely to take paid parental leave in the first year of their child's life when CA-PFL was made available. That's a big relative gain, but in absolute terms there is a long way to go — the law boosted paternity leave to 2.9 percent from 2.0 percent.

Read more here.

 

Amazon Increases Parental Leave, Offers Paid Paternity Leave for First Time

From PBS NewsHour:

Amazon announced to its employees today that it has increased the amount of leave time it is giving to new parents, joining a host of other tech companies that are extending benefits in order to attract top talent.

Amazon’s policy change comes after a blistering New York Times investigation in which the company was lambasted for fostering a harsh work culture. The article included examples of women who felt they were penalized for trying to spend time caring for children or relatives. It’s a portrayal the company disputes.

Under the policy, all new parents, including those who are adopting a child, will get six weeks of paid leave. This means that birth mothers, who already had 10 weeks of leave, will now have 16 weeks of leave time, or 20 if they qualify for an additional four weeks of medical leave. New fathers, who previously did not have paid leave time, will now be able to take paid time off.

Additionally, Amazon is introducing a “leave share program” where employees can give some of their leave to a partner at another company. Under this program if the partner does not have paid parental leave, the Amazon employee returns to work, and the partner will be paid by Amazon to stay home. Returning to work, primary caregivers will have the option of working part-time for their first eight weeks back.

Amazon’s changes also come in the wake of Netflix's highly publicized policy of giving new parents unlimited time off during the first year after their child’s birth or adoption. Other tech companies such as Facebook, Apple, Google and Yahoo all offer maternity leave of at least 16 weeks for birth mothers, and at least six weeks paternity leave for fathers and non-biological parents.

Read more here.

U.S. Navy Considering Extending Paternity Leave

From Medina County Gazette:

The Navy’s top officer said Tuesday the service is considering extending paternity leave for new fathers.

The Navy currently awards married fathers up to 10 days of paid leave upon the birth of a child. In July, the Navy tripled paid maternity leave for female sailors and Marines to 18 weeks.

A female sailor asked Navy Adm. John Richardson during a meeting with hundreds of service members at a Pearl Harbor pier whether the Navy might increase paternity leave as well.

Richardson said it was something officials in Washington were now discussing.

Richardson and Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy Mike Stevens called about 10 sailors who became new fathers within the past year to the front of the pier and asked them how much paternity leave the Navy should offer.

The group quickly discussed the issue, and then replied their consensus was that the Navy should give 30 days of paternity leave.

Richardson said he’ll take that opinion back to Washington.

Read more here.