Law Commons^™

Alimony Treatment For A Single Payment, Douglas A. Kahn

Articles

Before 1942 alimony paid to a former spouse was not included in the spouse’s gross income. In 1942 Congress adopted the antecedent to section 71. Although an alimony recipient must recognize gross income, section 215 provides the payer with a nonitemized deduction for the payment. Therefore, the alimony tax provisions provide a congressionally approved income-splitting arrangement which can benefit the parties by shifting income from a high-bracket taxpayer to one in a lower tax bracket. The parties can divide the resulting savings between them by altering the amount paid to the former spouse.

Evidence Issues In Cina Cases, Lynn Mclain

All Faculty Scholarship

This handout reviews different evidence issues involved in CINA (Children in Need of Assistance) cases in Maryland.

Deporting Grandma: Why Grandparent Deportation May Be The Next Big Immigration Crisis And How To Solve It, Marcia A. Yablon-Zug

Faculty Publications

This Article explores the issue of grandparent caregiver deportation. The phenomenon of grandparents raising grandchildren is not new, but the number of children being raised by grandparents is at an all-time high and growing. Numerous circumstances can lead to a grandparent's assumption of caregiving responsibilities, but in most cases, grandparents assume this role because there is no one else. For thousands of children, grandparents are the only family they have, and without them these children would be placed in foster care and subject to the serious problems that plague children in foster care. The importance of grandparent caregivers cannot be …

Community Based Divorce Education Programmes: Short-Term And Longer-Term Impacts, Sherrill Hayes, Lori Pelletier

Faculty and Research Publications

Surveys of mandatory parent education in the USA (M J Geasler and K R Blaisure, ‘A review of divorce education programme materials’ (1998) 47 Family Relations 167–175; M J Geasler and K R Blaisure, ‘1998 Nationwide survey of court-connected divorce education programmes’ (1999) 37 Family and Conciliation Courts Review 36–63; S L Pollet and M Lombreglia, ‘A nationwide survey of mandatory parent education’ (2008) 46(2) Family Court Review 375–394) have demonstrated the positive impact of well-designed, evidence-based programmes on children and families. Divorce education programmes for parents are now required in many jurisdictions in 46 states in the USA (Pollet …

Testimony Before The D.C. Council On Marriage Equality & Domestic Partnerships, Nancy Polikoff

Congressional and Other Testimony

An expert on family law issues affecting gay and lesbian couples, parents and their children, the author provides testimony in support of deleting a provision from pending legislation that would eliminate the legal status of domestic partnerships in Washington, DC. Legal status of domestic partnerships recognizes committed familial relationships other than marriage and is important to family stability and to allocate rights and responsibilities of gay and lesbian couples.

Stop The Killing: Potential Courtroom Use Of A Questionnaire That Predicts The Likelihood That A Victim Of Intimate Partner Violence Will Be Murdered By Her Partner, Amanda Hitt, Lynn Mclain

All Faculty Scholarship

Judges in domestic cases often underestimate the risk to a mother and her children that an angry and abusive father or other intimate partner poses. In a recent Maryland case, for example, two judges refused to deny a father visitation or require that visitation be supervised, despite the fact that the father had threatened suicide. During the father’s unsupervised visitation, he drowned all three of his children, then attempted to kill himself.

The Danger Assessment tool (the D.A.) developed by a Johns Hopkins Nursing professor and validated by herself and other social scientists shows how much the father’s thoughts of …

Same-Sex Relationships And The Full Faith And Credit Clause: Reducing America To The Lowest Common Denominator, Rena M. Lindevaldsen

Faculty Publications and Presentations

This Article examines the legal and policy implications that arise when a state that expressly prohibits recognition or enforcement of any rights arising from a same-sex relationship is confronted with a request to register and enforce a child custody order issued by another state that gives custody or visitation rights to a biological mother's former same-sex partner. As more states confer marital rights to same-sex couples, this issue will occur with increasing frequency. The first reported case in the nation to address the issue, Miller-Jenkins v. Miller-Jenkins, has garnered attention from the national media, including a cover story in the …

U.S. Immigration Law And The Traditional Nuclear Conception Of Family: Toward A Functional Definition Of Family That Protects Children's Fundamental Human Rights, Shani M. King

UF Law Faculty Publications

Although the paramount purpose of United States immigration law is not to protect the integrity of family, U.S.immigration law does explicitly aim to do so in certain circumstances. The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) includes family reunification provisions, for example, which allow United States citizens and lawful permanent residents to petition for family members who live in other countries to join them in the United States. Even the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA), often described as a draconian statute, technically allows otherwise removable "aliens" to remain in the United States if removal would result in …

Why We Should Ignore The "Octomom", Kimberly D. Krawiec

NULR Online

Few familiar with the story of Nadya Suleman­­—a single, low-income, California mother of six who recently gave birth to octuplets conceived through in vitro fertilization (IVF)—do not instinctively react with outrage. Fourteen children (or even one) are a daunting number under the best of conditions, and the conditions surrounding the Suleman births are far from ideal. Yet, as the old saying goes, “hard facts make bad law,” and Suleman, dubbed “the Octomom” by the media, exemplifies the truth of this adage.

Suleman’s hard facts have led not only to bad regulatory reform proposals, but also to public fury and social …

Flexible Work Arrangements: Improving Job Quality And Workforce Stability For Low-Wage Workers And Their Employers, Jessica Glenn, Liz Watson

Published Reports

In 2009, workers and their families across the country felt the impact of serious economic downturn, with unemployment reaching a 26-year high. While recent news suggests things may be improving, we cannot forget that for many low-wage and hourly workers -- who now represent over a quarter of the U.S. workforce -- the recession only exacerbated their ongoing struggle to hold down quality jobs while caring for their families.

Low-wage workers face many of the same challenges that the rest of us face in reconciling our work, family and personal lives, but for many of these workers, it's simply a …

Who Decides What Number Of Children Is "Right"?, June Carbone

NULR Online

I agree with Professors Cahn and Collins that “eight is enough.” I am perhaps more skeptical than they are about assisting Nadya Suleman, a mother who already has six children, to have more. I wonder whose funds financed fertility treatments for a single, unemployed mom on disability benefits, and, perhaps even more critically, who will fund the children’s ongoing care. I am certainly concerned about the dubious ethical standards of the doctor who provided the reproductive care. But I also have serious reservations about anyone choosing to impose my views—or those of others—on the country as a whole.

I therefore …

Civil Partnership: Your Questions Answered - A Comprehensive Analysis Of The Civil Partnership Bill, Fergus Ryan

Reports

The Civil Partnership Bill 2009 arguably represents the most momentous change in Irish Family Law in a generation. The Bill proposes a substantial new legal status for registered same-sex partners, as well as important changes to the law as it relates to cohabitants. This report addresses the provisions of the Bill as initiated, analysing the potential impact of the Bill in clear and accessible language. The Report also highlights potential difficulties with the Bill, and suggests possible enhancements to the Bill as initiated.

Collateral Children: Consequence And Illegality At The Intersection Of Foster Care And Child Support, Daniel L. Hatcher

All Faculty Scholarship

This Article is the third in a series addressing the conflict between state revenue maximization strategies and the missions of state agencies serving low-income children. The Article examines the policy of foster care cost recovery through child support enforcement. When children are removed from poor families and placed in foster care, federal law requires child welfare agencies to initiate child support obligations against the parents. Resulting payments do not benefit the children but are converted into a government funding stream to reimburse the costs of foster care. This cost recovery effort often subordinates the child welfare system’s primary goals of …

Legal Strategies To Address Child Support Obligations For Nonresident Fathers In The Child Welfare System, Daniel L. Hatcher

All Faculty Scholarship

The legal and practical issues surrounding child support obligations have enormous impact on families in the child welfare system. Unfortunately, these issues are often ignored, overlooked, or misunderstood. A much-needed effort to engage nonresident fathers in the child welfare system is underway, but those efforts will often be derailed if child support is not properly addressed. This article sheds light on the legal and policy concerns regarding child support enforcement in child protection cases and provides legal strategies for advocates to address those concerns. While primarily aimed at advocates for nonresident fathers, this article should also benefit advocates for custodial …

The Slip And Fall Of The California Legislature In The Classification Of Personal Injury Damages At Divorce And Death, Helen Y. Chang

Publications

Part I of this Article provides an overview of California's no-fault divorce reform, its haphazard development of community property laws, and the problems with the current statute classifying personal injury damages as community property during marriage and assigning those damages to the injured spouse at divorce, unless the interests of justice require an alternate disposition. Part II discusses the treatment and classification of personal injury damages in the eight other community property states and also offers a brief historical explanation of each state's community property origins. Part III concludes that the California legislature should amend the statute to classify personal …

Families Redefined: Kinship Groups That Deserve Benefits, Jane E. Cross, Nan Palmer, Charlene L. Smith

Faculty Scholarship

In Families Redefined: Kinship Groups that Deserve Benefits, the authors examine 1) the nature of kinship families, 2) the benefits accorded to married couples, 3) kinship families that lack protection and benefits, 4) the impact of denying kinship families protection and benefits, 5) the use of contract law in kinship relationships, and 6) using legislation to benefit kinship relationships.

This exploration of expanding family law protections to kinship groups addresses a series of interrelated topics. The first two sections of the article explore the characteristics and creation of kinship families in different societies. The third section addresses the legal …

A Comparison Of Two Theoretical Models Of Procedural Justice In The Context Of Child Protection Proceedings, Twila Wingrove

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In this study, the researcher tested two theoretical models of justice in the context of child protection proceedings. Participants read a case file describing a hypothetical child neglect case. The file included the court petition, the caseworker’s court report, a summary of the protective custody hearing, and the judge’s final order. Within the case file, the researcher manipulated four variables: procedural treatment, interpersonal treatment, severity of child neglect, and assigned role (judge or parent). Results of confirmatory factor analyses suggested that a four-factor model of justice judgments best fit the data. Consistent with the organizational justice approach (Colquitt, 2001) the …

Report Of The Law Reform Committee On Ancillary Orders After Foreign Divorce Or Annulment, Aqbal Singh, Debbie Ong, Yock Lin Tan, Tiong Min Yeo

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

A matrimonial order of divorce, nullity or legal separation is often followed by ancillary orders relating to division of matrimonial property, custody of children and maintenance. Under Singapore law, many of the court’s powers in respect of these types of orders depend on the court having jurisdiction to pronounce on the status of the marriage. If an order made by a foreign court is recognised to have annulled or dissolved the marriage, then it is not possible for the Singapore court to assume jurisdiction in respect of the marriage; there is no marriage to speak of anymore. The legal consequence …

Parent Education Programs: Review Of The Literature And Annotated Bibliography, Barbara A. Babb, Gloria Danziger, Judith D. Moran, Itta Englander

All Faculty Scholarship

Court-connected parent education programs are an integral family service component in most of the nation’s family courts. These programs are implemented to enable the courts to respond efficiently and effectively to the proliferation of cases involving separation, divorce, and related issues such as child custody and access (Sigal, Sandler, Wolchik, and Braver, 2008; Pollet and Lombreglia, 2008; McIntosh and Deacon-Wood, 2003). Since 2007, parent education classes are mandatory in forty-six states (Pollet and Lombreglia, 2008). In Maryland, every court with jurisdiction over divorce and child custody matters utilizes some form of parent education.

The findings discussed in this literature review …

(Still) Not Fit To Be Named: Moving Beyond Race To Explain Why 'Separate' Nomenclature For Gay And Straight Relationships Will Never Be 'Equal', Courtney Megan Cahill

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Public Policy Platform On Flexible Work Arrangements

Published Reports

On May 13, 2009, Workplace Flexibility 2010 released a comprehensive set of policy solutions to expand Americans’ access to flexible work arrangements such as compressed workweeks, predictable schedules, and telecommuting.

Flexible Work Arrangements (FWAs) alter the time and/or place that work is conducted on a regular basis - in a manner that is as manageable and predictable as possible for both employees and employers. FWAs provide:

• Flexibility in the scheduling of hours worked, such as alternative work schedules (e.g., non-traditional start and end times, flex time, or compressed workweeks) and arrangements regarding overtime, predictable scheduling, and shift and break schedules; …

Eight Is Enough, Naomi R. Cahn, Jennifer R. Collins

NULR Online

No abstract provided.

Incentivizing Divorce, Andrea B. Carroll

Journal Articles

Marriage is an important relationship, both for the parties to it and for society as a whole. Its benefits, stemming from the economies of scale and joint consumption inherent in the relationship, are largely unquestionable. And when marriage fails, the results are rather staggering. Economically, it is estimated that the annual cost of divorce to American taxpayers approaches $30 billion. From a social science perspective, the negative impacts of divorce on women and children have long been decried. In the face of these facts, we expect family law to fulfill a certain role. It should channel parties into the relationship …

Administering Marriage: Marriage-Based Entitlements, Bureaucracy And The Legal Construction Of The Family, Kristin Collins

Faculty Scholarship

Today marriage-based entitlements are considered part and parcel of marriage itself. This was not always the case. Mining hundreds of handwritten administrative records, executive branch reports, and federal statutes, this Article traces the origins of public marriage-based entitlements to an underexamined and surprisingly broad-scale system of early nineteenth-century federal military pensions and land grants that provided financial assistance to tens of thousands of widows. The story of widows’ military subsidies challenges claims to laissez-faire liberalism’s particular hold on the nineteenth century and, as important, evidences the complex mutually constitutive relationship between marriage law and social provision for women. While traditionally …

Supervised Visitation And Monitored Exchange: Review Of The Literature And Annotated Bibliography, Barbara A. Babb, Gloria Danziger, Judith D. Moran, William A. Mack

All Faculty Scholarship

Though courts increasingly rely on supervised visitation services in custody disputes and child welfare cases (Salem, Kulak, & Deutsch, 2007), a search of the literature produces few studies reporting empirically validated aspects of supervised visitation programs. The current literature about supervised visitation extensively documents the rationale for providing the service and contains numerous descriptions of provider programs (Birnbaum & Alaggia, 2006). The next generation of research must focus on long-term outcomes that demonstrate effectiveness of supervised visitation programs (Birnbaum & Alaggia, 2006).

This project involves a review of the literature concerning supervised visitation and child access services. The intent of …

Guest Editors’ Introduction To Special Issue On Substance Abuse And Addiction In Family Courts, Barbara A. Babb, Gloria Danziger, Judith D. Moran

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Redefining Harm, Reimagining Remedies And Reclaiming Domestic Violence Law, Margaret E. Johnson

All Faculty Scholarship

Civil domestic violence laws do not effectively address and redress the harms suffered by women subjected to domestic violence. The Civil Protective Order (“CPO”) laws should offer a remedy for all domestic abuse with an understanding that domestic violence subordinates women. These laws should not remedy only physical violence or criminal acts. All forms of abuse — psychological, emotional, economic, and physical — are interrelated. Not only do these abuses cause severe emotional distress, physical harm, isolation, sustained fear, intimidation, poverty, degradation, humiliation, and coerced loss of autonomy, but, as researchers have demonstrated, most domestic violence is the fundamental operation …

Child Custody Evaluations: Review Of The Literature And Annotated Bibliography, Barbara A. Babb, Gloria Danziger, Judith D. Moran, J. Mason Weeda, William A. Mack

All Faculty Scholarship

This review of custody evaluation literature encompasses a number of perspectives gleaned from the following: practitioners who perform the evaluations; the professional organizations that recognize the necessity to establish performance standards for practitioners; and the judges who depend on the findings and recommendations in the evaluations to assist with difficult custody decisions.

General agreement exists among practitioners about the components of a comprehensive evaluation (interviews of adults responsible for child care, interviews of children and their preferences, life histories, observations, psychological testing, document review, and collateral source data), though little consensus exists about the details of performance concerning a given …

Advancing The Study Of Violence Against Women: Evolving Research Agendas Into Science, Carol E. Jordan

Office for Policy Studies on Violence Against Women Publications

Decades of research produced by multiple disciplines has documented withering rates of violence against women in the United States and around the globe. To further an understanding of gendered violence, a field of research has developed, but recent critiques have highlighted weaknesses that inhibit a full scientific exploration of these crimes and their impacts. This review extends beyond prior reviews to explore the field’s unique challenges, its community of scientists, and the state of its written knowledge. The review argues for moving beyond “research agendas” and proposes creation of a transdisciplinary science for the field of study of violence against …

Advancing The Study Of Violence Against Women: Response To Commentaries And Next Steps, Carol E. Jordan

Office for Policy Studies on Violence Against Women Publications

No abstract provided.