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Articles 1 - 30 of 33
Full-Text Articles in Law
Portraits Of Bankruptcy Filers, Pamela Foohey, Robert M. Lawless, Deborah Thorne
Portraits Of Bankruptcy Filers, Pamela Foohey, Robert M. Lawless, Deborah Thorne
Articles
One in ten adult Americans has turned to the consumer bankruptcy system for help. For almost forty years, the only systematic data collection about the people who file bankruptcy has come from the Consumer Bankruptcy Project (CBP), for which we serve as co-principal investigators. In this Article, we use CBP data from 2013 to 2019 to describe who is using the bankruptcy system, providing the first comprehensive overview of bankruptcy filers in thirty years. We use principal component analysis to leverage these data to identify distinct groups of people who file bankruptcy. This technique allows us to situate the distinctions …
Using Random Assignment To Measure Court Accessibility For Low-Income Divorce Seekers, James D. Greiner, Ellen L. Degnan, Thomas Ferriss, Roseanna Sommers
Using Random Assignment To Measure Court Accessibility For Low-Income Divorce Seekers, James D. Greiner, Ellen L. Degnan, Thomas Ferriss, Roseanna Sommers
Articles
We conducted a field experiment in which 311 low-income individuals seeking a divorce were randomly assigned to receive access to a pro bono lawyer (versus minimal help) to assist with filing for divorce. Examining court records, we found that assignment to an attorney made a large difference in whether participants filed for and obtained a divorce. Three years after randomization, 46% of the treated group had terminated their marriages in the proper legal venue, compared to 9% of the control group. Among “compliers”—participants who obtained representation only if assigned to receive it—those with lawyers were far more likely to file …
Family Law Disputes Between International Couples In U.S. Courts, Rhonda Wasserman
Family Law Disputes Between International Couples In U.S. Courts, Rhonda Wasserman
Articles
Increasing mobility, migration, and growing numbers of international couples give rise to a host of family law issues. For instance, when marital partners are citizens of different countries, or live outside the country of which they are citizens, or move between countries, courts must first determine if they have jurisdiction to hear divorce or child custody actions. Given that countries around the world are governed by different legal regimes, such as the common law system, civil codes, religious law, and customary law, choice of law questions also complicate family litigation. This short article addresses the jurisdictional and other conflicts issues …
Gender In The Context Of Same-Sex Divorce And Relationship Dissolution, Suzanne A. Kim, Edward Stein
Gender In The Context Of Same-Sex Divorce And Relationship Dissolution, Suzanne A. Kim, Edward Stein
Articles
This article identifies ways that judges, lawyers, researchers, and policy makers may attend to the role of gender and gender dynamics facing same-sex couples upon divorce or other relationship dissolution. When same-sex couples marry, the legal system and society at large may project conceptions of gender onto same-sex couples, often in a manner that conflicts with couples’ intentions and practices. Gender and gender dynamics may affect the bases for dissolution, the financial aspects of dissolution, and the determination of child custody. The article also suggests directions for future research on the impact of gender on the dissolution of same-sex relationships.
Reframing The Mediation Debate In Irish All-Issues Divorce Disputes: From Mediation Vs. Litigation To Mediation And Litigation, Deirdre Mcgowan
Reframing The Mediation Debate In Irish All-Issues Divorce Disputes: From Mediation Vs. Litigation To Mediation And Litigation, Deirdre Mcgowan
Articles
Mediation currently plays a minor role in the Irish family justice system, yet a policy consensus exists that more couples should be encouraged to mediate and that increased rates of mediation will reduce the numbers seeking redress through the courts. The recently published Mediation Act 2017 adopts this position, assuming that the provision of information on mediation will increase uptake and that mediation offers an alternative to litigation for most civil disputes. This article reviews attempts in Ireland, England and Wales to encourage family disputants to mediate, identifying weaknesses in the information strategy. It also examines the legal framework governing …
The Scrivener's Dilemma In Divorce Mediation: Promulgating Progressive Professional Parameters, Robert K. Collins
The Scrivener's Dilemma In Divorce Mediation: Promulgating Progressive Professional Parameters, Robert K. Collins
Articles
No abstract provided.
The Creeping Federalization Of Wealth-Transfer Law, Lawrence W. Waggoner
The Creeping Federalization Of Wealth-Transfer Law, Lawrence W. Waggoner
Articles
This article appears in a symposium issue published by the Vanderbilt Law Review on The Role of Federal Law in Private Wealth Transfer. Federal authorities have little experience in making law that governs wealth transfers, because that function is traditionally within the province of state law. Although state wealth-transfer law has undergone significant modernization over the last few decades, all three branches of the federal government—legislative, judicial, and executive—have increasingly gone their own way. Lack of experience and, in many cases, lack of knowledge on the part of federal authorities have not dissuaded them from undermining well-considered state law. The …
Introduction: Jessica Lenahan (Gonzales) V. United States: Implementation, Litigation, And Mobilization Strategies, Caroline Bettinger-López
Introduction: Jessica Lenahan (Gonzales) V. United States: Implementation, Litigation, And Mobilization Strategies, Caroline Bettinger-López
Articles
No abstract provided.
Alimony Treatment For A Single Payment, Douglas A. Kahn
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.
Divorce Reform: Rights Protections In The New Swaziland, Tamar Ezer, Aisha Glasford, Elizabeth Hollander, Lakeisha Poole, Grant Rabenn, Alexandria Tindall
Divorce Reform: Rights Protections In The New Swaziland, Tamar Ezer, Aisha Glasford, Elizabeth Hollander, Lakeisha Poole, Grant Rabenn, Alexandria Tindall
Articles
No abstract provided.
The Uniform Probate Code's Elective Share: Time For A Reassessment, Lawrence W. Waggoner
The Uniform Probate Code's Elective Share: Time For A Reassessment, Lawrence W. Waggoner
Articles
In this Article, Professor Waggoner proposes reforms to the Uniform Probate Code's (UPC) treatment of the elective share of the surviving spouse. First, the Article recommends that the UPC adopt a form of presentation that more transparently reflects the normative theories and empirical assumptions underlying the UPC's elective share framework. Second, the Article presents demographic data suggesting that the UPC's current elective share approximation schedule may be inappropriatef or a sizable faction of married couples, those remarryingf ollowing widowhood. Finally, the Article proposes two substantive revisions to the UPC's election share framework-the first proposal is to lengthen the approximation schedule; …
Valuation, Allocation, And Distribution Of Retirement Plans At Divorce: Where Are We?, Elizabeth Brandt
Valuation, Allocation, And Distribution Of Retirement Plans At Divorce: Where Are We?, Elizabeth Brandt
Articles
No abstract provided.
Civil Enforceability Of Religious Prenuptual Agreements, Michelle Greenberg-Kobrin
Civil Enforceability Of Religious Prenuptual Agreements, Michelle Greenberg-Kobrin
Articles
In the years since Perri Victor's divorce has been finalized, she has tried to move on with her life. She is raising a young daughter from that marriage and finishing up law school. Perri and Warren Victor were married in an Orthodox Jewish ceremony in Florida in 1976. They received a civil divorce in 1990. However, as an Observant Jew, Perri cannot remarry until Warren gives her a Jewish religious divorce known as a get. Since late 1987, she has been pleading with Warren to give her a get. When Warren asked her to give up a portion of her …
Family Law In The Age Of Distrust, Carl E. Scheider
Family Law In The Age Of Distrust, Carl E. Scheider
Articles
I have been invited to examine the relationship between American culture and American family law at the end of the century. No doubt I was foolish to accept the invitation, since the topic can hardly be sketched, much less discussed, within the compass of even a lengthy article. On the other hand, that happy fault forces me to accept the luxury of writing a speculative essay and of eschewing the footnotes that are the misery (and majesty) of the academic lawyer. But even thus set free I am still enchained. Family law is shaped by more cultural forces than I …
Lesbian Divorce: A Commentary On The Legal Issues, David L. Chambers
Lesbian Divorce: A Commentary On The Legal Issues, David L. Chambers
Articles
Lesbian couples who break up will find themselves in an awkward position under the law for two separable but related reasons. The first is that, because they were unmarried, they are subjected by the law to much the same uneven and ambivalent treatment to which unmarried heterosexual couples are subjected. The second, of course, is that they are gay or lesbian and thus regarded with special disfavor even in some states that have become more tolerant of unmarried heterosexual relationships. As a law teacher who is gay and who writes about family law issues relating to gay men and lesbians, …
Fathers, The Welfare System, And The Virtues And Perils Of Child-Support Enforcement, David L. Chambers
Fathers, The Welfare System, And The Virtues And Perils Of Child-Support Enforcement, David L. Chambers
Articles
For half a century, Aid to Families with Dependent Children ("AFDC")' -the program of federally supported cash assistance to low-income families with children-has been oddly conceived. Congress has chosen to make assistance available almost solely to low-income single-parent families, not all low-income parents with children. At first many of the eligible single parents were women whose husbands had died. Over time, a growing majority were women who had been married to their children's father but who had separated or divorced. Today, to an ever increasing extent, they are women who were never married to the fathers of their children.2
Marriage, Morals, And The Law: No-Fault Divorce And Moral Discourse, Carl E. Schneider
Marriage, Morals, And The Law: No-Fault Divorce And Moral Discourse, Carl E. Schneider
Articles
In this Essay, I want to reflect on no fault-divorce and the social attitudes that underlie it. In particular, I want to consider that reform in light of an article I wrote some years ago entitled Moral Discourse and the Transformation of American Family Law. There I argued that in recent years the language of American family law has changed notably: today family law issues are decreasingly discussed in the language of morality. In other words, legal institutions have decreasingly talked about those issues in moral terms. Rather, they have tended to avoid handling some moral issues altogether-often by …
Tribute To William F. Fratcher: Marital Property Rights In Transition, Lawrence W. Waggoner
Tribute To William F. Fratcher: Marital Property Rights In Transition, Lawrence W. Waggoner
Articles
"Marital property rights," a term that covers a vast multitude of rights or interests conferred by law on persons who occupy the status of spouse, are in a state of transition. To discuss the themes and trends that are emerging, this Article is divided into four discrete, yet related segments. The first segment addresses how the law allocates original ownership between spouses in a marriage. The second segment turns to the intestate share of the surviving spouse. This is not a topic that much concerns high-powered estate planners because intestate estates are usually fairly small. But to the surviving spouse, …
The Channelling Function In Family Law, Carl E. Schneider
The Channelling Function In Family Law, Carl E. Schneider
Articles
On an occasion such as this, we are called to step back from our daily work to seek what Justice Holmes called a "liberal view" of our subject. Today, I propose to do so by exploring a function of family law that I believe is basic, that underlies much of family law, that resonates with the deepest purposes of culture but that is rarely addressed expressly-namely, what I call the "channelling function." As I will soon explain at length, in the channelling function the law recruits, builds, shapes, sustains; and promotes social institutions. My exploration of this topic will have …
Introduction: The Bounds Of Advocacy, Robert H. Aronson
Introduction: The Bounds Of Advocacy, Robert H. Aronson
Articles
I was asked, as Reporter for the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers' Bounds of Advocacy, to provide an Introduction to the substantive issues discussed by members of the Committee in succeeding articles. This article will therefore "set the stage" by indicating the need for the Bounds of Advocacy, the charge to the Committee, the process by which the Standards and Comments were drafted, re-drafted, and then re-drafted again, and the appropriate scope, purpose and use of the Standards and Comments.
Marital Property Rights In Transition, Lawrence W. Waggoner
Marital Property Rights In Transition, Lawrence W. Waggoner
Articles
The subject of "marital property rights" is very timely because those rights are in a state of transition. The term "marital property rights" covers a vast multitude of rights or interests conferred by law on persons who occupy the status of spouse. This lecture is divided into four discrete, yet related segments. The first segment addresses how the law allocates original ownership between spouses in a marriage. The second segment turns to the intestate share of the surviving spouse. This is not a topic that high-powered estate planners get involved in very much because intestate estates are usually fairly small. …
Spousal Rights In Our Multiple-Marriage Society: The Revised Uniform Probate Code, Lawrence W. Waggoner
Spousal Rights In Our Multiple-Marriage Society: The Revised Uniform Probate Code, Lawrence W. Waggoner
Articles
The transformation of the American family constitutes one of the great phenomenons of the past two decades. The traditional Leave It to Beaver family no longer prevails in American society. To be sure, families consisting of the wage-earning husband, the homemaking and child-rearing wife, and their two joint children still exist. But divorce rates are astonishingly high and remarriage abounds. In fact, there is an increasing prevalence in the population of marriages that are more likely to end in divorce than others-marriages in which one or both partners were divorced before and marriages of couples who cohabited prior to marriage.
Commentary: Meeting The Financial Needs Of Children, David L. Chambers
Commentary: Meeting The Financial Needs Of Children, David L. Chambers
Articles
Those who drafted the equitable distribution statutes adopted in New York and elsewhere wanted to help assure women and children an acceptable level of financial well-being after divorce. Marsha Garrison has shown that divorcing couples rarely possess enough resources to attain financial well-being even when they live together as a couple, let alone when they live in two separate households. She has also shown that, even in the cases of couples with substantial assets, the broad and general language of the equitable distribution statute did not lead (and could not have been expected to lead) to consistent distributions that assured …
The Multiple-Marriage Society And Spousal Rights Under The Revised Uniform Probate Code, Lawrence W. Waggoner
The Multiple-Marriage Society And Spousal Rights Under The Revised Uniform Probate Code, Lawrence W. Waggoner
Articles
Nearly everyone knows about the transformation of the American family that has taken place over the last couple of decades. The changes, from the latter half of the 1970s into the present, comprise one of the great events of our age. Articles on one aspect or another of the phenomenon frequent the popular press, and a special edition of Newsweek was recently devoted to the topic.' The traditional "Leave It To Beaver" family no longer prevails in American society. To be sure, families consisting of a wage-earning husband, a homemaking and child-rearing wife, and their two joint children still exist. …
Ex Proprio Vigore, James J. White
Ex Proprio Vigore, James J. White
Articles
The National Conference of the Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) is a legislature in every way but one. It drafts uniform acts, debates them, passes them, and promulgates them, but that passage and promulgation do not make these uniform acts law over any citizen of any state. These acts become the law of the various states only ex proprio vigore - only if their own vitality influences the legislators of the various states to pass them.
Rethinking Alimony: Marital Decisions And Moral Discourse, Carl E. Schneider
Rethinking Alimony: Marital Decisions And Moral Discourse, Carl E. Schneider
Articles
The riddle of alimony is why one former spouse should have to support the other when no-fault divorce seems to establish the principle that marriage need not be for life and when governmental regulation of intimate relationships is conventionally condemned. Perhaps the most intelligent and probing recent attempt to solve that riddle is Ira Ellman's The Theory of Alimony. In this article, I have two purposes. The first is to ask some questions about Professor Ellman's admirable inquiry into this intricate and intractable problem. These questions are not intended to disprove "the theory." Professor Ellman has, at the least, identified …
The Abuses Of Social Science: A Response To Fineman And Opie., David L. Chambers
The Abuses Of Social Science: A Response To Fineman And Opie., David L. Chambers
Articles
Martha Fineman and Anne Opie have written an article on the misuses of social science research by those who are recommending policies for the placement of children after divorce.' The subject is important. When Professor Fineman told me that she and Opie were using an article I wrote about child custody2 as an example of some of the problems they discussed, I anticipated a useful exchange on the subject. Having read their article, I have decided against an exchange on the merits of the larger issues they raise. I have so decided because their article, which refers extensively to my …
Rethinking The Substantive Rules For Custody Disputes In Divorce, David L. Chambers
Rethinking The Substantive Rules For Custody Disputes In Divorce, David L. Chambers
Articles
A few states, mostly in the West and South, still retain a preference in custody disputes for placing young children with their mothers. In most other states, legislatures or courts have replaced the maternal presumption with a rule directing courts to be guided solely by the child's "welfare" or "best interests." A few legislatures have created a new preference for joint custody, directing courts to consider favorably requests by a parent for such arrangements, even over the objection of the other parent. This Article argues that the trend away from the maternal presumption is sensible, but that the current best-interests …
The Coming Curtailment Of Compulsory Child Support, David L. Chambers
The Coming Curtailment Of Compulsory Child Support, David L. Chambers
Articles
Absent parents ought to contribute to the support of their minor children and states can appropriately invoke the force of law to compel them to do so. Stated so generally, even absent parents behind in their payments would probably agree. Since so many others agree as well, and since the numbers of single-parent children have mushroomed, systems of governmentally compelled support in this country have grown enormously. By the early part of the next century, if current laws remain in force and current population trends continue, most of America's children on any given day will be entitled to support from …
Men Who Know They Are Watched: Some Benefits And Costs Of Jailing For Nonpayment Of Support, David L. Chambers
Men Who Know They Are Watched: Some Benefits And Costs Of Jailing For Nonpayment Of Support, David L. Chambers
Articles
Suppose that by some mysterious process the police in your town received each Monday a list of all the robberies and burglaries committed during the preceding week and the names of the persons who committed them. Suppose further that the list itself was admissible in evidence at trial and generally led to conviction. And suppose finally that persons considering committing offenses knew that the police had such a list and used it, relentlessly tracking down the miscreants named on it. Under such circumstances, one would probably expect that many potential offenders in the town with the magical list would resist …