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Articles 91 - 120 of 614
Full-Text Articles in Family Law
An Incomplete Revolution: Feminists And The Legacy Of Marital-Property Reform, Mary Ziegler
An Incomplete Revolution: Feminists And The Legacy Of Marital-Property Reform, Mary Ziegler
Michigan Journal of Gender & Law
As this Article shows, the conventional historical narrative of the divorce revolution is not so much incorrect as incomplete. Histories of the divorce revolution have focused disproportionately on the introduction of no-fault rules and have correctly concluded that women's groups did not play a central role in the introduction of such laws. However, work on divorce law has not adequately addressed the history of marital-property reform or engaged with scholarship on the struggle for the Equal Rights Amendment to the federal Constitution. Putting these two bodies of work in dialogue with one another, the Article provides the first comprehensive history …
Child Welfare Cases Involving Parents With Disabilities, Joshua Kay
Child Welfare Cases Involving Parents With Disabilities, Joshua Kay
Articles
Many families include at least one parent with a disability. These parents become involved in the child welfare system more frequently than nondisabled parents, and their child protection cases are more likely to end in termination of parental rights. Parents with cognitive and/or psychiatric disabilities are particularly at risk of child welfare involvement. Cases involving parents with disabilities present special challenges and opportunities in child protection litigation, and strong advocacy is needed to ensure that these parents’ needs are met by the child welfare system and their rights are fully protected. With appropriate services, many parents with disabilities can provide …
The Probate Definition Of Family: A Proposal For Guided Discretion In Intestacy, Susan N. Gary
The Probate Definition Of Family: A Proposal For Guided Discretion In Intestacy, Susan N. Gary
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Intestacy statutes may not match the wishes of many people who die intestate. Changes to the Uniform Probate Code (UPC) include or exclude potential takers, as the drafters attempt to bring the UPC provisions closer to the intent of more intestate decedents. As the UPC tries to fine-tune the intestacy statutes, however, family circumstances continue to get more and more complicated. Families headed by unmarried couples, blended families with children from multiple marriages, and families in which adults raise children who are not legally theirs, have become commonplace. For some decedents, non-family friends and caregivers may be more important than …
Toward Equality: Nonmarital Children And The Uniform Probate Code, Paula A. Monopoli
Toward Equality: Nonmarital Children And The Uniform Probate Code, Paula A. Monopoli
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This Article traces the evolution of the Uniform Probate Code's (UPC) broad equality framework for inheritance by nonmarital children in the context of the wider movement for legal equality for such children in society. It concludes that the UPC is to be lauded for its efforts to provide equal treatment to all nonmarital children. The UPC's commitment to such equality serves an expressive function for state legislatures and courts to follow its lead. The UPC has fulfilled its promise that all children regardless of marital status shall be equal for purposes of inheritance from or through parents, with one exception: …
Renegotiating The Social Contract, Jennifer S. Hendricks
Renegotiating The Social Contract, Jennifer S. Hendricks
Michigan Law Review
Despite an economic recession and record levels of personal bankruptcy filings due to healthcare costs, President Obama's healthcare reform initiative sparked a season of protests. A "public option"-not to mention a single-payer system-was off the table even before the discussion began. As the question of the reform package's constitutionality wound its way to the Supreme Court, it became clear that a substantial number of American people do not want their government helping them stay alive. In this climate, it is difficult to imagine an America in which the state is an accepted partner in meeting the challenges and responsibilities of …
Against The New Maternalism, Naomi Mezey, Cornelia T. L. Pillard
Against The New Maternalism, Naomi Mezey, Cornelia T. L. Pillard
Michigan Journal of Gender & Law
Parenting is a major preoccupation in law and culture. As a result of efforts of the American women's movement over the past forty years, the legal parent is, for the first time in history, sex-neutral. Our law has abandoned restrictions on women's education, employment, and civic participation that sprang from and reinforced beliefs about the primacy of motherhood as women's best destiny. On the flip side, U.S. law now also generally rejects formal constraints on men's family roles by requiring sex-neutrality of laws regulating custody, adoption, alimony, spousal benefits, and the like. The official de-linking of presumptive parenting roles from …
Civil Marriage: Threat To Democracy, Jessica Knouse
Civil Marriage: Threat To Democracy, Jessica Knouse
Michigan Journal of Gender & Law
This Article argues that civil marriage and democracy are inherently incompatible, whether assessed from a transcultural perspective that reduces them to their most universal aspects or a culturally situated perspective that accounts for their uniquely American elaborations. Across virtually all cultures, civil marriage privileges sexual partners by offering them exclusive access to highly desirable government benefits, while democracy presupposes liberty and equality. When governments privilege sexual partners, they effectively deprive their citizens of liberty by encouraging them to enter sexual partnerships rather than selfdetermining based on their own preferences; they effectively deprive their citizens of equality by establishing insidious status …
The Devil Comes To Kansas: A Story Of Free Love, Sexual Privacy, And The Law, Charles J. Reid Jr.
The Devil Comes To Kansas: A Story Of Free Love, Sexual Privacy, And The Law, Charles J. Reid Jr.
Michigan Journal of Gender & Law
On Sunday, September 19, 1886, Moses Harman, the editor of the radical newspaper Lucifer the Light-Bearer, presided over an inherently contradictory event-a free-love marriage ceremony between his associate editor, the thirty-seven-year-old Edwin Walker, and Moses' own daughter, the sixteen-year-old Lillian. The case that the two Harmans and Walker wished to present aimed to transform marriage from a public to a private relationship and from a permanent and exclusive one to a temporary one that permitted potentially many partners. State v. Walker and its parties have received some scholarly notice, but the truly radical quality of the arguments Moses, Edwin, and …
Displaced Mothers, Absent And Unnatural Fathers: Lgbt Transracial Adoption, Kim H. Pearson
Displaced Mothers, Absent And Unnatural Fathers: Lgbt Transracial Adoption, Kim H. Pearson
Michigan Journal of Gender & Law
While some might believe that Black versus gay discourse only surfaces in highly politicized settings like the military and marriage, it holds sway in the area of LGBT transracial adoption. LGBT transracial adoptions are a relatively small percentage of all adoptions, which include private adoptions, LGBT second-parent adoptions, and step-parent adoptions, but they are an important site for interrogating the Black versus gay discourse because adoption and custody decisions often address parent-child transmission. When claims intersect, as they do in a case where a White LGBT foster parent and a Black maternal grandmother dispute the adoption of a Black child, …
Child Representation In America: Progress Report From The National Quality Improvement Center, Donald N. Duquette, Julian Darwall
Child Representation In America: Progress Report From The National Quality Improvement Center, Donald N. Duquette, Julian Darwall
Articles
Few dispute that children in the child welfare system need effective representation. In October 2009, the U.S. Children's Bureau named the University of Michigan Law School the National Quality Improvement Center on the Representation of Children in the Child Welfare System (QIC-ChildRep). The QIC-ChildRep is a five-year, multimillion dollar project, charged with gathering, developing, and communicating knowledge on child representation. In addition, the QIC-ChildRep is tasked with promoting a consensus on the role of the child's legal representative and providing one of the first random assignment experimental design research projects on the legal representation of children.
Representing Parents With Severe Mental Illness In Child Welfare Cases, Joshua B. Kay
Representing Parents With Severe Mental Illness In Child Welfare Cases, Joshua B. Kay
Articles
Parents with severe mental illness are at greater risk than others of becoming involved in the child protection system, and their cases are more likely than others to result in termination of parental rights. Among women with severe mental illness, 26-75% lose custody to one or more of their children, rates far higher than for women without mental illness. Lawyers who represent mentally ill parents in child protection matters face a number of challenges, including maintaining a productive attorney-client relationship, advocating for appropriate services and reasonable accommodations for their clients’ disabilities, and refuting assumptions about their clients’ parenting abilities that …
Psychological Evaluation Of Parenting Capacity In Child Welfare Proceedings, Katherine L. Rosenblum, Joshua B. Kay
Psychological Evaluation Of Parenting Capacity In Child Welfare Proceedings, Katherine L. Rosenblum, Joshua B. Kay
Articles
In the child welfare context, courts, attorneys, and child protection agencies often turn to psychologists to evaluate parenting capacity. As evaluators in child protection cases, psychologists may be asked to evaluate different parties for different purposes, acting as agents of the court, the child protection agency, or directly retained by the parents or the lawyer guardian ad litem. In this article we focus specifically on psychological evaluations addressing issues pertaining to parenting capacity (in contrast to, for example, assessments that focus solely on child psychological well-being or developmental status). These types of assessments may help to inform dispositional decisions, including …
Building Resilience In Foster Children: The Role Of The Child's Advocate, Frank E. Vandervort, James Henry, Mark A. Sloane
Building Resilience In Foster Children: The Role Of The Child's Advocate, Frank E. Vandervort, James Henry, Mark A. Sloane
Articles
This Article provides an introduction to, and brief overview of trauma, its impact upon foster children, and steps children's advocates" can take to lessen or ameliorate the impact of trauma upon their clients. This Article begins in Part 11 by defining relevant terms. Part III addresses the prevalence of trauma among children entering the child welfare system. Part IV considers the neurodevelopmental (i.e., the developing brain) impact of trauma on children and will explore how that trauma may manifest emotionally and behaviorally. With this foundation in place, Part V discusses the need for a comprehensive trauma assessment including a thorough …
Modernizing Marriage, Adam Candeub, Mae Kuykendall
Modernizing Marriage, Adam Candeub, Mae Kuykendall
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This Article proposes to modernize the archaic procedures states use to authorize marriages so as to provide legal flexibility, promote efficiency, and enhance individual choice. Almost universally, states require couples' presence within their borders, however briefly, for a ceremony. After considering the historical and policy rationales for this requirement and finding them either obsolete or incoherent, we propose that states offer marriages to those outside their borders. Such distance marriages could occur via video-conference, using the internet or even telephone, with readily available safeguards to prevent fraud. This simple reform would allow certain couples who cannot marry under local law …
International Child Abduction And Children's Rights: Two Means To The Same End, Eran Sthoeger
International Child Abduction And Children's Rights: Two Means To The Same End, Eran Sthoeger
Michigan Journal of International Law
The Hague Convention aims to deter future abductors and demonstrate mutual respect for the laws of its member states, while presumably serving the best interests of the child. It operates as a jurisdictional mechanism by reinstating the status quo prior to the removal through the prompt return of the child to his or her place of habitual residence. This return, as clearly stated in the Hague Convention itself, bears no effect on the merits of any existing or future custody dispute between the parents. The Hague Convention demands that contracting states respect past or future decisions pertaining to custody decided …
Preventing The Unnecessary Entry Of Children Into Foster Care, Vivek Sankaran
Preventing The Unnecessary Entry Of Children Into Foster Care, Vivek Sankaran
Articles
A young mother of three endures abuse at the hands of the children's father. Her children repeatedly witness the violence in their home and describe it to a school teacher, who in turn places a call to Child Protective Services (CPS). A CPS investigator arrives at the home the next morning with a plethora of questions for the mother and her children. Have the children been hit? Did they observe the beatings? What steps has their mother taken to protect them? An adversarial conversation ensues. Unsatisfactory answers may lead to tragic consequences-the removal of the children from their home.
No Harm, No Foul? Why Harmless Error Analysis Should Not Be Used To Review Wrongful Denials Of Counsel To Parents In Child Welfare Cases, Vivek Sankaran
No Harm, No Foul? Why Harmless Error Analysis Should Not Be Used To Review Wrongful Denials Of Counsel To Parents In Child Welfare Cases, Vivek Sankaran
Articles
The application of a harmless error standard by appellate courts reviewing erroneous denials of counsel in child protective cases undermines a critical procedural right that safeguards the interests of parents and children. Case law reveals that trial courts, on numerous occasions, improperly reject valid requests for counsel, forcing parents to navigate the child welfare system without an advocate. Appellate courts excuse these violations by speculating that the denials caused no significant harm to the parents, which is a conclusion that a court can never reach with any certainty. The only appropriate remedy for this significant problem is a bright-line rule …
Child Protection Law And Procedure, Frank Vandervort
Child Protection Law And Procedure, Frank Vandervort
Book Chapters
Child protective proceedings involving non-Indian children are primarily governed by the Child Protection Law (CPL), MCL 722.621 et seq.; the Juvenile Code, MCL 712A.1 et seq.; and subchapter 3.900 of the Michigan Court Rules. Taken together, these sources of authority establish a comprehensive scheme for reporting cases of suspected abuse and neglect, investigating those reports, and responding, when necessary, with appropriate legal action. For child protective proceedings concerning Indian children, see chapter 25. While these statutes form the primary authority for handling child protection proceedings, practitioners must be aware that federal law, specifically Title IV-E of the Social Security Act, …
The "Enlightened Barbarity" Of Inclusive Fitness And Wrongful Death: Biological Justifications For An Investment Theory Of Loss In Wycko V. Gnodtke, Ryan Shannon
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Wrongful death laws should permit and encourage courts and juries to consider the survivors' investment in decedents when determining wrongful death damages, given new biological justifications for this theory of loss. The investment theory of damages, which permits an award of damages based on the investment of financial resources relatives make in one another, originated in Michigan's courts in the early 1 960s, but as of present day has been largely abrogated. In the context of modern understandings of evolutionary biology, including kin selection theory and sociobiology, the investment theory of recovery accords with the goals of corrective justice as …
Special Issues In Transcultural, Transracial, And Gay And Lesbian Parenting And Adoption, Frank E. Vandervort, Robert B. Sanoshy
Special Issues In Transcultural, Transracial, And Gay And Lesbian Parenting And Adoption, Frank E. Vandervort, Robert B. Sanoshy
Book Chapters
The adoption of children whose natural parents are unable to or incapable of caring for them by adults who are able to provide for them has existed throughout human history in one form or another (In re Smith Estate 1955; Miller et al. 2007). Before the mid-1800s, however, there was no formal mechanism for a person interested in adopting a child in the United States to do so (Bartholet 1999). In 1851, the Massachusetts legislature enacted the Massachusetts Adoption of Children Act (General Court of Massachusetts 1851). Though enacted more than 150 years ago, the act's basic structure is clearly …
The Indian Child Welfare Act., Frank Vandervort
The Indian Child Welfare Act., Frank Vandervort
Book Chapters
Few child welfare lawyers routinely confront the application of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA or "the Act"). When the statute applies, however, it is crucial that its provisions be strictly followed. There are at least three reasons why counsel should attempt to ensure that ICWA's provisions are carefully applied. First, ICWA's provisions are jurisdictional. Failure to abide by its requirements invalidates the proceeding from its inception. Indeed, any party or the court may invoke ICWA at any time in the proceeding, including for the first time on appeal. Second, unlike most federal child welfare legislation which provides funding streams …
Child Welfare Law And Practice: Purpose And Use Of This Publication, Donald N. Duquette
Child Welfare Law And Practice: Purpose And Use Of This Publication, Donald N. Duquette
Other Publications
Child welfare law has become an increasingly complex area of practice that requires lawyers to not only understand complex federal and state law and procedure, but also detailed institutional information regarding child welfare funding streams, treatment and placement options, medicine, mental health, and child development. All of this takes place in a context of heart-wrenching abuse, neglect, and poverty and a complex and under-resourced bureaucracy which both under-responds and overresponds to presenting problems. What was once a cause has become a profession for highly trained and skilled attorneys. Child welfare law has arrived as a distinct legal specialty, as evidenced …
Non-Adversarial Case Resolution, Donald N. Duquette
Non-Adversarial Case Resolution, Donald N. Duquette
Book Chapters
A lawyer practicing in child welfare is increasingly likely to either want to refer a case to a Non-Adversarial Case Resolution (NACR) program or to be ordered into NACR by the court. This chapter is intended to orient a lawyer to the most common forms of NACR in the United States today, prepare him or her to participate competently in that structure, and to encourage more widespread use of these promising alternatives.
Federal Child Welfare Legislation., Frank Vandervort
Federal Child Welfare Legislation., Frank Vandervort
Book Chapters
This chapter provides a brief overview of federal statutes that impact the practice of child welfare law. Since the enactment of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act in 1974 (CAPTA), the federal government has played an ever increasing role in handling child maltreatment cases.
A Child's Journey Through The Child Welfare System., Susan Badeau, Ann M. Haralambie, Donald N. Duquette
A Child's Journey Through The Child Welfare System., Susan Badeau, Ann M. Haralambie, Donald N. Duquette
Book Chapters
Once a child is known to the government child welfare agency, the child and his or her family become subject to a series of decisions made by judges, caseworkers, legal representatives, and others-all of whom have an important role to play. A child may encounter dozens of other new adults, including foster parents, counselors, and doctors. Most children enter foster care when removed from their homes by a child protective agency because of abuse or neglect, or both. Others enter care because of the absence of their parents, resulting from illness, death, disability, or other problems. Some children enter care …
A Hidden Crisis: The Need To Strengthen Representation Of Parents In Child Protective Proceedings, Vivek Sankaran
A Hidden Crisis: The Need To Strengthen Representation Of Parents In Child Protective Proceedings, Vivek Sankaran
Articles
A national consensus is emerging that zealous legal representation of parents is crucial in ensuring that the child welfare system produces just outcomes for children. National groups, inclucing the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care, the American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law, and the National Association of Counsel for Children, have been outspoken on the need to strengthen legal advocacy on behalf of parents, and a number of states-including Colorado, Connecticut,' and Washington7 have initiated efforts to comprehensively reform their systems of appointing lawyers for indigent parents to better serve families. A national movement is afoot …
Establishing Legal Permanence For The Child, Donald N. Duquette
Establishing Legal Permanence For The Child, Donald N. Duquette
Book Chapters
This chapter is intended to identify options for legal permanency that state law and the federal Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 (ASFA) commonly recognize to better serve children in foster care. Ideally, the child will ultimately return safely to his or her home of origin. But when a return home is not possible, the child welfare legal process should result in a safe and legally secure alternative permanent placement for the child. The emphasis on legally secure permanent placement is meant to provide the child with psychological stability and a sense of belonging and to limit the likelihood …
Representing Children And Youth, Donald N. Duquette, Ann M. Haralambie
Representing Children And Youth, Donald N. Duquette, Ann M. Haralambie
Book Chapters
The role of the child's attorney is unique in American jurisprudence and not yet clearly defined by law or tradition. There is a growing consensus, however, that children in dependency cases should have lawyers who are as active and as involved in their cases as are lawyers for any other party in any other litigation. Yet there continues to be confusion and debate over the role and duties of the lawyer, particularly as to what voice the child should have in determining the direction and goals of the litigation. Policy makers have differed as to whether the child's lawyer should …
Representing Parents In Child Welfare Cases, Vivek Sankaran
Representing Parents In Child Welfare Cases, Vivek Sankaran
Book Chapters
A parent's constitutional right to raise his or her child is one of the most venerated liberty interests safeguarded by the Constitution and the courts.2 The law presumes parents to be fit, and it establishes that they do not need to be model parents to retain custody of their children.3 If the state seeks to interfere with the parent-child relationship, the Constitution mandates that the state: (1) prove parental unfitness, a standard defined by state laws; and (2) follow certain procedures protecting the due process rights of parents. The constitutional framework for child welfare cases is premised on the belief …
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.