Family Law Commons^™

Crossing Over: A Description Of Dual Status Youth In Taylor County, Texas, Kimberly S. Putnam

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explores and describes the experiences of ten dual status youth in Taylor County, Texas by examining the factors of race, sex, child welfare allegation, and juvenile justice offense. A review of the literature suggests that this population has unique challenges in and outside the courtroom, including being at increased risk for disparate outcomes in later adolescence and adulthood. This study compared single-system child welfare and juvenile justice data from Texas DFPS Region 2 and Taylor County to raw data provided on a sample of ten dual status youth identified in Taylor County from 2017–2021. Findings included a disproportionately …

Impact Of Community-Based Care Model On Child Welfare Professionals: A Study Of Workload, Job Satisfaction, And Turnover Intent, Kerri Taylor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Much of the research on child welfare workers is in a traditional service model. However, there is a lack of empirical studies regarding childcare workers in a community-based care model. This study examines whether transitioning to the community-based model has positively impacted workers’ perspectives regarding turnover intention, job satisfaction, and workload manageability. A cross-sectional survey design was used with convenient sampling from a Texas Department of Family Protective Service Region that transitioned to the CBC model. The single source continuum contractor employed a sample of 125 potential respondents in the selected region. A total of 43 permanency workers responded to …

Declaration Of Catherine Smith: Navahine V. Dept. Of Transportation, State Of Hawai’I, Catherine Smith

Scholarly Articles

I submit this expert declaration in support of the children’s motion to maintain their September 2023 trial date so they can have their urgent constitutional rights case involving a life-sustaining climate system accorded the legal prioritization it deserves. Each day that passes without redress not only means an infringement on children’s rights but also impacts their health, safety, well-being, and the cultural lifeways and traditions of Native Hawaiian children. These harms are cumulative and compounding for the duration of the plaintiffs’ childhoods as they mature into adults. And many of the plaintiffs’ climate change-induced injuries are irreversible.

Contracts For Cohabitating Romantic Partners, Bailey D. Barnes

Maine Law Review

Marriage rates in the United States are at record lows; meanwhile, more couples are choosing to live together outside of marriage. Despite the changing landscape of romantic relationships, the law of nonmarriage has not kept pace. Rather than having a coherent, majority rule approach, the individual states have employed differing methods of providing for property distribution at the end of a long-term unmarried cohabitation. Unfortunately, absent the formal protections offered by marriage for both parties following a divorce, many cohabitants are at risk of suffering inequitable property distribution following the termination of a cohabitation. This Article proposes that states uniformly …

Professor Sterk & Cardozo Trust & Estates Law Society Invite You To: Surrogates And Sushi, Cardozo Trusts And Estates Law Society, Cardozo Family Law Society, Cardozo Criminal Law Society

2022–2023 Flyers

No abstract provided.

Pathology Logics, S. Lisa Washington

Northwestern University Law Review

Every year, thousands of marginalized parents become ensnared in the family regulation system, an apparatus more commonly referred to as the child welfare system. In prior work, I examined how the coercion of domestic violence survivors in the family regulation system perpetuates harmful knowledge production and serves to legitimize family regulation intervention. This Article focuses on another logic deeply embedded in the family regulation system: the pathologizing of impoverished and racialized groups. Scholars have discussed the pathologizing of marginalized groups to describe a host of different phenomena. In this Article, “pathology logic” refers to a logic that produces notions of …

Legally Alone: The Redeemability Of Guardianship And Recommendations Toward Equitable Access, Patrick Hecker

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

American adult guardianship needs reform. Thankfully, there is a small but dedicated reform movement that sheds helpful light on problems of underfunding, inattention, and abuse. While the movement’s efforts are needed, this Note argues it is a mistake to focus solely on the ways the guardianship system is sometimes harmful to people who already have access to guardianship. Few reformers consider the needs of people who would benefit from a guardian but do not have anyone to petition the court on their behalf.

This Note first argues that guardianship, despite its detractors, is redeemable. It can be part of a …

Florida's Baker Act Laws: How Florida's Excessive Use Of Baker Acts Can Be Harmful To Children, Kaitlin Gibbs

Gator Team Child Juvenile Law Clinic

The goal of this White Paper is to provide an overview of Florida’s Baker Act Laws. Additionally, this White Paper will show how the excessive use of Baker Acts in Florida can have harmful effects on children, especially those in the dependency system, and potential solutions to reform the Baker Act process.

Constitutional Issues In Family Law: An Annotated Bibliography (Part 2 Of 2), Allen K. Rostron

Faculty Works

Significant constitutional questions often arise in the family law context. This is the second of two bibliographies, in this volume of the Journal of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, about constitutional issues in family law. It focuses on issues discussed in the articles in this issue of the journal.

Removing Barriers--Not Children: How West Virginia Can Prevent Further Harm To Children, Emily R. Mowry

West Virginia Law Review

West Virginia has one of the highest rates of children in foster care—and thus removed from their families—in the United States. Recent scientific and social science research has shown that removing children from their parents’ home is a traumatic event in and of itself, causing further harm to children already experiencing abuse and neglect. Federal legislation in the past ten years requires that states make reasonable efforts to address issues of abuse and neglect prior to removing children from their homes. West Virginia, for many reasons, is not doing so. West Virginia’s state child welfare agency, Department of Health and …

Child Protection And Infant Mental Health: An Essential Partnership, Claudia M. Gold M.D.

West Virginia Law Review

The core argument of this paper— that listening from stance of curiosity to caregivers who interface with the child protection system holds the key to true protection by supporting child development—stands the test of time. Since its publication a decade ago, two significant changes have occurred. First the field of infant mental health is in the process of a reframing to the term “early relational health,” drawing on the abundance of research evidence showing how early relationships lay the foundation for lifelong growth and development. Second we are in the midst of a long overdue reckoning with social injustice. Principles …

Childist Objections, Youthful Relevance, And Evidence Reconceived, Mae C. Quinn

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Evidence rules are written by and for adults. As a result, they largely lack the vantage point of youth and are rooted in arm’s-length assumptions about the lives and legal interests of young people. Moreover, because children have been mostly treated as evidentiary afterthoughts, they have been patched into the justice system and its procedures in a piecemeal fashion. Yet, to date, there has been no comprehensive scholarly critique of evidence principles and practices for failing to meaningfully account for youth. And the evidentiary intersection of youth and race has been almost entirely overlooked in legal scholarship. This Article, in …

The Dobbs Effect On West Virginia, Anne Marie Lofaso, Cameron Kiner

West Virginia Law Review

Humans have practiced birth control, including abortion, for thousands of years. Pregnant individuals have sought abortions for many reasons even though the abortion procedure itself has often been dangerous to the pregnant person’s life. Moreover, a stable consensus concerning the debate about when life begins and other questions surrounding abortion has rarely if ever been attained. Notwithstanding the numerous questions raised by this indisputably controversial subject, this article is quite limited in scope. In Section I, we review the development and retrenchment of an individual’s right to terminate their pregnancy starting on January 22, 1973, the day that the United …

In The Best Interests Of Whom?: An Analysis Of Judicial Bias In Custody Disputes Involving Transgender Children, Caden Pociask

Indiana Law Journal

Anti-transgender discrimination and bias loom large in many areas of our society, but perhaps one of the most concerning settings is within the four walls of a courtroom. Evidence suggests that judicial decision making in custody determinations involving transgender children are influenced by anti-transgender bias. In this Note, I examine the current best practice for treating transgender children, the affirmative model, and explore the legal landscape of custody cases involving parents who disagree on how to treat their transgender child. I then suggest a model of comprehensive judicial education reform to help eliminate antitransgender bias from family courts in the …

Friends With Benefits: Expanding Virginia's Domestic Violence And Mutual Protection Order Statutes To Include Reciprocal Beneficiaries, Faith A. Parker

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

On June 26, 2015, the Obergefell decision recognized same-sex marriage. While same-sex couples celebrated their new rights to marriage equality, they still face legal battles in the realm of domestic violence. Both married and unmarried same-sex couples face discrimination when reporting incidents of domestic violence. While most domestic violence statutes are gender-neutral on their face, their implementations disparately impact same-sex couples. Furthermore, domestic violence statutes that include same-sex couples punish same-sex couples more harshly than opposite-sex couples. This Note will examine the domestic violence law in Virginia, arguing that the laws are too vague to properly protect same-sex couples and …

An Analysis Of Juvenile Gun Violence Mitigation In Columbia, South Carolina, Amelia Shook

Senior Theses

Over the past ten years, the United States has been impacted by the increasing frequency of homicides due to gun violence. Juvenile homicides via firearms are examined on a national, state, and county level by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and analyzed to showcase adjusted age and years of potential life lost due to gun violence. Data obtained through a CDC database depicts the geographic areas being examined: United States, South Carolina, and Richland County. South Carolina will be singled out and examined individually as it ranks eighth highest in the United States for gun violence. Richland …

Permasalahan Konsepsi Harta Bersama Dalam Kepemilikan Saham Perseroan Terbatas (Studi Kasus Putusan Nomor 80/Pdt.G/2020/Pn.Jkt.Utr), Mutiara Husna Wahono, Lauditta Humaira

Lex Patrimonium

A limited liability company as a legal entity adheres to the principle of a separate legal entity which creates the concept of limited liability of its shareholders. The existence of these two concepts automatically separates the assets of the limited liability company from the personal assets of its shareholders. Even though the shareholders are part owners of the limited liability company, the shareholders cannot claim the assets of the limited liability company. Shares acquired while in marital status can become joint property. However, the Indonesian Marriage Law does not provide special arrangements or mechanisms regarding the distribution of joint assets, …

The Ties That Bind Us: An Empirical, Clinical, And Constitutional Argument Against Terminating Parental Rights, Vivek S. Sankaran, Christopher Church

Articles

This Article explores the unnecessary termination of a child's relationship with their parent from an empirical, clinical, and constitutional lens. Part I explores administrative data related to TPR, which like many child protection metrics, resembles nothing short of a wild west of practices and policies relating to how often and how fast child protection systems terminate parental rights. These data also reveal how TPR can unnecessarily delay legal permanency for children, particularly those children who are living with extended family, and how a State pursuing TPR can drain its own scarce resources, a system perpetually decrying insufficient resources. Part II …

Racial Myopia In [Family] Law, Jessica Dixon Weaver

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Racial Myopia in [Family] Law presents a critique of Family Law for the One-Hundred-Year Life, an Article that claims that age myopia within family law fails older adults and prevents them from creating legal bonds with other adults outside the traditional marital model. This Response posits that racial myopia is a common yet complex phenomenon in almost every area of law, and it presents most often by centering whiteness as the default standard while failing to account for race and its impact on the law. Race—as well as the scholarship that incorporates race into normative family structure and identity—must be …

The Pitfall Of Child Marriage Dispensation: A Study Of Court Judgments In East Java (Dispensasi Perkawinan Anak Yang Menjerumuskan: Studi Putusan Hakim Di Jawa Timur), Iklilah Muzayyanah Dini Fajriyah, Siti Marhamah, Septiani Anggriani

The Indonesian Journal of Socio-Legal Studies

This article conducted study on court decisions on dispensation for marriage that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic (June 2020 to February 2021) from the children’s rights perspective. The library research method was chosen to dissect 19 marriage dispensation decisions (12 decisions from religious courts and seven decisions from district courts) in Kraksaan and Sumenep districts, East Java. Child married couples were randomly selected with one or both parties under the age of 18. Three important findings in this study are: 1) the perspective of the best interests of the child has not been the main consideration for judges; 2) judges …

The Gloria And Stanley Plesent Lecture: “Parents’ Rights” And Transgender Children With Professor Dara E. Purvis Penn State Law, Gertrud Mainzer Program In Family Law, Policy And Bioethics, Cardozo Outlaw, Cardozo Family Law Society

2023 Event Invitations

This year’s Gloria and Stanley Plesent Lecture will be given by Professor Dara E. Purvis, a scholar of family law, feminist legal theory, sexuality, gender identity and the law who teaches at Penn State Law. Her work examines gendered impacts of the law and proposes neutralizing reforms, most recently in the context of how the law defines parenthood. Professor Purvis will be discussing the recent spate of state bills and laws related to transgender children.

4th Annual Women In Law Leadership Lecture, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Family Law Judges And Family Law Judging, Gertrud Mainzer Program In Family Law, Policy And Bioethics, Cardozo Family Law Society

2023 Event Invitations

This program is intended for current students and graduates interested family law, working in a judge’s chambers, or becoming a judge.

Panelists:

• Judge Caroline Cohen, Civil Court Judge, Kings County Family Court, New York
• Judge Esther Morgenstern, Supreme Court Justice, Kings County Integrated Domestic Violence Court, New York
• Judge Jane Pearl, The Mandel Law Firm, Special Counsel; Family Court Judge, New York (retired)
• Judge Andrea Sullivan, Superior Court Judge, Middlesex County Family Court, New Jersey

Child Custody Is No Place For A Magic Formula: Why A Presumption Of 50/50 Physical Custody In West Virginia Is Not In Its Children's Best Interests, Stephanie R. Weber

West Virginia Law Review

The “best interest of the child” standard is used throughout family law and is the generally accepted standard for determining custody disputes. However, many states have introduced, and some have enacted, legislation that creates a presumption of joint, or “50/50,” physical custody between the parents. As psychological studies have shown, instability typically found in custody disputes can have a significant impact on a child’s life, influencing attachment style and abilities to successfully self-regulate. These findings make the 50/50 presumption a flawed concept. Courts should be able to take factors supported by this research into account when making custody determinations as …

The Legal Ethics Of Family Separation, Milan Markovic

Faculty Scholarship

On April 6, 2018, the Trump administration announced a “zero tolerance” policy for individuals who crossed the U.S. border illegally. As part of this policy, the administration prosecuted parents with minor children for unlawful entry; previous administrations generally placed families in civil removal proceedings. Since U.S. law does not allow children to be held in immigration detention facilities pending their parents’ prosecution, the new policy caused thousands of children to be separated from their parents. Hundreds of families have yet to be reunited.

Despite a consensus that the family separation policy was cruel and ineffective, there has been minimal focus …

Legislating Childhood Independence, David Pimentel

Pepperdine Law Review

The legal system has been drawn into the ongoing debate about what constitutes responsible parenting in a world increasingly obsessed with child safety. While statistics show that children are dramatically safer today than ever before, media and popular paranoia about child safety are prompting parents to err on the side of overprotection. Vague statutes exacerbate the problem, enabling law enforcement and child protection authorities to condemn parental choices that fail to adhere to the new hyper-protective orthodoxy. Parents and children are both victimized by this trend. The costs and burdens of parenting have skyrocketed, and children are denied the opportunity …

Adoption Ouroboros: Repeating The Cycle Of Adoption As Rescue, Malinda L. Seymore

Pepperdine Law Review

Ouroboros—the circular symbol of the snake eating its tail; an endless cycle. As the U.S. recently withdrew from Afghanistan in chaos and Russia invaded Ukraine, the attention of Americans turned, as it frequently has in times of international conflict, to the plight of children in need of rescue. For many Americans, rescue is synonymous with adoption. The history of international adoption began with rescues following America’s wars in Europe and Asia and continues today through other violent upheavals. International adoption is an ouroboros, repeating the pattern of adoption as a response to humanitarian crises. But as human and charitable as …

Invisibility And Dis-Identification Of Algerian Women: Feminist Jurisprudence Eyes On The Legal Provisions Related To Personal Status And Criminal, Sophia Lina Meziane

Theses and Dissertations

Much of the debate around women’s rights in legal systems focuses on the increase of protection as a legal mechanism for approaching and guaranteeing gender equality. Yet, what extensive or comprehensive analysis has been done on how effective such laws are when applied? This thesis discusses the extent to which a feminist legal theory, separate and distinct from the patriarchal legal system, can demonstrate how an Islamic or Napoleonic order is conceptually another male rationality. While one could possibly identify inefficiencies of laws proclaiming equality and protection for women, the context of the question is inevitably entrenched in the very …

6th Annual Stonewall Lecture 2-2-2023, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

Adopting Social Media In Family And Adoption Law, Stacey B. Steinberg, Meredith Burgess, Karla Herrera

Utah Law Review

Social media has dramatically changed the landscape facing families brought together through adoption. Just as adoptive families thirty years ago could not have predicted the impact of DNA technology on postadoption family life, adoptive families are only now beginning to grasp the impact of social media connectivity on the lives of their growing children. This change is related both to social media’s impact on family life and to fundamental shifts in our understanding of privacy more generally. Understanding the legal rights of parents and children in these circumstances is a novel and underexplored area of family law, constitutional law, and …