Family Law

Convicted of murdering ex-client, lawyer is fighting attorney disciplinary petition

Convicted earlier this year of murdering a former matrimonial client and her baby, and sentenced to life in prison, an Illinois attorney is fighting a subsequent legal ethics case. Fredrick Goings reportedly had an on-again, off-again romantic relationship with Nova Henry, his client in a child-support case against professional basketball…

May 21, 2013 3:55 PM CDT

Suspended and facing ethics case, judge blames president jurist, claims she rebuffed advances

An Alabama judge facing a legal ethics case over the unlawful arrest orders she is accused of entering against parties and witnesses in divorce cases is now blaming the jurisdiction’s former top jurist for her plight. Jefferson County Circuit Judge Dorothea Batiste denies in court filings that she abused her…

May 21, 2013 3:18 PM CDT

Suspended judge expected to testify about relationship with child-support case witness

Updated: A Michigan judge who has been suspended without pay is expected to testify Monday in a legal ethics case over his alleged sexual relationship with a witness in a case that was before his bench. Wayne County Circuit Judge Wade McCree is charged in a Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission…

May 20, 2013 11:20 AM CDT

Sex-reassignment surgery of infant in state’s care violated due process, adoptive parents allege

The adoptive parents of a baby born with both male and female genitalia claim the state of South Carolina violated their child’s constitutional rights by subjecting the child to sex-reassignment surgery. The child, identified as “M.C.,” was 16 months old when surgeons removed the toddler’s male genitals before the adoption,…

May 15, 2013 12:39 PM CDT

Unhappy with child-custody award, woman and parents plotted to murder her ex-husband and his mom

A former elementary school teacher and her father pleaded guilty Thursday to their admitted roles in a plot to murder her former husband because they were unhappy with a child-custody award in the couple’s divorce case. Then, after onetime third-grade teacher Kathleen Dorsett was arrested in the 2010 slaying of…

May 10, 2013 3:30 PM CDT

Did Kobe Bryant’s mom get OK to auction items left in his boyhood bedroom? Federal judge grants TRO

Just in time for Mother’s Day, basketball great Kobe Bryant is involved in a federal lawsuit against his own mother, who he says cleared out his former boyhood bedroom without his permission to obtain sports memorabilia for an unauthorized auction. After a dispute developed, a New Jersey auction house filed…

May 9, 2013 6:43 PM CDT

Daughter of Delaware courthouse shooter seeks custody of slain mom’s 3 kids

The daughter of a man who shot two women to death at a Delaware courthouse earlier this year is seeking custody of the three daughters of one of the slain women. In Delaware, relatives usually receive preference when courts are considering the permanent guardianship of children in foster care, the…

May 7, 2013 5:52 PM CDT

Chemerinsky: Decoding the gay-marriage oral arguments

No decisions are more eagerly awaited from the U.S. Supreme Court than those in the marriage equality cases. Hollingsworth v. Perry and United States v. Windsor were argued on March 26 and 27, and most expect that the decisions will be announced at the end of June. Having just re-read…

May 2, 2013 1:30 PM CDT

Marriage as a loophole—what’s love got to do with it?

The gradual redefinition of what, exactly, constitutes a marriage in these United States is taking place before our very eyes, as both sides of the congressional aisle vow to give a chilly reception to anyone who isn’t wedded to the lawmakers’ views on the matter. But regardless of one’s personal…

May 1, 2013 5:50 AM CDT

Domestic violence victims penalized for calling police by eviction ordinance, says ACLU suit

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a federal lawsuit over a municipal ordinance that effectively penalizes individuals for calling police, if they are deemed to have engaged in “disorderly behavior,” by pressuring landlords to evict them. Filed by Pepper Hamilton last week on behalf of Lakisha Briggs, the Philadelphia…

Apr 30, 2013 4:29 PM CDT

Dozens of ‘well-connected’ people granted secret court cases in Chicago area, including 5 judges

Five state and federal judges, as well as a number of lawyers, were among dozens of “well-off and well-connected” individuals who have had cases–often concerning domestic relations matters–either sealed by Chicago area judges or allowed to be filed using only the initials of the parties. Although the reasons routinely cited–financial…

Apr 30, 2013 3:30 PM CDT

‘Wicked and selfish’ mom pushed teen daughter to get pregnant so she could raise baby, judge says

Thwarted when she tried, as a single mother, to adopt a fourth child, a “domineering” American woman living in Great Britain tried another approach. She used her influence on her then-14-year-old daughter to persuade the teen to get pregnant and provide the baby she wanted, so she could raise it…

Apr 29, 2013 6:24 PM CDT

Millionaire who helped son, 16, get married has 180-day contempt term upheld by appeals court

A Florida appeals court on Wednesday upheld without comment a 180-day contempt term imposed on a millionaire for taking his then-16-year-old son to Las Vegas to get married to his housekeeper’s 18-year-old daughter. A Miami-Dade circuit judge had ordered Dan Rotta to take the troubled teen to a Utah boarding…

Apr 24, 2013 10:01 PM CDT

Son of dead shooter in Del. courthouse slayings gets six months for probation violation

The son of a man who killed two women at a Delaware courthouse earlier this year as they arrived for a child-support hearing was sentenced Tuesday to two months in federal prison for violating his probation in a child-kidnapping and fraud case. David Matusiewicz was also present at the Delaware…

Apr 23, 2013 11:06 PM CDT

Breakup sparks legal battle over $105K in parking tickets, a record high amount in Chicago

When Jennifer Fitzgerald and Brandon Preveau split up, he kept the 1999 Chevrolet Monte Carlo he had purchased for $600. But the car was in her name, as were the parking tickets Preveau allegedly racked up by abandoning it for nearly three years in a United Airlines employees-only parking lot…

Apr 11, 2013 6:35 PM CDT