Family Law

An early line forms for oral arguments on gay marriage

SCOTUS watchers and paid placeholders began forming a line outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday for Tuesday’s oral arguments on California’s ban on gay marriage. Over the weekend, nearly 30 people formed a line, according to the New York Times blog the Caucus. The first people arrived on Thursday…

Mar 25, 2013 12:11 PM CDT

Mom gets 16 years for child neglect after daughter, 9, dies of diabetic complications

A Texas mom who was accused by authorities of failing to properly manage her diabetic daughter’s diet has been sentenced to 16 years for child neglect following the girl’s death, at age 9, from complications of the disease. Georgia Jones, 31, was sentenced Monday, after pleading guilty to felony injury…

Mar 19, 2013 4:28 PM CDT

David Boies is optimistic about Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage

One of the litigators seeking to overturn California’s ban on gay marriage is predicting a Supreme Court win. David Boies has joined with Ted Olson to challenge California’s Proposition 8 referendum banning gay marriage in the state. In an interview with USA Today, Boies expressed optimism. “I believe we are…

Mar 14, 2013 1:11 PM CDT

Domestic abuse law applies to online relationships, Massachusetts high court says

Massachusetts’ top court says the state’s domestic abuse law applies to relationships developed online. Despite the pronouncement, the Supreme Judicial Court held the law could not be used by a father seeking to prevent a meeting between his 16-year-old daughter and a 24-year-old British man. In Massachusetts, the age of…

Mar 14, 2013 12:41 PM CDT

$13M attorney fee in clergy abuse case is at center of ‘epic’ divorce fight

The lead lawyer who helped obtain a $660 million clergy abuse settlement in Los Angeles is now engaged in a long-running legal battle with his former spouse over her right to a split of his attorney fees in the case, estimated at $13 million. Lawyer Ray Boucher estimates the divorce…

Mar 12, 2013 1:15 PM CDT

Internet marriage ceremonies on the rise as immigrants get hitched with overseas spouses

Online video connection services such as Skype and Google Hangout are spurring a trend: Internet marriages. Members of immigrant communities are increasingly getting hitched to people overseas in video ceremonies, the New York Times reports. The legal arrangement, called a proxy marriage, occurs without the presence of one of the…

Mar 12, 2013 11:30 AM CDT

‘Landmark’ NY appeals court ruling voids prenup due to millionaire’s oral promises to wife-to-be

In what lawyers are calling a landmark ruling, a New York appeals court has upheld a Long Island judge’s decision to void an prenuptial agreement that the wife of a millionaire says she was tricked into signing by false promises made by her husband-to-be, days before the wedding. Elizabeth Cioffi-Petrakis…

Mar 11, 2013 7:20 PM CDT

Tipster tells police missing man was hospitalized; staff refused to say due to privacy law

When worried friends reported an 81-year-old man was missing from his home on Monday, one of the first things police in Salem, Ore., did was contact local hospitals. There was no sign of Thomas Dill there, so authorities and friends kept searching. After two days, an anonymous tipster told police…

Mar 11, 2013 4:17 PM CDT

Person of interest in lawyer’s slaying is arrested

A person of interest being sought by authorities in the apparent slaying of a Colorado family law attorney has been arrested in Idaho. Warren Dale Watson was arrested Friday in Caldwell on an unrelated prior warrant, KUSA reports. The body of Claudia Miller, 66, was found in her law office…

Mar 8, 2013 11:42 PM CST

Bill Clinton: DOMA should be overturned

Former President Bill Clinton has changed his mind about the Defense of Marriage Act, the law that denies federal benefits to gay couples who are legally married. Clinton signed the bill into law in 1996. Now, in a Washington Post opinion column, Clinton says the law should be overturned. “On…

Mar 8, 2013 12:26 PM CST

Son of Del. courthouse shooter faces new probation violation charges related to ammo

New probation violation charges have been filed against the son of a man who committed suicide immediately after shooting to death two women at a Wilmington, Del., courthouse last month. David Matusiewicz, 45, is accused in a violation petition filed Tuesday of living in a home in Texas in which…

Mar 7, 2013 5:09 PM CST

Lawyer bills over 3,500 hours a year, loses license for 4 years it will take to make restitution

A sole practitioner who claimed to have worked well over 3,500 hours annually while representing parents and children in juvenile court and guardianship matters during two fiscal years between 2007 and 2009 has lost his law license for four years. That is the amount of time it will take Derek…

Mar 4, 2013 10:24 PM CST

Child abducted by mom at age 5 and sent to Japan gets crime victim compensation

An American girl who was kidnapped by her mother at age 5 and traumatized by being sent to live with her grandparents in Japan for four years is entitled to compensation as a crime victim, a Wisconsin administrative law judge has ruled. The state argued that the Crime Victim Compensation…

Mar 4, 2013 7:05 PM CST

DOMA violates equal protection with ‘discriminatory burdens’ on same-sex spouses, says ABA brief

In an amicus brief (PDF) filed Friday, the American Bar Association asks the U.S. Supreme Court to consider the “unprecedented and discriminatory burdens” placed on legally married same-sex couples by Section 3 of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. As an ABA press release sums up, the brief, which was…

Mar 4, 2013 3:43 PM CST

Judge’s ‘hunch’ leads to successful adoption of baby found in subway

The true story that began 12 years ago is one of unlikely coincidences. A social worker finds an abandoned baby in the New York subway. He arrives in court to recount the discovery when the judge asks an unexpected question: Would he like to adopt the boy? The social worker…

Mar 4, 2013 11:30 AM CST