Case Law Updates from Family Mediation Quarterly, July 2013

“Agreed upon Educational Expenses” and the Price of Silence. Because “agreed upon expenses” recurs so frequently in our agreements, this recent case from the Appeals Court should be of great interest. The separation agreement, incorporated into a California divorce judgment and registered in Massachusetts, provided that each party would pay one-half of all agreed-upon educational…

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American Girl Dolls and Divorce

American Girl dolls have been a staple with children since they first debuted in 1986.  They initially presented historical characters at various tumultuous stages in history, surmounting obstacles and overcoming odds.  There was the Colonial American Girl facing the Revolutionary War, the young pioneer whose family was settling the West, and an Eastern European immigrant…

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Fleshing Out Best Interest Standard

A recent SJC opinion made headlines by finding that a California registered domestic partnership was equivalent to a marriage, and that the biological mother and her “partner” were both parents to the child born during their partnership through in vitro fertilization.  The case, too, contains an excellent review of the standards of primary physical custody…

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Keep your Children Healthy, Keep your Children

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal calls obesity the new second-hand-smoke in child custody cases in the U.S. Families with an overweight child, or in which a parent is morbidly obese, are seeking guidance from the court system. If a parent claims his or her child is only offered fast foods and doesn’t…

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Lawyer-Mediator’s Subsequent Representation of Party

A Nebraska attorney served as a mediator for an unmarried couple in a child custody dispute; later, after the mediation had concluded, this same attorney represented the mother against the father in a suit involving the father’s alleged wrongful theft of certain of the mother’s property. The father sought to disqualify the attorney on the…

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Focus on Your Children

A recent article featured in the Wall Street Journal highlights efforts parents can make to help their children feel balanced after divorce. One of the most significant things parents can do after going through a divorce is talk to their kids about it. Willingness to treat the subject seriously, even with young children, will help…

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Your Family isn't "Broken"

When a spouse brings a divorce preceding against the other spouse, there are certain words that can get thrown around; legal terms such as custodial parent, custody, access, and also, a familiar one: “broken home.”  The term broken home can refer to a family run by a single parent, but in today’s modern family, it…

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Ex-Wife’s Facebook Entrapment Plan Backfires

An Indiana woman going through a divorce pretended to be a pretty seventeen-year-old girl on Facebook in order to incriminate her ex-husband and gain the upper hand in a fiercely contested custody dispute.  Angela Voelkert created a fake Facebook account for “Jessica Studebaker” and friended her ex-husband, David Voelkert.  An online “relationship” developed between David…

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