tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39674268297905780592012-02-06T19:53:37.843-08:00California family law news, views, and ruminations by Richard Gould-SaltmanRichard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.comBlogger671100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-45049392512627774832012-02-06T16:21:00.000-08:002012-02-06T16:21:57.995-08:00

That little "AVVO" badge there on the right side reflects that from time to time, over the last several years, I've answered questions posted by members of the public about family law issues.  Somewhere along the line, I've apparently answered more than 2,500 of those questions.  (That's two and a half thousand.) For free.  Even figuring three minutes per question, that's roughly a hundred and

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-8790528210773077312012-01-19T12:58:00.000-08:002012-01-19T13:09:12.940-08:00

Those of you who've followed this blog for more than a post or two have long since tired of my, and others' yelling about the fact that trial courts, and particularly family law trial courts, have been getting a raw deal in terms of funding.  Now, it's official.

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-78295863028491947252011-12-20T13:41:00.000-08:002011-12-20T13:45:39.827-08:00

...after a somewhat more exciting year than I really needed... watch this space....

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-86623044533607252802011-11-17T17:10:00.000-08:002011-11-17T17:10:35.410-08:00

Kim K's marriage is broken, after seventy-two days; presumably she listened to her own advice on the subject of prenuptial agreements.

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-32382160159825338952011-10-17T11:21:00.000-07:002011-10-17T11:21:25.359-07:00

has now been signed into law.

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-17559824302027450372011-10-12T12:53:00.000-07:002011-10-12T12:53:50.980-07:00

ESG: 1926-2011 When I graduated , in the words of the old joke, "I was surprised how much the old man had learned". When I became a father, I understood some of what I'd previously dismissed as idiosyncrasy. I did not understand, until recently, that sometimes there is as much heroism in "I will continue and endure" as there is in battle. Time to rest, Pop.

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-49120995724569657942011-07-21T11:48:00.000-07:002011-07-21T11:50:09.405-07:00

Which is more risky for a nine-year old: letting the child wait alone at a bus stop for ten minutes, in mid-day, or letting the same child ride a bicycle for a half hour near his house? How about letting the same child visit a friend who has a swimming pool? A friend whose parent owns firearms and keeps them in the house? (See Dubner and Levitt's Freakonomics for that dyad.) Which are most

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-16056815554606877342011-07-13T15:43:00.001-07:002011-09-06T17:10:42.008-07:00

Zero to Three: Parenting Issues and Parenting Plans For Young Children We open with three disclaimers: We will not address the evidentiary adequacy of child custody evaluations, research bearing on custody issues performed by mental health professionals, or the adequacy of the social science underlying them.[1] We are also will not address, in other than a general way, the efficacy of custody/

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-57442808755013164812011-06-22T13:12:00.000-07:002011-06-22T13:22:00.139-07:00

After a hiatus, I'm accumulated enough stuff so that I feel obliged to get some posts up. Within a week after the McCourts thought they'd worked an over-all settlement, MLB has said "Not so fast..." ...and this just in: "Khloe Kardashian thinks 'everybody needs a prenup.' In an interview ... ... the 26-year-old defended her recently engaged sister Kim's shocking

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-62715621743258368082011-03-04T11:08:00.000-08:002011-05-13T16:10:20.151-07:00

"Believe half of what you see, and none of what you hear. "*Last week, a Northern California newspaper published an extended piece, asserting, yet again, that the family law system is (quoting the cover headline) "helping pedophiles, batterers get childcustody". While buried in the body of the piece was an acknowledgment that " it is impossible to say how common such cases are", that isn't

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-7049309830350105932011-01-31T15:08:00.000-08:002011-01-31T15:35:53.676-08:00

It's not every day that someone's divorce results in protests to the staff of the House Ways and Means Committee. Maryland, unlike New York, apparently does not have a legal mechanism by which recalcitrant divorcing husbands can be directly coerced into granting their observant ex-wives religious divorces, so it appears the judge may have fashioned his own remedy. While I have some serious

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-34778979448412328802011-01-12T14:10:00.001-08:002011-01-31T15:02:56.754-08:00

An interesting case about medical decisions in child custody cases, with a religious issue overlaid on top of it. A judge, presented with giving either Dad, (who wanted child vaccinated) or Mom (who wanted the child NOT vaccinated, for ostensibly religious reasons) the decision-making authority to over-ride the other parent's preference, chooses Dad's view. Query whether the outcome would have

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-89860409935138529662010-12-20T16:47:00.000-08:002011-03-07T10:22:21.848-08:00

There's a reported substantial upswing, in France, of young opposite-sex couples electing to contract "civil unions" instead of marrying. The French 1999 "pacte civil de solidarité" ("civil union") statute was apparently originally enacted, (as with the "civil union" and "domestic partnership" laws of several American states), as a"sort-of-marriage" for same-sex couples, but, as the New York

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-42622789587637322802010-10-20T08:54:00.000-07:002010-12-14T18:11:44.092-08:00

Maybe, says the U.K.'s Supreme Court. Thanks and a big 'ol Texas hat tip to Randy Kessler for the pointer.

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-78388142110285484502010-10-05T17:54:00.000-07:002010-12-22T10:15:31.722-08:00

...in which nobody seemed to raise the Constitutional issues. This time, it's Georgia; by agreement, Mom was to have the authority to make decisions about child's religious training and upbringing. Mom wanted to give child Jewish religious training and practice, and Dad had, it appears, originally agreed. Then, it appears, Dad changed his mind, and (as is sometimes the case in these sorts of

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-7776913090357596812010-09-24T16:32:00.001-07:002010-12-22T10:18:23.879-08:00

Over at Gitlin Law Blog, Illinois family law attorney Joe Gitlin muses that marriages break down when (to use a metaphor which dates both him and me) the spouses aren't "building from the same blueprint".This is consistent with my take: the crux of the decision to divorce isn't usually specifically about money, or sex, or intimacy, it's that moment, a year, a decade, four decades into the

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-39046456620258330712010-09-15T12:59:00.000-07:002010-09-15T13:12:09.431-07:00

It seems that under Michigan's Medical Marijuana Act, a parent may not be denied custody or visitation of a minor for acting in accordance with the act [i.e., possessing pot with a properly issued "registry identification card"] unless his or her behavior is such that it creates an "unreasonable danger to the minor which can be clearly articulated and substantiated". The Michigan Court of

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-18378435755516300212010-08-01T14:49:00.000-07:002010-08-01T14:54:32.350-07:00

The New York Times on some of the reasons that some folks (including, apparently, Warren Buffet) continue in marital limbo, for years, and in some cases, decades. The record, in my own practice, was a client who had cohabited with his new spouse just long enough to conceive, and for her to give birth to, a child; now that their son was finally reaching adulthood, they thought it would be a good

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-27092943104083880822010-07-04T14:07:00.001-07:002010-11-24T08:23:13.105-08:00

...or so says the Wall Street Journal. Possible explanations (none exclusive, and none clearly verifiable) include:that boomers divorce more frequently, and live longer, than their parents, and thus have a higher rate of re-marriage; or that our lives are simply overwhelmed by fear of litigation; or that the financial crisis has simply taken some of the romance out of romance.. . . and

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-43476754057623191432010-07-01T13:00:00.001-07:002010-07-01T13:03:13.826-07:00

Some of you may have noticed a recent subtle change in the blog profile. Here's why.

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-54447046914715210662010-06-30T10:00:00.000-07:002010-07-01T13:07:02.106-07:00

Per the New York Times, a number of efforts are afoot to provide on-line tools for "preventive maintenance and assessment" for married couples. (Providing relationships with something between scheduled maintenance/inspection visits by your car dealer, and your annual physical?)Professors from UCLA and University of Miami are soliciting 500 married couples to participate in a study of on-line

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-82947994822737204292010-06-13T22:07:00.000-07:002010-06-15T13:17:59.442-07:00

I won't really get incensed (pun intended) until I read a clearer and more definitive description of the facts and order in the underlying case, but a recent report suggests that Chicago judges are willing to make intrusive orders not only against divorced parents, but against new step-parents, in regard to issues of religious upbringing, seemingly pretty much ignoring that stuff about "

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-39536388579718506372010-05-18T11:31:00.001-07:002010-05-18T12:10:12.878-07:00

There we are, on the cover of this month's CEB catalog!

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-3475473667026052892010-05-18T10:31:00.000-07:002010-06-14T07:54:46.095-07:00

The SCOTUS has decided, 6-3, in Abbott v. Abbott, a lingering issue in international child custody abduction cases. Only a parent with a "right of custody" can invoke the Hague Convention to compel the return of the child. Lower Federal courts have disagreed as to whether a parent with only "visitation" rights, but with a "ne exeat" order (forbidding the removal of the child from that country)

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-89195195264533997452010-05-10T12:05:00.000-07:002010-05-10T12:08:44.509-07:00

The New York Times reports Italy's first "divorce trade show". I guess "Divorce, Italian Style" no longer carries quite the significance it once did.

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-90181251595231315392010-04-23T11:08:00.000-07:002010-04-23T11:57:57.664-07:00

An Illinois trial judge has modified the earlier order noted below and decided that, although Dad in the case appears to have engaged in fairly self-centered and obnoxious behavior in regard to parenting issues, (see pages 7 and 8 of the decision) Dad's taking his daughter to church during his custodial time is within his Constitutional rights, in the absence of some showing of true detriment to

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-31362004268458308622010-03-30T11:59:00.000-07:002010-04-05T16:41:00.154-07:00

A family law blogger colleague argues against Maryland’s pending reduction of the minimum waiting period for entry of a divorce judgment.In support of his argument that this is a bad thing, he republishes a study which notes a statistical correlation between a state’s minimum time for completion of divorce proceedings and the divorce rate in the state (and also cites a similar correlation as to

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-47303247172531529862010-03-08T07:24:00.001-08:002010-11-24T08:24:07.296-08:00

On the upswing, says USA Today.

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-52033110506714890292010-02-23T16:06:00.000-08:002010-03-11T15:21:34.527-08:00

The Kentucky Court of Appeals has held that an agreement to submit all or a portion of a family law dispute to binding arbitration, without independent review by a sitting "real" judge, is an impermissible delegation of the court's power. Among the more notable comments the court made, however, was the following, made without any citation of further authority:Notwithstanding that the parties

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-70106973955497373032010-02-19T15:40:00.000-08:002010-03-25T10:24:00.865-07:00

A Chicago court may be about to jail (link repaired, see also here and here ) a law student/parent for taking his child to church in what seems, from the interview he gave, to be a clear and deliberate violation of a court order. While a California court would clearly not make a similar order, the manner in which the issue arose here raises a couple of interesting questions:To what extent can/

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-34092823114879861832010-01-25T14:09:00.000-08:002010-01-25T14:13:15.348-08:00

A divorce gift registry. Those Brits are so far ahead of us in handling matters of etiquette.

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-64376726749632638012009-12-30T11:40:00.000-08:002009-12-30T12:06:41.586-08:00

Sean Goldman has been returned to the United States, after many months, and many tens of thousands of dollars, of litigation by his father to get him back from Brazil. His Brazilian "step-father"* was able to delay the return to the United States seemingly required by the Hague Convention, and a last-minute review by the Brazilian Supreme Court threatened to delay the final order being carried

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-5964338420154570982009-12-09T11:18:00.000-08:002009-12-11T10:56:03.423-08:00

Ms. Buie was married to Mr. Neighbors. Ms. Buie had previously sold a piece of real estate, and had some money in the bank, so shortly before Mr. Neighbors' birthday, she allowed him to take $60,000 of that money and buy himself a Porsche. . . . . . or so he thought. As a California court has already observed, ". . . divorce unsettles many of the parties' significant plans and assumptions,

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-85749941008451995992009-12-03T16:17:00.000-08:002009-12-11T10:56:47.526-08:00

A quick explanation, from the Wall Street Journal, of divorce and Social Security benefits.

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-43333884381108701372009-10-28T10:21:00.000-07:002009-12-11T11:03:10.220-08:00

Jamie McCourt has now filed her action for dissolution, along with a request for somewhere between $300,000 and $500,000 per month in spousal support (depending on whether she immediately gets back all her perks of being a Dodgers co-owner) and about two and a half million dollars in attorney fees and litigation costs.What's interesting about this case, beyond the usual tabloid stuff, is that it

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-6288737790967029142009-10-23T16:38:00.000-07:002009-10-23T16:42:56.912-07:00

I just couldn't resist writing the headline. Here's the story.

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-48238598455543908412009-09-24T10:10:00.000-07:002009-09-24T10:17:09.242-07:00

In fact, California's not really in the running. Looks like Indiana and Florida are the big contenders.

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-81826329874437456162009-09-20T22:20:00.001-07:002009-12-11T10:58:01.501-08:00

My advice on:How To Maximize Your Parenting In California - Avvo.comShared via AddThis

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-24077703541324103822009-08-25T11:02:00.000-07:002009-12-11T10:58:58.617-08:00

My learned colleague Mark Chinn** from Jackson, MS, posted a deliberately provocative title to his blog this week: said Mark: "If you get a prenuptial agreement in the days before the marriage, don’t sign it!"My thought was: "If your fiance hands you a prenuptial agreement at the church door, stop the music, and postpone the wedding! You've just learned something very valuable about your fiance,

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-51240355900075725792009-08-25T10:51:00.000-07:002009-08-25T16:06:35.907-07:00

Rifqa Bary, who's seventeen, ran away from her parents in Columbus, Ohio, and turned up in Orlando, Florida, under the "care"of a pastor whom she met over the internet. The pastor held a press conference in which Rifqa announced, under the pastor's eye (or more exactly, under his arm) that she had run away because she had converted to Christianity, and that she was afraid that her Muslim

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-50048926896547729862009-08-06T11:01:00.001-07:002009-08-06T11:04:26.801-07:00

This just in: divorcing is often so stressful that it will make you sick.

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-12371478723156103932009-07-07T16:55:00.000-07:002009-07-07T16:58:51.344-07:00

It appears that a sea-change in British family law may happening, and that British courts may begin recognizing some pre-marital agreements as valid.

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-61658315636590112482009-06-26T09:20:00.000-07:002009-06-26T09:25:44.466-07:00

The Connecticut Supreme Court has held that once someone with a "celebrity divorce" signs an agreement that gives away the right to blab about the divorce to the media, in exchange for money from her ex, that agreement will be enforced, and isn't an improper violation of the would-be-blabber's First Amendment rights.

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-60350361478048590442009-06-17T17:00:00.000-07:002009-08-06T13:00:56.395-07:00

Back in February, I started down a path of discussing what we, as a society and as a state, intended when we set up our "family law" and rules, and how, and whether, that should change. I've been contemplating those issues since then and talking to lots of people, about 'em.One of the issues which has nagged at me is the relative ease with which we as a society let (some) folks undertake the "

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-42286700153930764192009-06-02T15:36:00.000-07:002009-06-02T15:42:41.473-07:00

AFCC Annual Meeting, New Orleans Saturday, May 30, 2009, 9:15 am (now available for download)"You Signed WHAT?"Mental health professionals have an ethical obligation to provide an “informed consent” process to the families they serve and attorneys are obligated to advise parents and protect their rights. This includes reviewing consent forms presented bymental health professionals. This

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-27242558399375448032009-05-21T11:48:00.000-07:002009-05-21T14:30:52.153-07:00

In the wake of the vote-down of the Governor's various last-ditch "budget-rescue" bills, the Los Angeles Superior Court has announced that they will be closing all courtrooms one Wednesday per month, commencing in July, and continuing for the next fiscal year.This is, in a word, not likely to improve the functioning of the family court system, and not likely to make it more responsive to the

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-81713723589774076162009-05-01T12:03:00.000-07:002009-05-01T12:40:01.880-07:00

Pardon the twenty-day hiatus; had to get through tax season, and some business issues. I also started but didn't finish a couple of long pieces, which will yet see the light of day here, having to do with what needs to be done, by government, lawyers, and YOU, readers, the public, to salvage a usable family law system from the rapidly unraveling social safety net. On that "note", a pair of

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-57859461249534634122009-04-10T11:45:00.000-07:002009-04-10T11:52:39.736-07:00

Georgia Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears (a divorcee) said "As a mechanism for signaling to young people the right time and the right person with whom to have a baby, marriage has no peer. . .. . . Marriage is also the best child welfare, crime prevention and anti-poverty program we have. We must, therefore, protect it."The good Justice did not elaborate on how she proposes to do this, though I'm

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-11800244377450087412009-04-10T11:14:00.000-07:002009-04-10T11:19:15.165-07:00

Actually, the end result of high-conflict parenting. Volokh Conspiracy has a link to the original opinion in French, a rough translation into English, and comments including my own two cents worth.

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-19312150380928346782009-04-07T14:51:00.000-07:002009-04-07T15:02:41.153-07:00

In the wake of the Iowa's Supreme Court's ruling, noted below, two somewhat less surprising developments:In Vermont, the state legislature overrode a veto by the governor of that state's same-sex-marriage legislation;andin Washington D.C. , the Council, the city's governing body, has voted to recognize same-sex marriages contracted in other states and countries.

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-3470272502602695892009-04-03T09:30:00.000-07:002009-08-04T10:53:52.251-07:00

. . . or at least, under the Iowa Constitution. Those who thought that this idea was confined to the "loony Left Coast": here's the opinion, care of, and thanks to, Howard Bashman's "How Appealing".Also, perhaps less surprisingly, Sweden has now legalized same-sex marriage.

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-49537691361857276862009-04-01T13:06:00.000-07:002009-04-01T15:14:23.050-07:00

All over the country, as the employment picture becomes gloomier, folks all over who were previously ordered, or agreed to pay moderate amounts of child and spousal support, based on their previous moderate earnings, are going back to court to modify those orders, because they no longer have the moderate earnings to pay from. As with the down-turn in economy generally, the phenomenon,

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-16437134120194761812009-03-24T16:17:00.000-07:002009-12-11T11:01:12.779-08:00

The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has reversed a Federal trial court and denied an petition under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction for return of the child to Mexico, pending an actual custody determination. Said the progressive (or, depending on who you talk to, "notoriously liberal") Court, in an opinion by Justice Reinhardt: [W]e must decide here

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-27694785564168102562009-03-23T11:12:00.000-07:002009-03-23T11:21:42.536-07:00

It seems that under a recent determination of Muslim law as it applies in Egypt, if a couple doesn't get along, but doesn't proceed to get a divorce, the neighbors can do it for them."Sheik Gamal Qutb, former head of Egypt's top religious institution, the Fatwa Committee at al-Azhar, said Sunday during a meeting at the Egyptian Press Syndicate that his fatwa states that neighbors and family

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-45837873537656358112009-03-20T12:02:00.000-07:002009-03-23T09:51:28.730-07:00

Per the books-on-disc version of Walter Issacson's biography of Albert Einstein, when Einstein became estranged from his wife, he proposed to her that in exchange for her consenting to a divorce, when he won the Nobel Prize, he would give her the prize money. He eventually did both.

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-4297735894869664822009-03-18T10:29:00.000-07:002009-03-19T14:42:11.474-07:00

New York, among other idiosyncracies in their family law, continues to have "fault divorce"; if you fail to prove fault, the court can refuse to grant a divorce. I've been practicing my entire career in a "no-fault" state, and the idea that the state has some interest in telling someone who wants to get divorced, "No, even though you've filed a divorce, you must stay married..." strikes me as

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-13355273368647371872009-03-16T16:31:00.000-07:002009-03-16T16:49:17.927-07:00

As the world economy (or the world's economies) slumps*, different aspects of law come into sharp focus, while others, momentarily, lose relevance making them worthy of attention. I'm now far more interested than I've been in a couple of decades, in the possible remedies my clients' refinance mortgage-holders may have when the mortgage doesn't get paid**. The formulas by which the parties get

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-89047478339510530422009-03-13T14:38:00.001-07:002009-03-16T15:17:08.078-07:00

It appears that at least for the moment, the New Jersey court will not be restoring full custody of little Adolf Hitler Campbell, and his siblings, Joyce Lynn Aryan Nation Campbell and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell (there's some reason to think that ol' Honszlynn's middle name was supposed to be "Himmler") to their parents. These would be the parents who put their children into the public

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-77900393142516976202009-03-11T16:02:00.000-07:002009-03-12T10:12:13.437-07:00

and it's on the White House agenda website.

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-64397041401853606022009-03-05T12:05:00.000-08:002009-03-05T15:13:06.510-08:00

A New York City firm is advertising that, if you drag your spouse into their offices, they'll prepare all the documents for an uncontested (no kids/no property disputes/no support claims) divorce, for a bargain price, and give you a certificate so you can go have lunch at McDonald's while you wait the hour for the papers to be prepared.I await the "Divorce three, the next one's free!" card.

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-12119167497443636602009-03-05T11:40:00.000-08:002009-03-12T10:13:29.890-07:00

A California appeals court has now come a step closer to saying that parents simply can't ever make a binding agreement to "lock in" an amount of child support, regardless of changes in parents' fortunes. As long as everyone agrees that an amount of support is correct, there's no problem, but as soon as someone has a change of heart an agreement that child support can never be modified downward

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-21991685961605656132009-02-25T11:40:00.000-08:002009-03-12T10:22:13.720-07:00

OK, although I've got an opinion about the woman with the IVF octuplets, plus six other kids (as does everyone else, apparently) I'm keeping it to myself. I'm not only not going to call any government agencies to "report Mom to the authorities", I won't debate about what "Octo-Mom" * should or shouldn't have done. I will talk, or at least raise annoying questions, about why this set of

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-43660617329556822252009-02-20T10:35:00.000-08:002009-03-12T10:26:04.118-07:00

When I was younger, and even more cynical, I once joked that the best way to reduce the divorce rate was to make it a lot more difficult to get married. It's not as funny as I used to think it was. When you buy a house, or even a car, you get a stack of many pages full of tiny type, which you are expected to read. Some really important paragraphs are in BOLD TYPE, with lines for you

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-10175047717542592582009-02-18T14:42:00.000-08:002009-02-27T16:36:56.531-08:00

She filed for divorce; a week later, the police say, he decapitated her.

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-18561246185846071932009-02-16T15:29:00.000-08:002009-02-27T16:38:14.302-08:00

As the State Legislature finishes up a three-day weekend of not-entirely-successful budget negotiation, I'll be interested to see if just possibly, those who are taking a "no new taxes, ever!" stand really want to bring some of the operations of civil government to a grinding halt, or at least are willing to try and play an increasingly ugly game of "chicken".The civil justice system in

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-55435882148522153842009-02-11T17:00:00.000-08:002009-02-12T17:58:23.191-08:00

When I was a young research clerk at L A Superior Court (1979 or so) the court where I worked, (the Supervising Judge's Department for all of Los Angeles County's family court departments) was on the second floor in the Hill Street courthouse. In those days the County Clerk's marriage license bureau was still on the first floor; there was even a duty "wedding commissioner" to perform weddings

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3967426829790578059.post-45212747262761548482009-02-10T15:59:00.000-08:002009-04-03T09:40:08.898-07:00

Herewith will begin all the news, thoughts, rumination and ranting about:California family law, family law, and why we have it;law in general in this man's United States, and pretty much anything else which crosses my radar that you choose to read.Some of the axes which will be ground, and idees about which I may be fixe * will likely include:Why do people get married? Why do they think

Richard Gould-Saltmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04962050153663635164noreply@blogger.com