Alaska’s Supreme Court recently decided an issue revolving around custody of a minor child born through artificial insemination to a same-sex couple. As same-sex marriages and reproductive technologies continue to be more commonplace, we are seeing an increase in cases that involve such parties. The law, as always, lags behind…
World Mental Health Day helps raise mental health awareness and promotes proactive measures individuals can take to care for their mental health. World Mental Health Day acknowledges the stigma around mental health and is working to alleviate it. Focusing on mental health and allowing individuals to have conversations about their…
ZIMMERMAN V. ZIMMERMAN 2021-NCCOA-485 Previously, we have written about the use of stipulations in a case to maximize efficiency and what is required in an oral stipulation in the context of Equitable Distribution. (Our courts have held, for an oral stipulation on Equitable Distribution to be valid, that the parties…
Blackwell v. Blackwell 2021-NCCOA-537 Facts: Mother and Father began a child custody action. Mother subpoenaed numerous mental health documents from healthcare providers. These documents would have purportedly been used at trial to establish Father’s mental health and substance abuse. In 2016, the parties had consented to a custody schedule in…
There is a mess of a custody case in Massachusetts (MA) that arose from a very reckless surrogacy situation. Apparently, a same-sex couple posted to social media asking for help having a baby. A friend then offered to conceive with her boyfriend (read: the baby would be biologically unrelated to…
Snowden v. Jaure, (Wyoming Supreme Court) With Covid-19 raging for over a year now, many families have been affected and often negatively. Job loss is just one consequence of the pandemic. This has caused a loss in income for many individuals. In families going through a custody case, it means…
October is Adopt a Shelter Dog Month. Dogs are our best friends. Some seem to be made entirely of boundless energy and unconditional love. Studies have shown that in the presence of our four-legged friends, stress lowers, our happiness-promoting hormones increase, our blood pressure lowers, and our self-esteem increases. During…
In case you have not heard, deepfake videos are multiplying online. “Deepfake” is a term coined in late 2017 by a Reddit user of the same name. With origins in pornography, the use of deepfakes has transcended well beyond the explicit. A deepfake generally refers to media manipulation where a…
There have been phones and computers around for decades now, and in the child custody context they have been instrumental in providing access to children for noncustodial parents. But since Facetime has come around, we are beginning to see some court documents, specifically custody orders, reference Facetime when crafting custodial…
Patterson v. Chrysler Group Addendum Shortly after the Sixth Circuit decided Patterson v. Chrylser Group, 845 F.3d 756 (2017), I first wrote about this case. Based on some recent comments, updating the blog with dates for clarification is necessary. The issue is when the statute of limitations starts on the…