Time flies! In February of this year, a breaking story emerged about a senior White House staffer who was struggling with a security clearance. The staff person was Rob Porter and his problem was that he had been accused of the physical abuse of his former wife, Jennifer Willoughby. Willoughby appeared in an interview with
I’m Not a Bad Parent but I Play One on YouTube
While Alex Jones was the most recent high-profile example of a controversial public persona creating very personal and private problems, he is certainly not alone. Similar in theme, but not in execution is the case of the Michael and Heather Martin who are described as “YouTube stars” and post to a channel with over 760,000
Delaware Passes Children’s Bill of Rights
Leslie Spoltore in our Wilmington office recently wrote about Delaware’s passing a children’s “Bill of Rights” into law. This law specifically addressed what children are to receive while under the care of the Department of Services for Children, Youth, and Their Families. I suspect that many of these rights already exist in whole or part
RAPE SURVIVOR CUSTODY BILL ONE STEP CLOSER TO LAW
In February we mentioned the introduction of a bill in the Pennsylvania state Senate which would allow the termination of a rapist’s parental rights, but preserve the victim’s (and state’s) ability to seek child support. The bill progressed through the Senate by unanimous vote recently and is now headed to the state House of Representatives
PROPOSED NEW LAW CLOSES CUSTODY LOOPHOLE FOR CHILDREN CONCEIVED BY RAPE
Pennsylvania’s child custody code requires the submission of a criminal record and abuse history affidavit which is designed to identify whether a party to a custody action or a member of their household has been accused or convicted of a criminal offense. The crimes are almost all violent crimes or crimes of a sexual nature
BEST INTERESTS OF CHILDREN OUTWEIGH PARENTS EFFORTS AT REUNIFICATION
We’ve written about the process of terminating a parent’s custodial rights to their child an different cases presenting unique and unusual circumstances. In some instances, the process is almost rote due to parental ambivalence to the situation; the parent has made no real effort to be
PREVENTING CHILD ABDUCTIONS BY PARENTS
Though I could count the instances on one hand, I have had a few cases in my career where a client had a legitimate concern about their former spouse or their child’s parent attempting to abduct the child. Usually this fear stems from long-standing threats designed to leverage access to the child against some financial
PA COURTS WILL ENFORCE OUT-OF-STATE RESTRAINING ORDERS
Like many border areas of states, living in eastern Pennsylvania commonly results in legal issues which “span the river” into New Jersey, New York, Maryland, or Delaware (for our colleagues in the central and western part of the state, you
The iWITNESS: BROWSING HISTORY HELPS CONVICT NEGLIGENT MOM
A recent New Hampshire criminal case is extremely sad: a mother left her child in a bathtub unsupervised and the child drowned. She was convicted of manslaughter, in part, due to electronic evidence in the form of her web history. The prosecution used a forensic computer analysis to determine that after running the bath and
REFORMING CHILD ABUSE LAWS IN PENNSYLVANIA
On December 18th, Governor Corbett signed into law a bill updating Pennsylvania’s child abuse laws. When the abuses perpetrated by Jerry Sandusky were exposed, Pennsylvania’s child abuse statutes were scrutinized and found lacking in many respects. Sara Ganim of the Harriburg area Patriot-News wrote an excellent summary of these criticisms in November 2012. The investigation