Updates, Events & Useful Tips Surrounding Family Law Issues
Since the striking down of the Defense of Marriage Act by the United States Supreme Court, many state courts have been trying to fill in the legal vacuum created between the legality of same-sex marriage and the lack of codified law through legislation.
Though many Courts of Common Pleas have taken on issues, it really…
In what some may construe as an effort by the Pennsylvania Superior Court to salvage something positive out of 2016, an Opinion was issued today which effectively opens Pennsylvania’s family courts to dissolve out-of-state civil unions
The matter of Neyman v. Buckley (No. 2203 EDA 2015) arose out of Philadelphia County. The parties were attempting…
My colleague Aaron Weems reported this case on April 12. In the spirit of our U.S. Supreme Court, I offer the following concurrence with his blog but spirited dissent from what the Superior Court ruled.
In this published decision, a panel led by former President Judge Bender decides that so long as a reference is…
On September 28, 2014 Aaron Weems posted a blog in which he reported on a panel Decision of the Superior Court holding that a Father’s contractual undertaking to pay $10,000 to a Mother each time he sought to modify an agreed custody arrangement was enforceable. When the Mother sued to enforce the contract term and…
Superior Court appeals relating to child custody are supposed to be “fast tracked” in recognition of the fact that in the life of a child, a year is a long time. But, a land speed record was attained on February 11 when the Superior Court affirmed a Montgomery County Common Pleas order entered less than…
The process of equitable distribution is multi-stage, often involving one or more conferences with a “master” specifically assigned to the case and who is an expert in equitable distribution. The master develops a recommendation which can be accepted by the parties; negotiated further, or; rejected outright by one or both parties who take exception to…
We are slowly observing some flesh of judicial precedent applied to the bones of the custody stature enacted by the General Assembly and made effective in January, 2011. A recent and significant contribution to that came in a Superior Court decision which was ascribed precedential value on July 11.
S.W.D. v. S.A.R. is an appeal…
One of the most difficult concepts for lay persons to understand in the law is the rule stating that only relevant evidence is admissible in judicial proceedings. The concept would seem self-evident as no one would disagree with the principle that courts should not waste time considering irrelevant evidence. But when faced with a case …
Since the inception of equitable distribution in Pennsylvania on July 1, 1980 the law has consistently been that courts have power to divide marital property. With certain exceptions for gifts and inheritances, marital property is all property “acquired” from the date a couple marries to the date they finally separate 23 Pa.C.S. 3501(a). The challenge…
Pennsylvania formalized the use of Parent Coordinators in custody cases several years ago when the Superior Court’s rendered their 2008 opinion in the case of Yates v. Yates. As part of the Yates decision, the Superior Court held that the appointment of a Parent Coordinator in a high conflict custody case was a reasonable …
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