In a landmark decision, a federal judge this week denied a court-appointed child advocate’s motion to dismiss a wrongful death lawsuit against her. The lawsuit asks the court to hold her accountable for the suicide of 14-year-old Mikaela Haynes. Family court reform advocates say they are nearly in disbelief at the ruling. “This is a…

In a landmark decision, a federal judge this week denied a court-appointed child advocate’s motion to dismiss a wrongful death lawsuit against her. The lawsuit asks the court to hold her accountable for the suicide of 14-year-old Mikaela Haynes. Family court reform advocates say they are nearly in disbelief at the ruling. “This is a…

Commentary Submissions on the Australian government’s draft Family Law Amendment Bill are due by Feb. 27. There is much to be concerned about in Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus’s draft amendment. But perhaps its most problematic aspect is the proposal to remove the order for “equal shared parental responsibility.” As noted by Patrick Parkinson, a leading family…

A Family Court judge in Michigan late last month refused a mother’s request for custody of five to ten frozen embryos on ice at an in-vitro fertilization facility. The embryos were produced through in vitro, or outside the body, fertilization in 2015 and then frozen. The mother, Gloria Karungi, and her former boyfriend, Ronald Ejalu,…

After going through an onerous and expensive court battle seeking to prevent his children from being moved far away, only to fail in the end, Winnipeg father Frank Mane describes his experience with Canada’s family law system as “absolute hell.” Mane and his wife split up following 14 years of marriage after his wife had…