Drug and Alcohol Testing in Child Custody Cases

At a party on May 8, 2010, I began chatting with a woman who told me the sordid details of her ongoing custody problems after she learned that I was a family law attorney. Among other things, she informed me that the Court had ordered that her ex-husband submit to random drug testing after she

The Way In Which Individuals Respond To Losses Relating To Divorce

My last Blog entitled, ” Emotions Play an Integral Role in Divorce Proceedings and Therefore Must be Understood by the Attorney ” explained that “the emotional impact of a divorce is as severe as that of a death in the immediate family” and that “most of the literature on the psychology of divorce treats divorce

Empathetic Family Law Attorneys

My last blog entitled, ” The Cause and Effect of the Historical Shift in the Role of Attorneys ” explained that a lawyer’s role in peacefully resolving disputes ended in the 1960’s, when individuals began pursuing the practice of law seeking wealth and power rather than to address social issues and to help people. The

The Cause and Effect of the Historical Shift in the Role of Attorneys

Historically, a lawyer’s role was peacefully resolving disputes , not creating them . A reversal of that role seems to have occurred as a result of a change in the type of individuals entering law school. According to a June, 1997 article from the American University Law Review entitled, “Lawyer, Knowing Thyself: A Review of

Does Anyone Tell the Truth Any Longer?

I was recently involved in a case in which I was retained to defend my client against an attempt to obtain a restraining order against him. The party seeking the order (the “Petitioner”) alleged that she was fearful and afraid of my client, who was “bothering” her because he “seemed to feel that [she was]

“Battered Wife Syndrome” and Domestic Violence Allegations

In response to my blog about false allegations and domestic violence , a few woman advised me that their request for a restraining order had been denied or that their attorney advised against pursuing it and that such a result conflicted with the findings that the system was set up to encourage false allegations of

The Real Problem with the Department of Children and Family Services

On May 16, 2010, in a news story entitled, “Many tips on LA’s child abuse hotline unresolved”, the Los Angeles Times reported on the fact that thousands of tips (more than 18,000) go uninvestigated within the time mandated by the State, even though the deadline for completing such investigations was recently increased from 30 to