Divorce Law Journal

Repairs

If you subscribe to this blog by email, it may appear we had a posting frenzy today. We finally found time to figure out and correct the formatting on some prior posts, so many recent ones with no paragraphs were simply reposted. Problem solved!

Heartbroken Holidays: Help for a Child Divided

The first holidays after a divorce or separation can be a heartbreaking nightmare as estranged parents negotiate access to their children. There are ten things parents can do to help their children enjoy the holidays and to serve their best interests in the future.

“Divorce is never an easy experience,” said Gaetano “Guy” Ferro, immediate past president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML). “Children can make it more difficult for the parties to reach reasonable agreements. Disagreements about financial issues may cause the parents to act emotionally or irrationally when it comes to the children. The primary goal of both parents and their attorneys should be to avoid conduct which would be detrimental to the children’s best interest.”

• Give your children permission to love the other parent. Help your child make a card for Dad or buy a gift for Mom. Encourage them to call the other parent.
• Set realistic expectations. To divide or share a holiday, each parent will have only half as much time with the child. While children may enjoy multiple celebrations, most do not care that the festivities are actually on “the” day. Holidays can be alternated by year and if Mom does not have Thanksgiving with the child this year, bake a turkey the preceding weekend.
• Coordinate gift giving. If a child has a wish list, split it with the other parent. Resist the temptation to over-indulge the child with gifts. Do not give the child a gift you know the other parent is planning to give. If the other parent will not cooperate, do not complain to the child.
• Do not use your children as messengers. The decision of where to go and when should be decided by the parents. Permitting the child to choose time with one parent is a burden and vests the child with inappropriate power.
• Do what you say you are going to do. Pick up and drop off the children on time. Do not request last minute changes.

Other tips for divorcing parents include never letting a child hear you disparage the other parent. Resist the temptation to permit your child to act as your caretaker. Do not uproot your children if at all possible. Reassure your children that the divorce or separation is not their fault and encourage and permit your child to see and love grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins on the other parent’s side of the family.

Over the coming holidays, please let your children be children. They shouldn’t have to worry
about adult problems. For more helpful tips you can access the “Children’s Bill of Rights” and “Stepping Back From Anger” on the AAML website, www.aaml.org.

Many parents contemplate divorce as holidays and New Year approach. Holiday filings can increase the trauma; your children will always associate their parents’ divorce with the holidays. Please resist the urge. Divorce lasts a long time. There’s rarely a reason to rush. At a time of year that resonates family and joy, please put your children’s well-being ahead of your own.

IdeaFestival Details Are Out

I am glad Kentucky Law Review posted about the upcoming IdeaFestival. (Thanks, Mike, for the nice words.) While 9/25-9/27/08 has long been on my calendar, I didn't realize the agenda was now available: From the Lexingon Herald-Leader:

Scott Jones, the man who invented voicemail, will be there. So will J. Richard Gott, a Princeton University astrophysicist.

Richard Kogan, a psychiatrist and world-class concert pianist, will perform and lecture on the genius of Mozart. Immaculee Llibagiza, the international peace activist, will talk about what it was like to survive genocide in Rwanda.

Diandra Leslie-Pelecky will discuss her book The Physics of NASCAR, which examines how race cars can go so fast. Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a risk-management expert and derivatives trader, will discuss his book, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, the top-selling non-fiction title of 2007. Will Shortz, the crossword editor of The New York Times, will talk about puzzles.

The European architect Emiliano Gandolfi will launch the Curry Stone Design Prize, a new $100,000 award for innovation in architecture, to be administered by the University of Kentucky's College of Design.

Vova Galchenko, a world-champion juggler, will demonstrate his skill and discuss the thinking behind it. Amy Chua, who analyzes global politics and economics, will discuss the rise and fall of hyperpowers.

They are among more than 30 presenters recruited for this year's festival, said founder Kris Kimel, president of the Lexington-based Kentucky Science and Technology Corp. Program details were announced Tuesday.

"They're all either doing something or thinking about something that's really cutting-edge," Kimel said.

Event pass info is here. Tickets for individual events will be available July 15. Not as many events are free this year, but if the festival is half as good as it was last year, it will be worth every penny and all the time out of the office.

Relocation In Michigan And Edmund Fitzgerald Update (updated)

Just as the Kentucky Supreme Court has three relocation related cases pending, Michigan has been struggling with the issue. Here is Jeanne Hannah's post Mom's relocation of 91 miles causes change in custody in Updates In Michicgan Family Law.
Nearly a year ago I wrote about a missed opportunity to meet Jeanne at this post. Marcia Oddi dubbed it the adventure of the Edmund Fitzgerald and I promptly forwarded the haunting score to my hosts, who were not very amused. But, ha! They invited me back and we're planning to cruise up Jeanne's way again this summer. The one lesson I learned, though, is that you really can't plan when traveling by water. So, Jeanne, if I'm nearby I'll give you a call, but no advance dinner plans. :)
UPDATE: Marcia Oddi writes, Actually it is "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald."
See this excellent video, accompanied by the Gordon Lightfoot vocal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEwEfti7gRk. Thanks!

Comments To The Morning After Bio-Dads Lose Big

Comments tend to get lost on this blog. I thought the following exchange was interesting enough to post separately:
Ms. Kates...I respectfully disagree with your analysis as you neglect to consider that individuals under the U.S. Constitution are afforded the right to due process, which I've been denied in this case. In addition, the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized that when there is a relationship between a parent and child it is to be preserved and protected. In the case at issue, I am not a stranger to my son as I had a relationship for the first few months of his young life. Furthermore, the Supreme Court have recognized that natural parents have a fundamental liberty interest in the care, custody, and management of their children that does not evaporate, Santosky v Kramer. There are procedural safeguards when someone tries to terminate a natural parents rights without a hearing, parents and childrens' rights are fundamental in regards to termination of parental rights. Of course you are arguing that no man who is not married to a woman should have any rights. If I've understood your position correctly. Under the recent KY Supreme CT ruling if a married man gets a single woman pregnant and takes possession of the child, as long as his wife and him do not dissolve their marriage the biological mother has no parental rights. In theory I believe this would be correct, but of course we know that would never happen because it goes against common sense. Regardless, we will just have to see how the U.S. Supreme Court feels about the rights of a biological parent who happens to be a parent. I'm one of many who believe the truth does matter and should still play a role in justice.
Posted by: James Rhoades

We share DNA with all living things, yet even some of our very close relatives, such as siblings and grandparents, are not assumed to have automatic legal familial rights. We also recognize parentage that arises from other than biology, e.g. adoption, surrogacy, and gamete donation. We also have institutionalized marriage, which at its inception is the formation of nonbiological "family" which is not dependent at all upon the existence of children before the couple is recognized to be "family" to each other.
In no other area of the law do we recognize property rights in biological body parts, or following body parts that have left the body, whether cells from which vaccines have been made, or hair, or donated organs. In order to consider sperm and ova differently, we would have to make an arbitrary assumption about these half-cells that they are in some way different. Mostly, that assumption is not founded in reason, but in the premises of some (and not all) cultural and religious traditions.
I would argue that the United States constitution recognizes the liberty interests of actual families, families in fact, families that still would exist as coresidential and ocmmitted social units in the absence of law -- and not the asserted property rights of individuals in and to the products of their discarded gametes.
I think it is an unwarranted presumption that sperm donors (or egg donors) automatically, and without more, have emotional attachments to other human beings they may have never met. We may inculcate some kind of real emotional issue for individuals in how they view their own genes and so forth, but this idea to me is what is the "property rights" (posssessory) versus "relationship" perspective.
I would suggest instead that the government's intrusion into actual marriages and functioning families in order to elevate this pretense into an artificial notion of "family" founded on biology actually denigrates exactly what it is that the constitution recognizes and respects as the family.
"Family" is not DNA, a material so widely shared that the differences between members of an entire species are miniscule. Rather, it is the coresident social unit of individuals whose relationship "bonds" are evidenced in the way they live, by their actual emotional attachments born out of their habitual association with and knowledge of each other over time, and by their mutual support of and involvement with each other in a real family group -- the kind that would exist even in the absence of law... or paternity testing technology.
Posted by: Elizabeth J. Kates, Esq.

Ms. Kates you can't be serious? So you think biological fathers should have no rights and just because they share a genetic bond with their children the law should suppose they don't carry affection towards their children? I know my viewpoint is skewed because the case involves my son who I care deeply about but I think your viewpoint is ridiculous. Surely you would never promote your interpretation regarding a biological mother? You have opinion makes children a piece of property and be damned with their best interest. And let's throw Constitutional rights out the window too if a man was a child out of wedlock and petitions for his rights as a father. In all due respect, the Kentucky Supremes were totally inconsistent in the majority opinion. Cunningham had assumed biological fathers have a right to custody and visitation even without having their parentage ajudicated in his Hinshaw v Hinshaw opinion when he talked about Mrs. Hinshaw seeking to terminate the biological fathers rights so Hinshaw could have adopted the child. Seems kind of weird that Justice Cunningham would write that one biological father in one paternity case has rights while writing another opinion saying this biological father has no rights. Shouldn't Cunningham be a little more consistent?
James Rhoades Real Father in Recent KY Sup Ct decision
Posted by: James Rhoades

The Kentucky decision was correct, and I am glad to see it. With the advent fairly recently of DNA testing, we have forgot that providing reproductive gametes is not necessarily what determines legal parentage, or is in fact sufficient to presume affection, responsibility, or enduring relationship ties. It is unfortunate that in this one area of the law, largely confused by religious and political agendas, and consequent erroneous precepts underlying child support theory, that even as we embrace broader definitions of "family" in some respects, so many legal scholars have simultaneously moved in the inconsistent direction of making unwarranted assumptions that equate legal rights and responsibilities with a tracing of bodily effluence.
Elizabeth Kates

Court Orders Blog Post By Divorce Litigant Removed

Thanks to Indiana Law Blog for spotting and posting HUSBAND POSTS ABOUT PENDING DIVORCE IN BLOG, COURT ORDERS POSTING REMOVED. Check it out.

After The Holidays, Cases Up To Date, Now Let's Finish Those Resolutions

All "to be published" family law cases rendered through January 4, 2008 are now digested and posted. While we're still working on resolutions and 2008 goals and catching up on our news and blog reading, everyone is back to work, healthy (finally!), and looking forward to a great 2008.

While flattery usually gets you everywhere, I was sorry to have to decline Vickie Pynchon's "Lawyers Appreciate" meme tag, online here, especially after her email invitation to those she tagged read : I chose Diana Skaggs (her blog -- totally outside ANY area I've EVER practiced in --) because she's one of the best, most articulate and most ADR-friendly law bloggers in the world. How funny! It was a choice of posting or packing and I had to pack. However her overly generous compliment did send me away with a nice glow. Until I returned to town and an angry opposing party mailed a hateful letter all over hell's half acre calling me every name in the book. So, while I firmly believe in mediation, negotiation and settlement, particularly in divorce matters, there are those out there in litigation land who would strongly take issue with Vickie.

What I like most about Vickie's post is her focus on gratitude. It's something I've been stewing about for some time, letting ideas percolate (ferment?) and trying to incorporate into an action plan for this year. This annual introspection and planning process is a joyous ritual and it's way past time to count blessings.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, And We'll Be Back The Week Of January 7

Thanks for reading this year. We'll resume posting after the holidays. It's lights out until the week of January 7. Best wishes for joyous holidays.

More Family Law Blogs

The nicest part of being named among the top family law blogs by Prenuptial Agreements was discovery of a number of family law blogs that have not previously been followed here. We'll try to review them and get some added to our blogroll soon. Maybe it's wanderlust, but I am particularly eager to check out the ones outside the U.S. Meanwhile, ones not currently on our site are:
Houston Texas Divorce And Family Attorney Blog by J. Shannon Cavers
New York Divorce Law Blog by David A. Gabay
New York Divorce Report by Daniel R. Clement
Arizona Divorce & Family Law Blog by several members of Nirenstein Ruotolo Group, P.L.C
Pennsylvania Family Law by Charles J. Meyer
Utah Divorce & Family Law Blog by Gregory W. Stevens
Family Lore by John Bolch in the UK (it will be fun checking out his blogroll)
New Jersey Family Law Blog by Victor A. Rotolo
Bloody Relations by an anonymous north London solicitor
Divorce Solicitor by Lynne Bastow
Mississippi Family Law Blog by Robert M. Kisselburgh
Australian Divorce Blog by Stephen Page
Sam Hasler's Indiana Divorce & Family Law Blog
Benussi Blog by UK's Diane Benussi

Family Law Profs Blog Posting

From The Family Law Profs Blog last week:
California Governor Schwarzenegger Vetoes Gay Marriage Bill
Call for Papers: Yale Law Journal Pocket Part
Case Law Development: Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Finds Domestic Violence Police Response Case Admissible (very interesting)
Bad Marriage, Bad for Health
Same-sex Couple Seeks Divorce in Rhode Island

Corrected Dates For 2008 Idea Festival

The 2008 date for Idea Festival previously posted were pulled from its website, but apparently an old version lingering out in cyberspace. Embarrassing long story short, Stephanie West Allen received a comment from a reader, passed it on to me, I called the Idea Festival office, so now you have the correct dates.

Calling Lawyers Who Blog: Idea Festival, Louisville, Ky September 25 -27, 2008

Idealawg's Stephanie West Allen and I are coordinating a gathering of lawyers who blog at next year's Idea Festival. Of course the "Idea" in Stephanie's blawg name is no accident, and this festival is right up her alley, as she posted here. My suspicions are that most lawyers who have blogs are innovative creative thinkers who will find nirvana at this conference.

It's more than a year away, so you have several options. Mark it off on your calendar. Subscribe to the Idea Festival email to stay abreast of what will be on the agenda. If you seriously think you may want to come, make a hotel reservation at 21C Museum Hotel soon. There are many other very nice hotels in the area, of course, but if you are cutting edge and love art and the offbeat, you will be absolutely delighted by this 91 room boutique hotel.

The most you could spend at this year's festival was $260 for an all event pass, including a cocktail buffet and two dinners, and most sessions were free so it is not budget busting. You won't need a rental car because everything is within walking distance and there are courtesy Geek Squad cars for short hops. And the company? Awesome. My recommendation? Splurge on the hotel.

For past posts on the 2007 shebang, see Day 3, Day 2 and Day 1.

As our New Zealand friend Geoff Sharp of Mediator blah...blah... said a year ago in announcing the LEADR conference here, "Where The Bloody Hell Are You? ...(get outta here! no one believes you're booked up already)...Come see us, talk with us - we've poured you a beer." If you prefer, being in Kentucky, we'll make it a mint julep, albeit with foam, ladled with liquid nitrogen, garnished with a sugar encrusted sprig of mint, printed on no calorie paper. Stephanie and I look forward to meeting and to seeing you in person.

Check out Stephanie's invitation here.

Idea Festival Day 3

The day began with The Internet is NOT Flat . Ethan Zuckerman was joined by international bloggers Amira Al Hussaini, former news editor of leading Bahrain newspaper Gulf Daily News and now Middle East and North Africa editor of Global Voices and Georgia Poppelwell to discuss fascinating international bridge building and discourse occurring on the internet. Al Hussaini blogged here about her appearance on Thursday in a slot on a panel vacated by Iranian Nobel Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi after the Mullas in Iran refused to give her permission to attend. You can read a nearly verbatim account of Zuckerman's talk here. Wayne Hall covers the trio here. It was the only presentation where I felt a bit of an equal, as I watched the same glazed eyes in this audience that I see when I talk about RSS feed!

My smugness was promptly shattered by the next talk, Parallel Worlds, Higher Dimensions, Time Warps and more...by Michio Kaku, leading theoretical physicist at City University of New York and author of several best- selling books including Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps and the Tenth Dimension and Visions: How Science Will Revolutionize the 21st Century. Wayne Hall digests the talk here and continues with the next presentation, Jeffrey Schwartz on the Mind and Brain here.

Next up was Louisville's own Dan Gediman, executive producer of NPR's This I Believe series. The 30,000 essays he has received to date are up on the website, indexable in a variety of ways.

At the Kentucky Center For The Arts Bombard concert hall psychiatrist and extraordinary pianist Richard Kogan presented West Side Story at 50: The Mind and Music of Leonard Bernstein. Dr. Kogan was quite the raconteur, funny and insightful, and the music was breathtakingly beautiful.

Not much of a science fiction fan, I skipped the dinner with Ray Bradbury, but now wish I had stayed to see him "beamed in" by hologram. His presentation was covered by the Courier-Journal and the IF Blog.

You might ask, who in the world assembled these world class speakers and puts on this annual event? Kris Kimmel, president of Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation. He may have a host of other talents, but he certainly is an event planner extraordinaire. Most of the events were free.
UPDATE: In my corner of the blogosphere, Stephanie Allen West at Idealawg posts Talks by Ray Bradbury, Jeffrey Schwartz, Michio Kaku, Laurence Gonzales, and more

Idea Festival Day 2

My favorite quotes of the day include "A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between work and play" (source anonymous but shared by robotics whiz, James McLurkin), "Why fill my mind with useless facts when I can look it up?" (Einstein, who didn't know his own phone number) and "it takes creativity to make something, it takes moxie to make it matter" by New Zealand fashion designer Karen Walker. Dr. Neville-Manning from Google distilled his wisdom into five simple concepts: 1. think broadly, 2. enable others, 3. use deep technology, 4. build for scale and 5. detect trends.

Highlights included Google World, presented by Dr.Craig Nevill-Manning of Google. This morning's Courier Journal covered Apple co-founder Wozniak lives life full of bright ideas, but great in-depth coverage can be found, not surprisingly, on blogs. Ethan Zuckerman, a research fellow at Harvard Law School, Day 3's opening speaker and a founder of Global Voices, extensively posted on Day 2's events:
Idea Festival: Woz. Wow.
Idea Festival: Swarmed by Robots
Idea Festival: Barrington Irving, flying solo
Idea Festival: Tiffany Shlain’s web of ideas
Idea Festival: Craig Nevill-Manning and the secrets of Google’s success
He also posted on a Day 1 event that I haven't previously mentioned:
Idea festival: Pictures of peace
Evgeny Morozov posted about:
Ned Kahn at Idea Festival: Master of Turbulence
Karen Walker at Idea Festival: Meaning of Fashion
James McLurkin at Idea Festival: Distributed Robotics and Swarm Behavior
Tiffany Shlain at Idea Festival: Interdependence and Colony Collapse Disorder
and from Day 1, Cameron Sinclair at Idea Festival: Creating Social Capital Through Architecture
Wayne Hall posted Karen Walker's fashion rules, James McLurkin: Dances with Robots, The aesthetics of turbulence , Laurence Gonzales on "intelligent mistakes" and Geek Squad blogging IF.
This festival is fabulous. Not only will I return next year, but we will close the office so everyone can attend.

Idea Festival Day 1

There's no telling when anyone at Idea Festival had a more inspiring, thought-provoking day. Who wants to have a contest guessing the average IQ of the speakers? While I took my laptop, there was just too much to absorb and enjoy that I didn't want to write while listening. Running interference at the office by phone and email during breaks didn't allow any other time. Further, two more long days lie ahead. I can't wait to get there tomorrow. Luckily, others were blogging.
Wayne Hall posts:
Money circulation science. (This was a fascinating presentation by Dirk Brockmann, a renowned physicist at Max Planck Institute in Germany. He is using math to predict the spread of infectious disease. His model is premised on, of all things, Wheresgeorge, the web site that tracks dollar bills across time and geography. His colleagues laughed him silly when he first mentioned his hypothesis, teaching us the value of courage in going forward with our ideas, as he has been able to show that by tracking the movement of people by following the money, scientists will more likely to be able to predict the spread of infectious disease. It is also a good lesson in interdisciplinary thinking and research.
Homaro Cantu: eat the menu. (I ate at his Chicago restaurant, Moto, last year while at the AAML conference and was wowed by his chemistry approach to cuisine. The surprise today was that he was an engaging, energizing speaker, inspiring us all to unleash creativity.)
Kristoff speaks on Darfur
Ethan Zuckerman also posted Idea Festival: Kristof on Darfur
In a mere ten minutes each I picked up tons of thoughts for weeks to come with these presentation:Unlocking Your Creative Self: Understanding The How and Why, by Harry Pickens
The First Step to Becoming a Genius...Active Listening: The proven keys to active listening/questioning/probing and how this leads to ideas/solutions that delight and WOW customers!

So, there are a few words and links about three hours and twenty minutes of an exhilarating day. If there's interest, I'll post later about the remainder, all of which was as memorable. Otherwise, I am pretending I am on a great mind vacation.

Idea Festival

I am looking forward to the Idea Festival in Louisville this Thursday, September 13, 2007 through Saturday, September 15, 2007, a time to immerse in creativity, imagination, and pondering the future. This event encourages blogging and even has its own blog, Idea Festival Blog. It's not too late to give the brain an energy boost although a few events are sold out. Passes to all other are available here.

Best Wishes To Indiana's Law Blog Matriarch, Marcia Oddi

Marcia Oddi’s class and courage at Indiana Law Blog, in her post here, letting her friends and readers know of her breast cancer diagnosis and upcoming treatment regime is to be commended. Her “gold standard” law site, Indiana Law Blog, sponsored by the Indiana Bar Association and honored by the Indiana Judges Association, is bound to be an indispensable resource for all Indiana lawyers. It is my hope that her readers will remain loyal, as I know if she can post, she will post. It is surely difficult for a very private person to have to explain anticipated down time.
I hope Marcia finds that friends and admirers are a godsend of help and hope through tough battles and trying times, yet respectful of her need to deal with this on her own terms and in her own time. Good luck and best wishes, Marcia.

Registered Domestic Partnership Does Not Terminate Maintenance (and some vacation blog musing about colleagues to the north)

Marcia Oddi at Indiana Law Blog has been doing my work for me while I was on vacation with her post here quoting from the L.A. Times about a recent decision holding that unlike remarriage, a registered domestic partnership does not terminate alimony.

State marriage laws say that alimony ends when the former spouse remarries, and Garber reasons he should be off the hook, given that domestic partnership is akin to marriage. But an Orange County judge has decided that registered partnership is cohabitation, not marriage, and that Garber must pay.

On the way to Lake Michigan last week I had a delightful mid-morning chat with Marcia. It is so nice putting a face with the name and the pen. A couple of Kentucky legal bloggers have had many "behind the scenes" email chats with her and admire her wisdom and restraint. So, I am pleased to now say that I know her and that she will try to join us when we get together next time. As we have reported several times, Marcia won the 2006 Excellence in Public Information and Education Award, presented by the Indiana Judges Association. If you take a look at her updated site you will see that the Indiana Bar Association is now a sponsor. Her blog is the gold standard.

I was very sorry not to meet Jeanne Hannah of Updates In Michigan Family Law in Traverse City. We had dinner planned last Friday night, but I had to cancel because we had boat engine problems and were stranded in Leland. Not that spending three days in Leland is anything to complain about; it is a lovely town and I could have stayed there the entire summer. The joy and occasional disappointment about boating is that you just can't plan well. Fog. Near gale force winds creating huge waves. Or, as in our case, all that plus what turned out to be an alternator problem which caused the radar to go out, the marine radio to quit, then the power steering to shut down and finally an engine failure, all while we were in a shipping lane in thick fog, near shoals between the Manitou Islands. It was great fun, but I really did miss meeting Jeanne. Maybe next year, unless my hosts decide I am bad luck!

Video: PR and Law Firm Marketing -Blogs

PR and Law Firm Marketing was the video clip about blogs that was presented at the March, 2007 American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers meeting and seminar at Grand Cayman, Island about which I posted here. President Gaetano Ferro gave me permission to post it, commenting that it was well received and deserved to be disseminated. So, here goes. Download EditedBlogVideo.wmv

Why not post until now? Wouldn't you know, I discovered a small error. My video savvy nephew filmed and edited the original in November, 2006. After the death of Richard Shapero, about which we posted here, I realized my video comment about his famous case was a tad off and I didn't want to post an over-statement on the internet. It is impossible to corner a 17 1/2 year old teenager outside of holidays and now Joey is at an advanced digital film camp at UCLA. So, our IT assistant, Christina Howard, edited the end of the film in-house but told me it was a bit choppy. When I finally had a chance to look at it, I realized it was actually OK, and you can't even tell where she clipped out a piece. So, now you have it. Thanks, Christina.

Divorce Law Journal Is Being Read

Justia Legal Resources follows more than 1800 legal blogs, covering many legal fields. This week Divorce Law Journal ranks #1 among the family law blogs out of 52 total, and #58 among all 1845 legal blogs. I don't track their rankings regularly but I was pleased to see this. I don't claim to know how they do their numbers, but all legal bloggers like to believe their sites are being read. Mike Stevens of Kentucky Law Review joked to me that the rankings of this site increased in April even as it was dark for a couple of weeks when the trial calendar was overwhelming. Go figure.

More On Litigants Blogging

The Indiana Law Blog published Litigants Blogging, quoting from a Boston Globe article today and linking in an update to a Wall Street Journal blog about the story. Within a comment to the WSJ post I found this post from the New York Personal Injury Law Blog that links to many, many blog postings on the subject. Why is a divorce law blog interested? Because of our prior post here. My gut tells me to tell clients, "Don't Do It!"

Litigants Blogging And This Is What Makes Blogging Fun

In response to our post here earlier this week on family litigants blogging, I received the following comment form Stephen Page, Brisbane, Australia. Stephen hosts the Australian Divorce Blog and Australian Gay and Lesbian Law Blog .

I am a family lawyer in Brisbane, Australia. I subscribe to your blog, and it helped inspire me to create some of my own. I can’t say that I am anywhere as advanced as you! I might add that strangely enough although Australia is very much in love with the internet, legal blogs have not taken off here yet.

I thought I would give my own two cents worth on this issue. In Australia there are strict secrecy laws about what might be said about a divorce, with the intent of protecting the parties’ and children’s privacy. Having said that, it is not hard to find groups online where disgruntled (or happy!) litigants let it all out. It is a worrying development, but we all are probably going to see more and more of it.

I have traveled to the States two years in a row for conferences, being a speaker at a conference in March, but got no further east than Denver. I met some CPS workers from Louisville there, but although I knew your site, sadly on the spot I could not remember your name.

I will know better next time.

Kind regards and good luck

Stephen Page
Accredited Family Law Specialist
Partner
Harrington Family Lawyers
Office:
Level 12
239 George Street
Brisbane
Australia
Phone: 617 3221 9544
Fax: 617 3221 9969
Mail:
PO Box 12135
George Street Q 4003
Australia

Thanks, Stephen

Litigant Blogs Facts Of Case

It was bound to happen. Maybe it is not the first family law case to be blogged by a litigant, but it's the first I have seen. I found it troubling to see a party to a pending case blogging his evidence on the internet. We assume judges read blogs. If I represented the opposing party I would be concerned about a member of the judiciary stumbling upon a site such as Let Me See My Son. This case is before the Kentucky Supreme Court and because of the posture of the case will likely be remanded and work its way back up again. What do you think?

UPDATE:
From Marcia Oddi at Indiana Law Blog:
In terms of a judge stumbling across it -- How is this different from a letter to an editor, or a long interview in a news magazine, or a human interest feature on the evening news?
She also passed on these interesting links: "So what if the judge reads the lawprof's blog?", "Forget judges, what if jurors had blogs?", and "The "new media" panel at the 7th Circuit conference" .
SECOND UPDATE: You can find the May 22,2007 Wall Street Journal online article Law Blog Trendspotting: Litigants Launching Web Sites here. Lots of comments.

Saturday Mornings

Dan Nunley posted this wonderful story, Life Is Short, on his Oklahoma Family Law Blog:

A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the garage with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began as a typical Saturday morning turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time. Let me tell you about it:

I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the band on my ham radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning swap net. Along the way, I came across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice. You know the kind; he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business. He was telling whom-ever he was talking with something about "a thousand marbles." I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say.

"Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're busy with your job. I'm sure they pay you well but it's a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet. It's too bad you missed your daughter's "dance recital" he continued. "Let me tell you something that has helped me keep my own priorities." And that's when he began to explain his theory of a "thousand marbles."

"You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy-five years. I know, some live more and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five years.

"Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3900, which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime. Now, stick with me, Tom, I'm getting to the important part.

It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail", he went on, "and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays." "I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy. So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round up 1000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside a large, clear plastic container right here in the shack next to my gear."

"Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away. I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life.

There is nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight."

"Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure that if I make it until next Saturday then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time."

"It was nice to meet you Tom, I hope you spend more time with your family, and I hope to meet you again here on the band. This is a 75 Year old Man, K9NZQ, clear and going QRT, good morning!"

You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow signed off. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to work on the antenna that morning, and then I was going to meet up with a few hams to work on the next club newsletter.

Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss. "C'mon honey, I'm taking you and the kids to breakfast." "What brought this on?" she asked with a smile. "Oh, nothing special, it's just been a long time since we spent a Saturday together with the kids. And hey, can we stop at a toy store while we're out? I need to buy some marbles.

On the way to the boat today I think I will try to buy 1021 marbles. That's how the math works for me. Thanks for the story, Dan.

The Blog Will Be Dark For A Bit

We will resume posting in a couple of weeks. Check back. Thanks.

A Tour Of Legal Blogs And A Call For Help

Blawg Review #100 features posts from each of the prior 99 hosts of the weekly tour of the blawgosphere. It is a massive piece and was posted a day early to give us a more leisurely time to enjoy it. What was I thinking when I agreed to host #101? Surely I could have surmised this would be a tough act to follow. Nonetheless, I will give it a whirl next Monday. My request? Please submit the best lawyer blog post you write or come across this week. You can do so by posting to the Blog Carnival submission form here.

UPDATE: From Online Guide To Mediation:

Blawg Review is remarkable for many reasons. Not only does it offer links to bleeding edge news and ideas in the legal field--something it consistently achieves week after week under the guidance of a dedicated editor with the support of equally dedicated volunteers--but it also provides readers with a new and unique perspective on the law, refracted through the lens of each week's host. It also provides a way for bloggers to participate in and contribute to the legal community online. It thrives on the spirit of egalitarianism--legal luminaries and ordinary mortals mingle. Status matters little; quality of conversation counts. And readers of Blawg Review benefit from the wide range of voices and viewpoints.

A Slight Change In Posting New Kentucky Case Law

DLJ will now post all new Kentucky divorce and family law cases designated to be published, without waiting for finality endorsement. As we prepare to present the prior year's family law cases to the bar at the Louisville Bar Association's Annual Domestic Relations Update we will revisit these posts and add the SW3d cites or then current status. Michelle Eisenmenger Mapes, vice chair of the LBA Family Law Section, has digested some family law cases for Kentucky Law Review, and she will continue to do so. Michael Stevens at KLR has welcomed our efforts to reprint her work at DLJ. By the same token, Kentucky Law Review is welcome to republish any digests appearing here.

What to do about those numerous "not to be published cases" (after 2003 and continuing) that may now be cited for persuasion when there is not published case on point is the perplexing question.

Blog Presentation Coming (I Hope)

Last fall my nephew videotaped and edited a "hot tip" to be presented, with others, at the national American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers spring meeting last week. It's just as well the outline wasn't printed. When Joey finished filming, my brother told me he was beta testing Explorer 7.0 and he showed me how it has a RSS feed built right in the toolbar. In this fast paced field no doubt many other things in the paper and film are out of date.

Nonetheless, the film was shown. I had to catch my plane so I didn't see the viewing nor get feedback that day. Truth be told, I was worried. I didn't even know if it made the cut. I later realized a Q&A format would have worked much better than a ten minute monologue, and I would have treated the content a little differently had I known an outline would not be in the attendee materials. As I posted earlier this week, I didn't even talk blogs this trip.

I heard several "kudos" from AAML members who saw it, but one said it was a little confusing without accompanying written materials. He didn't even know what a blog was, so I guess it was confusing. I didn't post about this earlier this week as I was waiting for an official OK. Usually when seminars are given, you give the material to the presenting organization and I did not want to step on any toes. These fellows are people whose relationships I cherish. But the OK came from the AAML President, Gaetano "Guy" Ferro (of the Wendt G.E. divorce fame) so now I am ready to post. Well, guess what? I can't put my hands on the darn DVD and my erstwhile nephew is nowhere to be found. It will be coming soon, maybe.

Some Tips On Reading Divorce Law Journal

If you are new to DLJ or if you have not toured the complete site in awhile, I would like to tell you about some features.

You can subscribe by email at the upper right corner. Each day you will receive an email listing the posts from the previous day.

The best way to receive updates is to subscribe to the RSS feed. We have posted about how to do this here and here. The good news is that Internet Explorer 7.0 has an RSS reader built into the tool bar. If you use another browser, there are many free RSS readers on the market but I can recommend FeedDemon as being inexpensive and easy to set up.

Also on the upper right of the blog is a Google search box on which you can not only search the web, but you can search for prior posts on this blog. The default setting is to search this site.

Occasionally I change the order of the content on both sidebars. You will always find, however, a listing of the other Kentucky lawyers with blogs, a category of other family law blogs across the country, a category containing mediation blogs, and a category of great statewide legal blogs outside Kentucky. So far, I have not identified any outstanding statewide blogs other than Michael Steven’s KentuckyLawReview and Marcia Oddi’s IndianaLawBlog, but I will be pleased to add other high quality statewide blogs as they become available or known to me.

If you care to know anything about this writer, the "about" page at the upper left contains a short bio and link to the author's law firm website.

Comments, questions, criticisms, and suggestions are always welcome. I have made an editorial decision not to publish comments from litigants in pending cases. While there may be nothing wrong with doing so, it simply doesn’t feel right.

Finally, occasionally I add new blogs to my blogrolls and delete sites that have been inactive for some time. As a general rule, I have tried to list only sites that will be of interest to other professionals and have excluded those which seem almost entirely self-promotional in nature.

Birthday Wishes: The Party Wraps Up

Thanks for all the good wishes readers sent in celebration of the first birthday of this weblog last week, about which we posted here. Some congrats were sent by email to me, some were posted at the blog of the sender, and some are buried as a comment beneath the fold at DLJ. I appreciate them all.

Diana Skaggs' The Divorce Law Journal, focusing on "divorce and family law info for professionals in Kentucky and beyond," celebrates its first birthday this week. I read the DLJ daily, communicate with Diana often, and reference her entries frequently, including as recently as yesterday in this ILB entry on "equitable paternity." Happy Birthday, DLJ, and many more! from a post at Indiana Law BLog, "First Birthday For Divorce Law Journal" (In case you missed it, Marcia Oddi received the Indiana Judges' Association 2006 media award and her legal weblog is #8 in the country this year, #11 last year, out of 1690 lawyer blogs. Nice having fans in high places.)

Congratulations on this important milestone. Your blog is terrific! It is one of the ones that inspired me to get started. Great topics and good writing. Keep it up! Steve Worrall, Georgia Family Law Blog

Diana, happy birthday and congratulations on one year of excellent blogging! I hope one of these days I'll have the pleasure of meeting you so I can tell you in person how much I enjoy reading your blog.
Best wishes, from Diane Levin Online Guide To Mediation.

Diana, I cannot BELIEVE that you've only been blogging for a year. When I arrived in the blogosphere, I assumed everyone who was already at the party must have been born there. HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! You've been an irreplaceable welcome wagon and resource. Most of all, you are definitive of what blogging (and mediation) are all about -- collaboration and reciprocity. Do fly west this year & I'll show you the town! Best, from Victoria Pynchon at Settle It Now Negotiation Blog.

Happy Birthday Diana, a wonderful blog, from Geoff Sharp at Mediator blah...blah.

Happy 1st Birthday Divorce Law Journal and here's to many more! Keep up the great work. Dan Nunley, Oklahoma Family Law Blog.

Happy, happy, birthday to your blog! I have certainly enjoyed reading many of your entries. You have a wonderful knack when it comes to getting to the guts of the issue! You explain it in such a straightforward way.I love that you are leading the way for me and have been a sparkling role model for putting myself out there!.
And yes, I've missed seeing you, but I've also been out of the mainstream. I look forward to getting back into it!
Happy Blog Birthday to you, happy blog birthday to you.......
Love, Susie from Suzann O'Koon, Ph.D, a great friend who has recently launched her blog, Dr. Suzann O'Koon's Blog with the tag line thoughts, directions, visions, growth and life coaching. I had planned to wait to announce her blog to the world until it had "grown legs" as they say in the blogosphere, but her plate has been even more full than mine and I had to include her warm sentiments in this post.

And a Happy Birthday to Diana Skaggs and her www.DivorceLawJournal.com @ First Birthday Divorce Law Journal. One year old, out of diapers, and no longer crawling. Now that's kicking!... I can only assume the picture of the one-year old celebrating the birthday in the photo at Diana Skaggs' site is a self-portrait! (And that is for kidding me on my photos. There. Gotcha!) from Michael Stevens at Kentucky Law Review from a post titled Churning, burning, and Happy Birthday to others! Just letting y'all know, the keyboard klatter kontinues to klick afterhours for us and others.

As I told friends, I don't give a hoot about my own birthday, but having a blog birthday was a blast! Thank you.

First Birthday For Divorce Law Journal

It has been one year since the creation of this blog. Hundreds of posts and you do not want to know how much time later, it is now one year old. The fact there was no decline in my office productivity is a sorry testament to much evening and weekend work.

Many purposes have been served, not the least of which was acquiring some badly needed rudimentary tech skills. It is somewhat painful to go back and read the posts from the first several weeks. I don't plan to delete them because someone may gain confidence that the first small steps do not have to be perfect. Nor could I delete the very first comment to a very early post: YAY for meghan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hehe i am proud of u mommy.

One of the reasons I created this blog was to archive and easily access information that may be useful at some later time. You read an article, need it later, but where is it? Now we have archived categories in which to find it. Blog technology has had a significant impact on the ability to deliver family law cases and news with lightning speed. All published family law cases in Kentucky for the last two years have been posted, digested, archived, and linked to the online decisions. Practicing attorneys are reading and using it, and their clients are reaping the benefits. Financial professionals and mediators whose work overlaps that of attorneys in helping divorcing couples also now have an easy way to stay up to date, the serendipitous consequence of plowing into an area without a clue where it would lead.

While this blog is owned by Kentucky Divorce Consulting, LLC, the only member is yours truly. Although this is my 25th year of family law practice, this blog has taught me more in the past 365 days than I have learned during the last 10 years. I have long been a staunch believer in the adage that you learn best what you teach. After 545 posts since the beginning of this site, I can now say that what I learned teaching seminars is peanuts compared to what I have learned being accountable to the world. This was an entirely unexpected benefit of hosting this site.

An editorial last Saturday in The Courier-Journal began, No one knows better than newspaper editors the risk of putting things in writing. There's always a reader who has saved something we wish had been thrown away. A few gaffes have been made here with surely more to follow. The best I can promise is that I will be quick to correct. To not have forged ahead notwithstanding the risks would have been a big loss.

The rewards have been rich, the best being many new friendships. I can't say that I have ever before become friends with a person whom I had not met face-to-face. Early on I gathered together the Kentucky lawyers who blog, because I needed to pick some brains to minimize the time consuming proverbial reinvention of the wheel and I really wanted to put a face behind their blogs. My teenage daughter who posted that first comment has been warned of making internet acquaintances, and was later aghast that I had invited perfect strangers to our home for dinner. When introduced to the one who had emailed me a Google satellite map, she said "So, you're the stalker!" We have come a long way since then and now some of those perfect strangers, including Michael Stevens (Kentucky Law Blog), and Ben Cowgill (Ben Cowgill's Legal Ethics Newsletter), and others I have met along the way, including Stan Billingsly (LawReader) are friends as well as mutual and steadfast sounding boards. There are many new legal blogs in Kentucky and if I haven't called you to meet yet, not to worry (nor to breathe a sigh of relief!); we all will get together again. Let's pencil in May 10, 6pm and see if that will work.

Plans are in the works to cure getting to know some of the out-of-towners soon. This summer I plan to land on the doorsteps of Marcia Oddi (Indiana Law Blog), Jeanne Hannah (Updates In Michigan Family Law) and Victoria Pynchon (Settle It Now Negotiation Blog). Beware in year two. I will be taking my inhospitable child on college campus visits, so if you are near a university you may well end up on my "will call upon" list.

I must say that I appreciate the tolerance of the Kentucky Bar Association for not giving us the fits that lawyers in some other states face. I know they are watching our conduct carefully and are no doubt scared out of their wits worrying where this will all lead. I hope all lawyers blogging will keep the ethical requirements of our profession in the forefront of each judgment call before hitting the "publish" button. The lines are often blurry. I believe the test will be whether we do good or we do harm. The best blogs are often controversial, but surely we can discuss controversies and learn from each other for the benefit of the law. So far, so good. Thanks for permitting us to give this medium a try.

Thanks to all who are reading Divorce Law Journal, thanks to those who have shared thoughts, comments and ideas, and thanks for the friendship and support of all the online community who have helped this project blossom, morph, grow and improve. I cannot name everyone in a single post who has helped me, but the mediation community, including Geoff Sharp (Mediator blah...blah...) from New Zealand whom I find the best wit on the web, Diane Levin (Online Guide To Mediation) from the Boston area and known as the mediation matriarch, and Victoria Pynchon (Settle It Now Negotiation Blog) from Beverly Hills, L.A. (a great writer, thinker, and fabulous at finding photos and graphics) has been especially inspiring. I am so glad to know you, and we haven't even spoken by phone. Michelle Eisenmenger Mapes in my office digested most of the 2005 cases and continues to brief some family law cases for Kentucky Cases. Sarah Jost Nieslen (she will be added to our firm website when we update it next month but we introduced her here) digested the rest of the 2005 cases and all of 2006, and I could not have posted the amount of content without their help. Sandra G. Ragland has helped edit when I have asked, and I can assure you if I had asked her more often, this blog would be a breathtakingly beautiful work of the written word. All of us have bills to pay and families to attend, so I think we have stretched admirably, all things considered. Rita Horton, my able, loyal and treasured assistant for the last 15 years has not grumbled once as I added to her burden.

The next major stretch for this blog will be hosting Blawg Review #101 (a Dalmatian theme, maybe?) on March 26, 2007. In that the word "blog" was nowhere to be found in my 2006 New Year's Resolutions, I am not about to predict what will happen beyond that.

Not Law But Interesting; Thumbs Up To Meghan Steinberg

To borrow a phrase from Marcia Oddi at Indiana Law Blog, "Not Law But Interesting", the first posts on this blog 363 days ago included one about Meghan Steinberg.
Her dad, Jerry(L), a Louisville attorney, had a general practice including family law, and lives across the street from me. Her mom, Freeda Clark, is also a lawyer. The night before I had attended Meghan's first fundraising event. Just seven months post stem cell transplant, this young woman was trying to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society. She could appear only briefly because of the risk of infection. Jerry led the ceremonies. It was a big success.

When any of us takes stock of a year of accomplishments, it is instructive to look at Meghan's efforts. That first event was just the tip of an iceberg. The following is from her new website Meghan's Mountain, where you can read more and donate, and I am asking you to donate:

Meghan’s Mountain is the story of Sarah “Meghan” Steinberg’s climb to life, and her efforts to make the world aware of the devastating effects of cancer and the need for all of us to work together to raise awareness and funds to find a cure for cancer. Meghan’s Mountain, in addition to raising funds for research, reaches out to those afflicted with cancer so that they know they are not alone in their climb to life.
On January 29, 2005, Meghan, at the age of twenty-two and a student at the University of Louisville school of Justice Administration, was diagnosed with leukemia (AML). Because of her illness, Meghan had to withdraw from college, give up her part time job and begin the fight of her life-the fight to live.
After spending almost four months in and out of hospitals in Louisville to put her cancer in remission, Meghan, in June of 2005, went to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle,

Big Brothers Big Sisters; Donate At LouisvilleDivorceKlutzes Team Page

363 days ago, on the first day of posting, our Bowl For Kid's Sake Team, LouisvilleDivorceKlutzes , benefiting Big Brothers Big Sisters was announced here. It's that time of year again and now I know how to give you a link directly to our team page. Go here to donate to our team. Kentucky Law Review is also sponsoring a team as Mike Stevens posted here yesterday. If you go to his site, you'll not only read a moving starfish story, but you'll be led to his Bowl For Kids' Sake page and see the face behind his blog, along with his wife Diane. He's counting so feel free to donate to his site. The important thing is to support the organization.

Jerry Steinberg, the dad of Meghan Steinberg about whom we are also posting today, was a Big Brother. I will remember the rest of my life going to the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta with one of my best friends, who was a Big Sister along with her Little Sister. With no tickets and no hotel arranged, we loaded them, my niece who was the same age 13, and my daughter, age 6 at the time in the my jeep and headed to Atlanta. We found a new Hampton Inn in Conyers, Ga near the equestrian venue (remember we are from horse country here in Kentucky) and so this dear Little Sister spent her first night ever in a hotel and swam in a swimming pool for the first time. As we were leaving for the stadium jumping event the next day, she was making her bed. The expression on her face when told that a housekeeper would take care of that after we departed was priceless! We take so much for granted.

P.S. We also got to see N. Korea v. Pakistan in the men's field hockey event. The multi-national crowd singing and dancing together to "Y.M.C.A." also remains a treasured memory.

Not A Good Day For A Divorce Law Blog To Post

Good Quotes

At I Can't Say That! Dr. Tammy Lenski posts her February quote of the month,
Having a good discussion is like having riches. Her blog on "the relationships that matter" is always a delight. Other gems from her archives:

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity. Albert Einstein

The only difference between stumbling blocks and stepping stones is the way in which we use them. Adriana Doyle

There are two ways of meeting difficulties: You alter the difficulties or you alter yourself meeting them. Phyllis Bottome

Transformation comes more from pursuing profound questions than seeking practical answers. Peter Block

Don't fight forces; use them.Buckminster Fuller

We don't see things as they are. We see things as we are. Anais Nin

Between stimulus and response is the freedom to choose. Viktor Frankl

The wise man doesn't give the right answers, he poses the right questions. Claude Levi-Strauss

Tell me, I may listen. Teach me, I may remember. Involve me, I will do it. Chinese Proverb

Conflict is the gadfly of thought. It stirs us to observation and memory. It instigates to invention. It shocks us out of sheeplike passivity, and sets us at noting and contriving. John Dewey

To truly listen is to risk being changed forever. Sakej Henderson

Every person you fight with has many other people in his life with whom he gets along quite well. You cannot look at a person who seems difficult to you without also looking at yourself. Jeffrey Kottler

What we see depends mainly on what we look for. Sir John Lubbock

I tend to fondly remember influential people in my life by their oft-spoken quotes. Dr. Lenski's February, 2007 quote reminds me of former Jefferson Circuit Judge Rebecca Westerfield saying that she knew she had "made it" when she could afford to buy all the books she wanted to read. The listening theme within many of Dr. Lenski's archived quotes reminds me of one of Alan T. Slyn's jewels: You can't learn with your mouth open.

Open Access and Legal Scholarship

Thanks to Marcia Oddi and Indiana Law Blog for the post "Open Access and Legal Scholarship"

"Download It While Its Hot: Open Access and Legal Scholarship" is the title of a law review article by Lawrence Solum, of the Legal Theory Blog. The abstract:

This Article analyzes the shift of legal scholarship from the old world of law reviews to today's world of peer reviews to tomorrow's world of open access legal blogs. This shift is occurring in three dimensions. First, legal scholarship is moving from the long form (treatises and law review articles) to the short form (very short articles, blog posts, and online collaborations). Second, a regime of exclusive rights is giving way to a regime of open access. Third, intermediaries (law school editorial boards, peer-reviewed journals) are being supplemented by disintermediated forms (papers on the Internet, blogs). Blogs and internet conversations between academics are expanding interdisciplinary legal scholarship and increasing the avenues of communication among legal scholars, practitioners and a wide array of interested laypersons worldwide.

Alabama, Georgia, Missouri and Oklahoma Family Law Blogs Added To Blog Roll

Scroll down and you will see on the left column a list of other family law blogs. I am pleased to announce the additions of Georgia Family Law Blog by Stephen M. Worrall, Marietta, Missouri Divorce and Family Law Blog by Mark A. Wortman, Kansas City, Oklahoma Family Law Blog by Dan Nunley, Tulsa and Alabama Family Law Blog by Sherman & Jeffries, LLC, Mobile. Welcome!

Dean Jim Chen Meets the Louisville Legal Community

Dean Jim Chen, Brandeis School of Law, University of Louisville, was welcomed at a reception Tuesday night at the Louisville Bar Association. Knowing he had a blog ( Jurisdynamics), I was eager to ask him about it. While most timid lawyers I know create a blog on the quiet and then “let it grow legs” before telling anyone about it, Dean Chen’s approach may give us insight into his decisiveness. He created his blog one night after his wife went to bed. Before he retired for the evening, it was up and running and he had sent the “send” button on an email telling people about it.

He appeared warm, engaging, and very much interested in helping the University maintain and enhance its ties to the legal community. He is still thinking about how the law school and its dean can engage the legal community through blogging.

I was also struck and impressed by his candor. In a city that claims Muhammad Ali as its son, it is unacceptable to have its bar composed of only 5% African Americans.

We look forward to great things coming under Dean Chen’s tenure. We Kentucky bloggers must invite him to our next get together.

Highlights From Other Divorce and Family Law Blogs

There are many family law blogs on the net, some aimed at attorneys and several written for potential clients. I read the ones which have RSS feed to which I can subscribe and the ones that are not self-promotional. Here are some I would like to share with you, with recent posts:
Florida Divorce Law Blog by Janet Langjahr, Boca Raton.
NY Allows the King Solomon Approach to Dividing the House
MI: One Dad Per Kid, Please
International Family Law by Jeremy Morley, New York.
New article on Japan and International Child Abduction
Kansas Family and Divorce Lawyer by Grant D. Griffins, Clay Center, Kansas
Family Watchdog, Finding Sex Offenders
New York Divorce Report by Daniel Clement, New York City
Marital Agreements Will Be Enforced Even If One Spouse Failed to Require Full Compliance in the Past
Oklahoma Family Law Blog by Dan Nunley, Tulsa
Dogs Neglected After Owners Divorce
South Carolina Family Law Blog by Ben Stevens, Spartanburg
Videoconferencing Approved for Use in Family Court
Family Law Prof Blog by Barbara Glesner Fines and Nancy Ver Steegh
Mother Awarded $15 Million
Teaching Resources: Teaching Empathy for Victims of Domestic Violence
Updates in Michigan Family Law by Jeanne Hannah, Traverse City
Can you spell adultery?
There are many others and I am well overdue in expressing my gratitude for the information they provide and for the news I would otherwise miss. Thanks.

Design Changes Are Here

Our design changes are up. You may need to delete the cache in your browser in order to see the new layout. The changes require that I post quotes in a new manner, so please bear with me as I learn.

Design Changes Are Coming

Over the weekend we hope to launch design changes. I hope you will like them and find this site easier to read. If everything is haywire, it will only be because the conversion was more difficult than anticipated. In this event, please be patient.

Bar Represents Man Who Went Online to Arrange Divorce

Bar Represents Man Who Went Online to Arrange Divorce
Posted on January 15, 2007 by Grant Griffiths at Kansas Family Law Blog.

The North Carolina State Bar is taking up the case of a man who went online to try to arrange his divorce, only to find court officials wouldn't accept the documents he downloaded from the Web site.
Joe Bruno got the documents from Law Online Incorporated and took them to the Gaston County Courthouse. Officials there told him that the documents weren't legal and that they wouldn't take them.
The state Bar wants to stop Law Online from doing business in the state, and accuses the company of offering legal advice without being licensed as attorneys in the state. The bar filed a lawsuit in Wake County.
The company says it did little more than offer people a way to handle a divorce on their own, and shouldn't be singled out by the Bar.
Bruno eventually got his divorce by hiring an attorney and paying half the 600 dollars Law Online asked for.

Grant does a very nice job with his blog. Sometimes I assume everybody already knows about the great family law blogs out there, so I have posted stories from them less frequently of late. Since I know I have many new readers, I will link to these other good blogs for awhile, so the newcomers can see the fine things going on online in family law.

How Are We Doing Setting Those New Years Resolutions?

Life happens so quickly, it is seeming archaic to make resolutions for an entire year only once. Old habits are hard to break, so I plod on cementing goals for this year. As I am firming them, though, I do think I will add as a goal more frequent introspection, reassessment, and action planning. Adding the pleasant ritual to more frequent resolutions will be the challenge.
I have been looking at how others are approaching resolutions, and stumbled upon The Blawgosphere Offers Its New Year Resolutions by Bill Gratsch. OMG. He's quoting and linking to me, and I don't even know who he is! Query: Shall I read more or write more? In this blawgosphere, my contacts are quality and I have been enormously enriched by the ones I have made. The zest for getting to know more (particularly those who like what I write) is almost irresistible.
Yet.
Many years ago it was with much delight that I introduced new neighbors to each other. Upon inviting one who had become a dear friend to some new gathering, he said, "No. Diana, I have enough friends. I don't need any more friends." (Shocking words to me.) And so it was that he kept and nurtured the friends he already had and does so to this day, adding one or two only as ones go astray because of death or some unpreventable obstacle. I have teased him endlessly about this comment, but had he added more friends than he could nurture to his inner circle, the depth of those friendships may have been less. Ours included, an unimaginable thought.
So, I am now pondering how broadly to cast the net: how much in time and energy to devote to those I already know, those I already love, and those I would like to know. How much time can I allot to those I don't even know I'd like to know, like those who read, quote, and like what I have to say. Maybe it's simply a matter of separating me from what I write.
A corollary theme is the object for writing the blog. It is the passion for and the discussion of the law. It was never intended as a vehicle to make friends, or even business acquaintances. The fact that fascinating people have come into my email box is a happy coincidence, and that some have become friends is great good luck. Another part of how life just happens.
This month long thinking really is a process, and one I enjoy even if I suspect it is becoming obsolete.
So, I'll keep plodding with the thinking and planning, yet be very grateful for and open to the serendipity.

Lawyers Take Legal Debates Online

Lawyers take legal debates online is the story by Brandon Ortiz published today in the Herald-Leader about Kentucky lawyers authoring law weblogs.
Kentucky Law Blog has an excellent post, Herald Leader Story Addresses Growing Law "Blogs" , speaking well for all of us interviewed for the article, of our fears in submitting to an interview by the mainstream press:

I thought that those of you who have not been placed under the reporter's microscope might enjoy reading about some elements behind the story.

Brandon contacted me last month for an interview about the growing development of law blogs within the state, and to show the breadth and diversity of this growing field, he expanded the story to include several other of Kentucky's on-line legal writers who also allowed themselves to undergo the scrutiny of the main stream media. This allowed Brandon to come to our table and get a taste of the diversity in legal "blogging" and writing.

Present at the interview were myself (Michael Stevens - www.KentuckyLawblog.com and www.KyCases.com), Diana Skaggs, and Stan Billingsley. Unfortunately, Ben Cowgill had a previous commitment and was not present in person, but present in spirit. I thank Brandon for following up the interview and discussing the ethical issues behind blogging with Ben.

I will confess that I was initially apprehensive when Brandon called me for the interview, and I was thankful he expanded the scope to include the others since there is "strength" in numbers. However, my fears were misplaced as he was not only fair and objective but also articulate and personable. I actually enjoyed myself to the point I was probably listening more to my fellow writers than giving Brandon some journalistic fodder for his story. Oh well.

For those who might not know this, Brandon is the Herald Leader's Supreme Court and "courts" reporter and is the writer behind the Comair Crash stories and others coming out of Lexington. For a list with links of his on-line stories, click here.

I have regularly read his stories on-line (and through my RSS feed) and was pleasantly surprised that the analytical mind behind those stories was not a lawyer! Most impressive. I was amazed by the depth and perception he had of the law.

Being interviewed by the press when you have no "real" control on the outcome is somewhat daunting. Brandon "done good", and I can understand why the lawyers and members of our judiciary hold him in high regard. His respect for the law and justice was evident in his questions and his listening.

Although I am a lawyer who poses as a journalist, I learned from this process that on-line legal writing is more than just timely, quick and responsive, but allows the pen to be truly mightier than the sword. We have our own medium to defend the remarks made, so let us not forget that Brandon entered this foray with some vulnerability of his own as well with the risk that the three interviewees might respond to his remarks on-line. His written word was neither final nor irrebuttable.

For those who read our postings regularly, you know that this project does not exist solely through my efforts. I just seem to be the cook that combines all the fine ingredients provided by other lawyer volunteers. To continue giving credit where credit is due, I thank them again - those who are helping now, and those who have helped in the past. Click here for our "numbers" and our "writers".

Due to constraints on space (and the fact that three lawyers can overload a reporter's notebook in minutes), most of our remarks did not hit the print. Again, the decision digests are not mine and mine alone. We are not devoid of political commentary, but concentrate on that which affects the practice of law. For example, the judicial elections, the merit system investigation, the governor's pardons, the "footnote", the purging of court records, and the crisis of confidence in our courts did not escape our pages. But on the plus side was the fact that lawyers, students, and librarians nationwide have emailed us for legal information and documents that are nearly impossible to obtain unless you are involved in the actual controversey or litigation. When a Columbia law student needed a trial court order for his paper, it was gratifying that an email to my fellow Kentucky lawyers produced a digital copy within the hour (and this is not an isolated case!). I also particularly liked Diana Skaggs' remark that the "blogs" are similar to the office water fountain where we can gather and discuss matters without pressing deadlines and a little less formally.

And as I am writing this post, I just discovered something about this type of writing I never realized so clearly before and that this is more than legal analysis, court commentary, decision digests, and noteworthy news developments, but it is also a rather intimate way of writing. I feel like I am writing each of you a personal letter about something that I feel is important; something that I want to share with a friend; and each of you have taken some time out of your day to care enough to read it. Some even to the point of commenting online. For this, I THANK YOU.

Mike, I agree with all your comments 100%. Mr. Ortiz did a very nice and fair job.
UPDATE: Here are posts from Ben Cowgill's Legal Ethics Newsletter and Stan Billingsly's LawReader regarding the Herald-Leader article.
UPDATE: Marcia Oddi of Indiana Law Blog, the recipient of the 2006 Indiana Judges Association media award, has also posted about this article:

Law - Kentucky Law Blogs surveyed
Brandon Ortiz of the Lexington Herald-Leader has a good story today on the half-dozen Kentucky law blogs - note these are not "political" blogs but, like the ILB, are law blogs. Entries from two of these blogs, and I would consider them to be the leading two, have been featured frequently in the ILB (and are permanently listed in the ILB's right-hand column as resources): The Kentucky Law Blog and the Kentucky Divorce and Family Law Blog.

I recommend the story to you. In addition, both Michael Stevens, and Diana Skaggs, of the two Kentucky blogs mentioned above, have entries on their own sites today with some "behind the scenes" remarks about the Herald-Leader story.

Thanks for the kind words, Marcia.

A Labor Of Love, For The Profession

A Labor of Love sounds a little corny, but those who have been in law for a long time know what it means and it guides much of what we do in the profession of law.
Bar Briefs, a monthly publication of the Louisville bar Association and not available online (yet?) has this as its title for the front page interview with our new president, Tom Williams. The Kentucky Bar Association is the only required membership of Kentucky attorneys, yet the LBA claims an 80% voluntary participation rate, much higher than the 50% norm of voluntary bar associations across the country. Its leadership has made all the difference, and all for a labor of love.
The words rang particularly true to me, as I recently received a beautiful handwritten letter from retired Judge Richard A. Revell, former Chief Judge of the Jefferson Circuit Family Court. We are working on the annual domestic relations update seminar as well as the 2007 update to Kentucky Divorce, a West-Thomson treatise. He said that Alan T. Slyn (the original co-author whose updates I am assuming) always said that updating the book was "a labor of love, for the profession." It went straight to my heart; I know exactly what he meant. It is why we have quality legal weblogs, isn't it? Blogs are just a high tech medium of what fine lawyers have been doing for centuries, as a labor of love.
Good luck and best wishes to Tom Williams; your heart is in the right place and you will leave a good legacy, I am sure.

New Year's Resolutions and More Than Five Things You Don't Know About Me

New Year’s goal setting has been a ritual for more than 30 years for me. First, I buy a lovely new hard bound journal. Then, I think. Then, I brainstorm with a very close friend or two. Next, I put pen to paper. The process consumes much of the month of January, but I look forward to it each year. Voila! My life is planned, to a point.
I thought business goals were usually the easiest for me to do, although I must say that this year they are shaping up as more of a “to-do-list” than the big picture direction that I want. Much more work and thought is needed, to be sure. Yet as I reflect upon 2006, nowhere was the word “blog” anywhere in the book. Life just happened.
So I took out a couple of my old journals for a look-see. My personal history is repeating itself in my business.
1997. One goal I wrote down was to live more in the moment. I remember it well. Every Sunday morning I went horseback riding with a friend. Those were joyous mornings, rain or shine. I would sing and canter along the river. My voice was no prize and neither was my riding. I remember saying “wouldn’t it be great to take singing lessons from someone who rode a horse and was a riding instructor?” January came, goal debating was in progress, and my friend gently suggested that fully living in the moment was something to think about. Of course, that was dead on, so I wrote it in my journal. Whoa, Nellie! Life just happened and has been happening ever since.
I have been amused and enchanted by the “five things you don’t know about me” that have been circulating among my lawyers friends on the net. On the river, drifting in a boat, we call it “twenty questions” and it is the surest way to really get to know people and on an intimate level. I’d really like to play “five things you don’t know about me”, but this is the world wide web, and I guess I just don’t want that many people to really, really know me. You can know that I can’t sing and that I can’t ride a horse well, and that In January 2006 I couldn’t foresee that I would have a blog up by the end of February, but at this venue, I’d rather stick to business! To the friends on the web I have made through my blog: stay in touch, continue to email me, we’ll get together at conferences and by design, and I promise in person you can ask me twenty questions. Or thirty. Maybe I'll tell you what else happened in 1997. Or in 1992. Or...? Just be prepared for reciprocity.

Farewell To Legal Advertising Trailblazer Richard D. Shapero

As we were pondering our past and setting goals for our future, Richard D. Shapero died yesterday at age 63. He will always be remembered for taking the Kentucky Bar Association to the United States Supreme Court, which resulted in a significant opinion striking down bar restrictions on lawyer advertising. Shapero v. Kentucky Bar Association, 486 U.S. 466 (1988) . You'll also find a transcript of the oral arguments online.
A gutsy guy, lightyears ahead of his time, he enjoyed the business side of law much more than the actual practice of law. His forte was bringing in P.I. cases and then farming them out to other attorneys. His trademark, long before other lawfirms thought of tag lines or trademarks, was " I Know The Experts." His early TV ads made traditional lawyers cringe, but he spoke a language lay people understood and they hired him.
A memorial service will be held Wednesday at The Temple in Louisville. I bet the stories about Pin Ball Wizard will be doozies. We've lost one of a kind.

Thomas Jefferson Would Have Had a Blog

Ben Cowgill's Legal Ethics Newsletter posted some jewels about internet journalism, Law-related blogs: following in the footsteps of Thomas Jefferson:
If Thomas Jefferson were alive today, there can be little doubt that he would have a law-related blog. He loved to write. He loved to share information and ideas with other people. He once said that he would rather have a country with newspapers and no government than a country with government and no newspapers. He would be thrilled to live at a time when he could share information with interested people throughout the world, simply by sitting down at his desk and writing at a keyboard.
'The legal profession has a great tradition of writing and speaking about the law. Law-related blogs are merely a new example of that great tradition. Until the Internet came along, lawyers had to find other ways to share information about the law: by writing books, articles and op-ed pieces; by making presentations at legal conferences; and by speaking to church groups, civic clubs and the like. All of those activities are valuable because they all spread information about the American legal system to the American people. Now, with the Internet and "blogging software," it's possible for lawyers to continue that tradition in another way, and so it is not surprising that many lawyers are choosing to do so. They are following in the footsteps of other lawyers who have been writing and speaking about the law throughout American history." ...

Comments and Apology

I owe an apology to Pieter M. Droppert of New Jersey Family & Divorce Law Blog. He posted a comment which I tried to "approve" on a PDA. I was out of the office at the time, hobnobbing with Pauline Tessler and Peggy Johnson and the collaborative family law group when I saw the email advice of the pending comment. The comment was inadvertently deleted instead. Comments are very important to every blog that accepts them and many of us of a "certain age" simply have a steep learning curve in all sorts of tech matters. Peter is a 2005 Rutgers grad and wanting to absorb all he can, and is eager to participate in this online forum where we all are learning as we teach. Good luck with your blog, Pieter, and you will find the blawgosphere a very supportive place to help you help your clients.

Independence of the Judiciary

Reconciling the independence of the judiciary with election campaigning is very difficult. It was timely, then, that I discovered that the ABA litigation section now has RSS feed. When I subscribed, some older articles were delivered, including a poignant one, A Lawyer's Letter To His Daughter, by H. Thomas Wells, Jr., Chair, Section of Litigation when it was written in 2000.
"Promote the independence of the judiciary before whom you will practice. An independent judiciary is a hallmark of our justice system, and we lawyers should defend it vigorously. Remember that judges must make hard decisions; do not stand idly by when they are attacked for them. The ethical rules prevent judges from responding to attacks -- even unwarranted ones -- upon them or upon their decisions. It is therefore up to the professional bar, and especially the trial bar, to respond on their behalf, even when reasonable persons could disagree about whether the decision the judge has reached is a correct one. Without an independent judiciary, litigation practice would degenerate into little more than influence peddling, if not outright combat. An independent judiciary helps keep us a nation governed by laws, not by the whim of men or women.'
The entire letter is worth saving for any lawyer who has a child entering the profession; good advice, all of it.
2000 was light years ago in elective judicial politics, though. Now that judges can espouse positions, align with political parties, raise huge sums from special interest groups, the goings-on in election campaigning are going to undermine the independence of our judiciary. We must find a better solution.
Finally, you may ask with this statement of beliefs, how is it helpful to the law to criticize appellate decisions? I view talking about development of the law not as a disparagement of any appellate judge or justice, but as part of the larger aim of shaping the law in ways that make it not a "stagnant pond, but a moving stream." If you are a regular reader of this blog, you will know the source of that favorite quote.