Divorce Law Journal

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.

Winter Coats Needed; Baby Blankets, Too

Kentucky Jefferson Circuit Court Family Division Judge Patricia Walker FitzGerald's request for donations of winter coats was publicized in David Hawpe's column in the Courier-Journal today.

In this frigid weather, the Jefferson Family Courts have women coming to the courthouse for domestic violence protective orders and bringing children who are not dressed for the cold. Little kids are coming in without appropriate shoes, coats, hats or gloves. Often the victims have to leave their homes quickly, with no time to collect any clothing or other necessities.

The court staff try to keep a supply of coats there so that they don't have to send the kids back out the way they came in, but our supplies are depleted. If you live in the Louisville area and have any extras, or know of folks who might, please consider donating your discarded children's winter outer garments.

In response to an email asking where to deliver donations, Judge FitzGerald wrote "Clothing can be taken to the family court clerks' office. Would you add baby blankets to your list? I left them off and we need them desperately."

ABA Child Custody Grant Info

The ABA Child Custody and Adoption Pro Bono Project will award directed grants supporting the delivery of legal services to children in custody cases. Pro bono programs, legal service programs, children's law centers, law-school clinics, court programs, and similar organizations are invited to apply. The focus for the 2007 grants is Lawyers and Law Schools Partnering to Serve Children.
Deadline: February 28, 2007
View Guidelines and Download p_directed_grant_application_2007.doc

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Bowl For Kids' Sake

Join us in participating at the Louisville Bar Association Bowl For Kids' Sake, benefiting Big Brothers - Big Sisters on February 28, 2007. A little friendly competition would be fun. Our team is Louisville Divorce Klutzes and we will bowl for the second year. If you don't form a team to compete, we will be hitting you up for a donation; details to follow. If you are forming a team, please note this little known fact: Sandy Ragland was the 1960 Louisville Women's Doubles champion! It should be a fun evening for a great cause.

CASA a Valued Champion for Kids

Deborah Vetter reports CASA a valued champion for kids in yesterday's Courier-Journal, a timely topic for those whose New Year resolutions include seeking opportunities to volunteer for worthy causes. Many more volunteers are needed, and these dedicated folks really can make a difference in the lives of abused and neglected children. Some quotes from the article:

At a time of growing caseloads and increasingly complex situations of abuse and neglect -- often fueled by drugs and alcohol -- judges say the CASA volunteers are becoming increasingly important.

The advocates generally handle one case at a time, while busy social workers may have 15 to 20 or more.

"CASA makes a tremendous difference," said Jefferson Family Court Judge Patricia Walker FitzGerald. "I wish we could have a CASA volunteer for every child in the system."

Jefferson County's CASA has about 170 volunteers, while Family Court judges last year handled 3,500 cases of abuse or neglect.

Though judges acknowledge they probably will never have enough volunteers to appoint a CASA worker for every case in family court, they wish there were many more.

"A lot of times, CASA is the only primary, consistent person in the child's life," said Stephen M. George, chief judge of Jefferson Family Court.

How to volunteer? A vist to the volunteer page on the CASA website is a good place to start.

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.

Pro Se Divorce In Kentucky

Many people cannot afford a divorce. Pro se litigants are causing a huge strain on our judicial resources. Legal Aid is without the staffing and finances to help further. To its credit, Jefferson County , Kentucky Family Court has developed a set of forms for clerks to provide pro se litigants for post-divorce motions. New is a set of forms to assist pro se litigants from the outset. They are not finalized and the Louisville Bar Association has issued a call to lawyers to come by and help review the 100 pages drafted to date. Please take them up on the offer! The better assistance the clerks can be to those who cannot afford counsel, the less onerous our judge's jobs will be.
Here's the email call to action:
"The Pro Bono Consortium, in coordination with Family Court and the Louis D. Brandeis School of Law, has developed pro se divorce forms that are in their final stages of editing. The pro se packet (over 100 pages) is now available for review at the LBA office and we encourage your participation.
These forms were developed to help meet the needs of those who cannot afford an attorney and appear in Family Court each week unprepared to navigate the legal system. In Jefferson County, at least one-half of the cases heard during motion hour are pro se on one or both sides. Pro se cases create a backlog as most litigants appear before the judges without proper documentation and have to return multiple times to resolve their issues. More importantly, it may limit access to court services for the most needy in our community.
As a reminder, a pro se post-decree packet was created in 2005 through a pilot project between the Consortium and Family Court. Over 100 packets are distributed weekly and the Family Court judges have seen the positive impact of providing accurate forms to these litigants.
If you are interested in reviewing these documents, they will be available at the LBA office from Monday, September 25th until Monday, October 9th. They will not be available on-line until they are ready for distribution. Notification of their completion will be sent to all LBA members via email and through Bar Briefs.
The LBA’s Board of Directors will review comments from its members as they consider endorsement of the pro se divorce program.
The pro se documents will be evaluated over time and modifications made as necessary. For further information, please contact Kim Farmer, Executive Director, 569-1369, kfarmer@loubar.org or Kate Lindsay, Pro Bono Manager at klindsay@loubar.org."
I am known to bristle at the suggestion that the practice of divorce law is filling out forms, and I have eschewed forms for twenty-five years. Yet, the volume of cases inundating our courts, and the very limited time our judges have to consider the most complex financial and psychological issues, requires that we who value our system of jurisprudence somehow deal with the massive inundation of cases clogging our dockets. For people who want or must help themselves, making the task easier for them makes the task of the judges many more times less difficult. Each week they come back on the same motion because it wasn't done correctly the first time, means less judicial time available to hear substantive issues.

Plea For Volunteer Lawyers For Uncontested Divorces From Legal Aid

Legal Aid still needs our help:
"I am processing the most recent list of clients off the Uncontested Divorce List and need several volunteers to accept a case at this time. Any help you can provide will be greatly appreciated. They (clients) have been patiently waiting for a couple of months. Please consider assisting one of our clients today."
Andrea Y. Robbins
Andrea Y. Robbins, Program Assistant
VOLUNTEER LAWYER PROGRAM
425 W. MUHAMMAD ALI BLVD.
LOUISVILLE, KY 40202
PHONE: (502) 585-6980 EXT. 243
FAX: (502) 584-8014

A Plea For Volunteer Lawyers: Operation Standby

From Mark Sullivan, our North Carolina colleague and author of the 2006 ABA Military Divorce Handbook:

"Join Operation Stand By -YOU Can Make a Difference"