Arguments for and against vaccinations have grown in the national conversation as 12 states are currently battling an outbreak of measles. A recent Indiana trial court decision in a custody dispute demonstrated that disagreements over vaccinations also happen within families.
If you’re a family law practitioner, you always hope that your clients who are co-parents can figure out their own parenting plan and adjust it as necessary when life happens. The best scenarios are when parents are flexible and child-focused in their plans. But what happens when they are not?
A mother filing for child support couldn’t convince the Indiana Court of Appeals that the obligated amount her child’s father owes should be in addition to Social Security retirement benefits that he already gives the child.
An Indianapolis mother, who was previously found to be in contempt of court for trying to circumvent the custody agreement that required her daughter be vaccinated, was found to have “knowingly and willfully” violated an Indiana Court of Appeals order that gave the father the sole ability make decisions about vaccinating the child.
A mother trying to further her education without a stable income lost her appeal to keep custody of her son after she twice left him unattended due to substance abuse but was granted her request to make the costs of her case a public expense.
A nonprofit that gave Indiana an F grade in how the state provides for minors in child in need of services and termination of parental rights hearings asserts in a new lawsuit that children a have right to counsel so their voices be heard in court.
The Indiana Court of Appeals reversed a custody order when it found the trial court failed to enter appropriate findings and improperly considered a father’s military service in its determination.
Two grandparents won their appeal to petition for visitation rights with their deceased son’s children after the Indiana Court of Appeals found a trial court erred in granting summary judgment to the children’s mothers.
Three Tippecanoe County minor children age 5 and younger who were cared for by their father after they were found home alone in their mother’s home should not have been adjudicated children in need of services, the Indiana Court of Appeals held Friday in reversing the juvenile court.
A mother whose infidelity led to divorce and what a trial court called a “deep, seemingly bottomless rift between the children and Mother” owes a daughter no support with college expenses because the child repudiated their relationship.
Legislators in 2018 introduced a slew of bills trying to bring more collaboration and modest adjustments to the Department of Child Services. Lawmakers this year have introduced at least 25 bills impacting CHINS, foster parents and DCS caseloads, among other things.
The Indiana Senate Judiciary Committee is pumping the brakes on a bill that would allow grandparents and great-grandparents to seek visitation with their grandchildren despite estrangements with the children’s parents, with two notable Indiana bar association groups speaking out against the proposed legislation.
A DeKalb County mother who refused to comply with court-ordered visitation between her children and their paternal grandparents must now serve jail time and pay a $14,000 sanction after the Indiana Court of Appeals upheld visitation and contempt orders on Friday.
In recent years, prenuptial, postnuptial and cohabitation agreements have become increasingly common in the United States. The increase in interest can be traced in part to the shifting of societal norms surrounding marriage, cohabitation, and divorce among the country’s different age demographics.
For those who are legal counselors to families, you have heard objections many times when the parents have told their adult daughter (or son) that they need to have a premarital agreement. The child is in love. She has found the person with whom she will spend the rest of her life. The person with whom she will raise a family. There is no possible way they would ever divorce, so why does she need a premarital agreement? The simple answer — she needs one!
Current federal and state law generally defers to a parent’s judgment when it comes to grandparent visitation, with the United States Supreme Court ruling that the right to rear a child as desired is among the most fundamental rights of parents. But a bill filed this year in the Indiana Legislature would give both grandparents and great-grandparents another avenue to obtain standing to petition for visitation.
Foster parents are invaluable assets and partners in child welfare. Foster parents’ input in team meetings and on an ongoing basis provides valuable insight into the child’s needs. However, giving foster parents party status presents many problems.
A seven-year-old divorce case is returning to the trial court after the Indiana Court of Appeals found the division of the husband’s pension and the monthly rehabilitative maintenance needed to be recalculated.
Indianapolis attorneys Joe Delamater, a criminal defense lawyer at Razumich & Delamater PC, and Kiamesha Colom, a partner at Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, encountered confusion, frustration and ultimately heartbreak during the course of a few months when they became foster parents to a baby boy. Now they are pushing for changes to state laws they say will balance the system so the right results happen for kids.
A trial court judge who refused to make federal findings regarding a minor litigant’s immigration status because he was “irritated” by having to deal with federal law must now consider the immigration questions after the Indiana Court of Appeals found the judge’s refusal was erroneous.