Family courts regularly encounter parents and children whose lives are shaped by autism, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, learning differences, developmental diagnoses, mental health conditions, hearing loss, and other visible or invisible disabilities. Yet the legal system
Summary By looking back at a personal courtroom experience on the morning of September 11, 2001, this article explores why courts must remain neutral. The story centers on an urgent child custody hearing in
This article explores the legal process and practical challenges of having foreign divorce decrees recognized (“domesticated”) in California. While international divorces are increasingly common in California’s diverse communities, they remain legally ambiguous until a
California does not have a public policy favoring marriage over divorce. Nor does it maintain a public policy that disfavors one type of religious divorce over another. Yet for nearly four decades, courts have
Divorce is not only a legal termination of marriage but a passage through a tunnel of transformation—legal, financial, psychological, and cultural. For immigrant families, this tunnel becomes doubly complex. It is not merely the
The “Holiday Season” is not a random sequence of celebrations. It is a cultural column of four events stacked vertically, each standing on the shoulders of the one before it. From Halloween to New
California divorce judgments are binding and enforceable within the United Statesunder the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the U.S. Constitution and 28 U.S.C. Section 1738. However, when enforcement or recognition is sought abroad
This article introduces seven practical cultural metaphors that illuminate how cross-cultural misunderstandings arise in family court and how judges, attorneys, and mental-health professionals can more accurately interpret parties’ conduct, communication, and motivations. Drawing on