Recently in Other Family Law Issues Category

Maybe it shouldn't be too much of a surprise that most of the 1,004 adult Americans polled by a recent survey said they married the right person, according to an Associated Press article published in The Vancouver Sun. Otherwise, would they still be married? But only two-thirds said their spouse was their "soul mate," according to the poll.

While 97 percent of the men and 94 percent of the women in a Marist poll said they believe they got hitched to the right person, only 66 percent said they believed that person was destined to be their soul mate. Still, that figure is quite a bit higher than the estimated 50 percent of Chicago couples, for example, that eventually will need the services of an Illinois family lawyer.

Facebook-assisted news of infidelity and other evidence that can effectively end a marriage and help divorce attorneys in Chicago win their case are nothing new. But Cleveland woman Lynn France's Facebook discovery that her husband married another woman, as reported by the Associated Press, certainly is newsworthy.

The wife and mother of two young children already suspected her husband, John France, was having an affair. She searched for the suspected other woman on Facebook and saw wedding pictures of her estranged husband and his new wife at Walt Disney World:

"I was numb with shock, to tell you the truth. There was like an album of 200 pictures on there. Their whole wedding."

And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Marriage and family therapist Mitchell Rosen, of California, wrote an editorial in the Riverside Press-Enterprise about the importance of fathers being actively involved in the lives of their children. Obviously, the significance of the timing is the upcoming Father's Day holiday.

First, he insists that bias against fathers in family courts is not nearly as prevalent as many would have you believe. His experience most likely is limited to California; thus, an Illinois family law attorney might have a different take on how local courts handle child custody and visitation cases.

Foster parent applicants are denied for a number of legitimate reasons. According to FindLaw, prospective foster parents must be over 21, have a steady income source, have a record free of felony convictions, submit to a home assessment and attend parent training sessions.

Standards can be high, but apparently they can be daunting to a Muslim woman.

Contemporary Family Services (CFS) in Baltimore has strict standards. The Baltimore Sun reported that a woman was denied the opportunity to become a foster parent by the foster placement agency because she doesn't allow pork in her home.

That's it, no pork?

The Chicago Tribune reported that 46-year-old Christopher Rood pleaded guilty to home invasion and armed violence after breaking into the home of his estranged family and stabbing his ex-wife and daughter with a knife.

Jayne Rood was hospitalized for several weeks for wounds to her head and abdomen, while 17-year-old daughter Molly Rood was treated at the emergency room for several body wounds. Both have recovered from their injuries, at least physically.

Christopher Rood is scheduled to appear in court on June 11 for sentencing and could receive as many as 90 years in prison for the charges of home invasion and armed violence.

The defendant entered the home around 2:40 a.m. on Sept. 28, 2008 through a basement window and confronted his ex-wife and daughter in the master bedroom, according to DuPage County State's Attorney David Breyer. Then he allegedly asked to talk to them but became "enraged" after Molly Rood tried to call 911, stabbing them both.

Adoption typically is a complicated process mired in paperwork with long lead times. But international adoption only magnifies these complexities, particularly when one considers the unique laws and processes associated with each individual country of origin. Chicago family law attorneys may not know about each country's laws but certainly could assist in the process.

FindLaw strongly recommends that prospective adoptive parents do as much research as possible before flying to a chosen country. Just to give an example, many nations' laws require the adoptive parents to stay in that country for several weeks or even months before bringing a child home with them. 

Haiti's deadly earthquake left thousands of orphaned children in its wake and brought the issue of international adoption to the forefront, as explained in a Chicago Tribune article.

Adopting a child is nothing at all like ordering a vacuum cleaner from Amazon.com. If the vacuum cleaner doesn't work as advertised, you just put it back in the box and send it back. But if a child does not adapt well to his or her new family, particularly a child from halfway around the world, then that's just the luck of the draw.

Apparently Tennessee mother Torry Hansen thought her adopted 7-year-old son came with a return policy, ABC News reported, as she put him on a one-way airplane trip back to his native Russia.

Now it appears the adoptive mother is shopping around for a replacement to the "defective" Russian child. Although the mother lives in Tennessee, would any Chicago family law attorneys care to weigh in on her chances of getting approved for another adoption after this ordeal?

The Chicagoland Wedding Directory offers information on vendors of everything from wedding gowns and tuxedos to registries and disc jockeys. While this blog doesn't concern itself with the celebration of marriage, the same directory also provides a concise overview of the legal requirements and procedures for getting married in Illinois.

The services of Chicago family law attorneys, who typically handle divorce and other family law issues, are not required for a Windy City wedding. But in the absence of an ordained minister, non-theistic marriages require the "blessings" of a judge.

First things first: Individuals of the opposite sex who are 18 years of age or older and not related by blood may legally marry. The exceptions are 16-year-olds with the sworn consent of their parents and first cousins over the age of 50 (and thus unlikely to conceive children).

While the city of Baltimore is about a 12-hour drive from Chicago, one particular case involving matters of both criminal and family law is sending ripples of outrage across the country. As reported by the Baltimore Sun, a man accused of domestic violence was found not guilty after he married his alleged victim. 

Frederick D. Wood was charged with second-degree assault when his fiancée claimed he hit her in the face (drawing blood), kicked her, and rammed her head into a wall. As with the majority of domestic violence cases, Mr. Wood's partner was the main witness in the case against him.

In an attempt to protect himself from her testimony, Mr. Wood requested time to obtain a marriage license when his case came up for trial, which Judge G. Darrell Russell Jr. granted. A second judge waived the standard 48-hour waiting period between the issuance of the license and the wedding, and Judge Russell married the couple in his chambers that same day.

Chicago family law attorneys will tell you that the marital communications privilege allows married couples to refuse to testify against one another with respect to things said or written, as explained by LawBrain. It is similar to the exceptions granted to communication between priest and penitent, attorney and client, and doctor and patient.

But a piece of state legislation may carve out an exception to this privilege in cases of suspected sex crimes against a child, the Morris Daily Herald reported.

Specifically, the bill (H.B. 5666) would expand the existing exception to allow a spouse to testify before a grand jury for his or her spouse's alleged sex crimes against a child. Current law holds that an individual can testify to otherwise privileged communications only once his or her spouse has been charged with a crime. The bill unanimously passed the House and only recently was read in the state Senate.