Attorney Matthew R. Arnold answering the question: “Can you guarantee I will get the resolution I want?” The Supreme Court issued a much-anticipated decision this week in the case of Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl. The case concerned the power of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) to allow a…
Though a quick scroll through the TV guide tells us how much American family life has changed over the decades, less “Brady Bunch” and more “Modern Family,” our family law system has failed to keep pace. The idea of what a family is supposed to look like has changed enormously…
The Supreme Court announced its upcoming schedule and revealed that it will hear oral arguments in an important case known as Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl. The case, more commonly known as the Baby Veronica case, involves a 2011 South Carolina Supreme Court decision about the parental rights of a…
According to a recent Yahoo! article, an appeals court in New York ruled in favor of a Chinese girl who was adopted by a wealthy couple and then subsequently given up for adoption a second time. The family court judge ruled that the girl was owed a portion of her…
According to an interesting article on Yahoo, California, a state already grappling with a wide array of legal issues surrounding alternative families, has added one more to the mix. The most recent bill, SB1476, would allow children to be legally given more than two parents. As written, the bill would…
The same-sex marriage controversy in North Carolina deepened after it was recently announced that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed suit against the state to overturn their laws that prevent gay and lesbian couples from adopting their partners’ children. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of six couples from…
In the adoption and child custody case of Best v. Gallup, the North Carolina Court of Appeals examined a case involving both an adoption and nonparent child custody. In the adoption and child custody case at bar, mother and “father” were romantically involved and intended to be married. For approximately…
The North Carolina Supreme Court ruled on the issue of same sex adoptions, or second parent adoptions, in the case of Boseman vs. Jarrell. This case involved a same sex couple who conceived a child together. After the child was born, the second parent adopted the child. The North Carolina…
To follow up on a previous article on the Charlotte Divorce Lawyer Blog, in December, the North Carolina Supreme Court voided the adoption of a child by a lesbian mother who was raising the child with her former partner. This case, discussed in a previous post, involved two women who…
This Charlotte child custody lawyer observes that a current custody case being heard by the North Carolina Supreme Court could decide whether North Carolina state law allows a certain kind of adoption by same-sex couples in North Carolina. Senator Julia Boseman and her ex-partner, Melissa Jarrell, are litigating custody issues…