No Kentucky Supreme Court family law published opinions were among those released today. Discretionary review was granted in one family law case, Howard v. Howard. The unpublished opinion of the Court of Appeals is here. The case involves whether father, who quit job for claimed medical reasons, was underemployed for child support purposes and whether car...Read More

The U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in Kennedy v. DuPont. The Court held the plan administrator of an ERISA benefits plan should pay plan benefits to wife #1, who was the designated plan beneficiary on a designation executed during the marriage and not to wife #2, who was married to the deceased participant...Read More

We posted here about the QDRO case in the United States Supreme Court (Kennedy v. Plan Adm. for DuPont Savings) and linked to the oral arguments and indirectly linked to the briefs. Now SCOTUSBLOG advises that the court has ordered an additional issue to be briefed. Just letting you know so that if the opinion...Read More

I couldn’t figure out why in the world a plan administrator recently wanted a QDRO when the alternate payee was getting nothing under the Marital Settlement Agreement. Now I do. The 5th circuit ruled a QDRO was the only permissible way to release pension rights and in the absence of a QDRO the divorced spouse...Read More

Click In Re Marriage and you’ll see the 172 page opinion from the Supreme Court of California today. Marcia Oddi at Indiana Law Blog posts: Here is a report by Bob Egelko of the San Francisco Chronicle on this morning’s ruling. The story begins: 10:31 PDT SAN FRANCISCO — Gays and lesbians have a constitutional...Read More

Just as the Kentucky Supreme Court has three relocation related cases pending, Michigan has been struggling with the issue. Here is Jeanne Hannah’s post Mom’s relocation of 91 miles causes change in custody in Updates In Michicgan Family Law.Read More

Digest from the 6th Circuit Blog: Simcox v. Simcox, Northern District of Ohio at ClevelandRead More

No new published family law cases today from the Kentucky Court of Appeals. Last week there was one, London v. Collins, 2007 –CA-000529-ME, regarding application of KRS Chapter 403 in modification of custody established in a dependency case. Digest to follow soon.Read More

Dubay v. Wells, decided by the 6th Circuit yesterday, denied a constitutional challenge to paternity laws, dismissing for failure to state a claim. Quotes from the Family Law Prof Blog: The suit was brought by Father who claimed that he should not be responsible for child support when Mother had represented that she didn’t want...Read More

David Klepper, Topeka correspondent to the Kansas City Star reports on the decision last Friday denying a sperm donor any rights to the child, as there was no written agreement. In a 4-2 decision, the court held that the state law is justified and clear: if Hendrix wanted a relationship with the children, he should...Read More