Children

Pat Summitt

Pat Summitt, who retired as the winningest coach in Division I college basketball in 2012, died Tuesday morning at the age of 64. In 2011 Pat announced that she had been diagnosed with early onset demntia. “Since 2011, my mother has battled her toughest opponent, early onset dementia, ‘Alzheimer’s Type,’ and she did so with bravely…

Almost Half the Children Born in Maricopa County are to Unmarried Parents

That seems like an amazing statistic to me for 2013; about 45,000 babies born in Maricopa County had unmarried parents. What does that mean for all these kids? Legally, it means that they have fathers with no legal rights to their children at birth. There is no common law marriage, by the way, in Arizona….

Your Parents Can Sue You to See Your Kids

Wow….doesn’t that seem surprising? Let’s play this out. Your parents do not like you because of your lifestyle. In fact, they refuse to see you and they have disowned you. It’s because you are gay. They wrote you out of their will. So, now they still want to see your 5 year old daughter. By…

I Got Sued by My Ex Girlfriend Who Wants My Kids

If you are in a gay relationship and want to have children, think about the legal issues involved. If you are the birth parent and there is no genetic or legal relationship with your partner, you have all the rights and decision making regarding your children. You make all medical and education decisions and are…

Does Mom Automatically Get the Kids in a Divorce?

John and Debra married when they were young, had two kids, and then drifted apart. Debra asks John for a divorce. John is devastated. The end of his marriage hurts, but what hurts more is the thought of not seeing his kids every day. Debra wants John to agree that she has the kids most…

Is a Parenting Contract with my Former Girlfriend Valid?

Here is the scenario. Two women are in a relationship and decide they want to have children. Mary decides that she will be artificially inseminated with donor egg and sperm, belonging to neither Mary or Julie. Mary and her partner, Julie, are all excited about this and decide to make up a parenting agreement to…

Modify Child Support Process

Can The Government Give Your Ex Boyfriend Parenting Time With Your Children?

The government, by that I mean the courts, can give your ex boyfriend parenting time with your kids after you break up. Let’s say you lived with your boyfriend for 5 years and then you broke up (for good reasons, I can imagine). Of course, while you were together, he had a nice relationship with…

Madonna and Rocco

Apparently, fifteen-year-old Rocco wants to live in London with his father instead of returning to NY to live with his mother, Madonna. A New York court has ordered him to return to NY. This is what would likely happen in Arizona. It does not mean that Rocco would never get to move to London, it…