The Child Support Enforcement (CSE) program, enacted in 1975, to help strengthen families by securing financial support from noncustodial parents, is funded with both state and federal dollars. The federal government bears the majority of CSE program expenditures and provides incentive payments to the states (which include Washington, DC, and the territories of Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands) for success in meeting CSE program goals. In FY2011, total CSE program expenditures amounted to $5.7 billion. The aggregate incentive payment amount to states was $513 million in FY2011. P.L. 105-200, the Child Support Performance and Incentive Act of 1998, established a revised incentive payment system that provides incentive payments to states based on a percentage of the state's CSE collections and incorporates five performance measures related to establishment of paternity and child support orders, collections of current and past-due support payments, and cost-effectiveness. P.L. 105-200 set specific annual caps on total federal incentive payments and required states to reinvest incentive payments back into the CSE program. The exact amount of a state's incentive payment depends on its level of performance (or the rate of improvement over the previous year) when compared with other states. In addition, states are required to meet data quality standards. If states do not meet specified performance measures and data quality standards, they face federal financial penalties. P.L. 109-171 (the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005) prohibited federal matching (effective October 1, 2007, i.e., FY2008) of state expenditure of federal CSE incentive payments. However, in 2009 P.L. 111-5 (the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) required the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to temporarily provide federal matching funds (in FY2009 and FY2010) on CSE incentive payments that states reinvested back into the CSE program. Thus (since FY2011), CSE incentive payments that are received by states and reinvested in the CSE program are no longer eligible for federal reimbursement. The FY2008 repeal of federal reimbursement for incentive payments reinvested in the CSE program garnered much concern over its fiscal impact on the states and renewed interest in the incentive payment system per se. A comparison of FY2002 incentive payment performance score data to FY2011 performance score data shows that CSE program performance has improved with respect to all five performance measures. Although CSE incentive payments were awarded to all 54 jurisdictions in FY2002, FY2005, FY2010, and FY2011 (the years covered in this report), some jurisdictions performed poorly on one or more of the five performance measures. Even so, on the basis of the unaudited FY2011 performance incentive scores of the 54 jurisdictions, 53 jurisdictions received an incentive for all five performance measures, and 1 jurisdiction (the Virgin Islands) received an incentive for four performance measures. Despite a general consensus that the CSE program is doing well, questions still arise about whether the program is effectively meeting its mission and concerns exist over whether the program will be able to meet future expectations. Several factors may cause a state not to receive an incentive payment that is commensurate with its relative performance on individual measures. These factors include static or declining CSE collections; sliding scale performance scores that financially benefit states at the upper end (but not the top) of the artificial threshold and financially disadvantaged states at the lower end of the artificial threshold; a limited number of performance indicators that do not encompass all of the components critical to a successful CSE program; and a statutory maximum on the aggregate amount of incentive payments that can be paid to states.

Deborah Hinton, a single mother, chronicles the true story of the abduction of her 4 1/2 year old daughter, Summer-Raye Horton, by the hands of her very own mother, step-father and child's father, and her bizarre journey through the legal family court system for the return of her child. This memoir spotlights how broken our family court system is while provoking the question of how far a parent should go for the return of their child.

This easy to read book, gives you 101 tips starting from thinking about the divorce, through trial and ending with your post-divorce life. The book was written by a divorce lawyer that has seen countless divorce cases from mediation, to simple matters to knock down, drag out battles. As a result, the author has seen it all and condensed the most common advice he offers to his clients into 101 quick tips. These tips can save you thousands of dollars in legal fees. More importantly, they can help you remain grounded during what could be one of most stressful times of your life.

Mary and Joe Martin are getting a divorce. Mary makes the decision, Joe reluctantly understands, and they both anticipate a simple and amicable settlement. When Joe stops by their house and uses his key to enter without calling in advance, an argument starts. Joe throws a book across the room in frustration and storms out. Joe doesn't know that Mary throws a book at him, because the door closes before it hits the wall. Humiliated by his own emotional display and ignorant of Mary's behavior, Joe is overwhelmed by guilt. Mary decides she'd better hire a lawyer to navigate the divorce and wrongly assumes that one lawyer is as loathsome as another. She engages Mr. George Bleedem, J.D., which turns out to be her most important - and worst - decision. Bleedem manages her case using the insidious tactics common nationwide. Mary and Joe are vulnerable, volatile and frightened as the case proceeds. The reader is given tools to make sense of what is going on: it is impossible to be fooled about the perils of the legal arena after watching this case unfold with the author's blow-by-blow commentary revealing the underbelly of the divorce industry.

This book contains all the forms, tips and tools to facilitate your ability to obtain and or inform anyone in any state on the topic of divorce.

Lost Childhoods focuses on the life-course histories of thirty young men serving time in the Pennsylvania adult prison system for crimes they committed when they were minors. The narratives of these young men, their friends, and relatives reveal the invisible yet deep-seated connection between the childhood traumas they suffered and the violent criminal behavior they committed during adolescence. By living through domestic violence, poverty, the crack epidemic, and other circumstances, these men were forced to grow up fast all while familial ties that should have sustained them were broken at each turn. The book goes on to connect large-scale social policy decisions and their effects on family dynamics and demonstrates the limits of punitive justice.

Child Support Kills is the only book of its kind designed to highlight tragic events induced by inequitable child support laws and by the people who are sworn to accurately interpret and equitably apply the law. Rather than devalue child support or the child support enforcement system, Child Support Kills provides guidance (not legal advice) on how non-custodial parents can effectively challenge unlawful discretionary decisions made by adjudicators presiding over child support matters so that they can avoid becoming a mortality statistic-hence the subtitle-How To Avoid Becoming A Child Support Casualty. Unfortunately, the ultimate victims of these tragic events are the children. Like the case of four-year-old Lauren Key, who prosecutors claim was pushed off a cliff while hiking with her father, Cameron John Brown, because he did not want to pay child support. Whether being torn between both parents through the systematic ostracization of the non-custodial parent, being left parentless through murder or suicide, or being caught on the receiving end of a non-custodial parent's rage, the children are always the innocent victims. Child Support Kills unearths a hidden crisis ironically caused by a system that was created to address the best interest of children. The strategy for most advocates of child support reform is to attack the problem from the top down by creating congressional petitions or introducing new legislation designed to propagate change throughout a broken and antiquated system. However, the strategy outlined in Child Support Kills attacks the problem from the bottom up by assisting non-custodial parents with identifying unjust decisions made in child support courts and providing guidance on challenging these decisions at the Appellate Court level, thereby, potentially setting a legal precedence for all non-custodial parents faced with like matters of legal adversity.

A Cup Of Coffee With 10 Of The Top Divorce Attorneys In The United States - This book is for anyone contemplating a divorce or currently going through a divorce. Ten of the top divorce attorneys in the United States will provide you with valuable insights and guide you through the unfamiliar territory of the legal aspects in a divorce. This book will provide accurate information about the most stressful issues you will face during a divorce, such as which process you should use in your divorce: collaboration, mediation, or litigation, and issues surrounding child custody, alimony, and fathers' rights? You will also learn how to find the best attorney to represent you in your divorce. Divorce can be one of the most life changing events that you will ever experience, and the decisions you make during the divorce proceedings will affect you and your children long after the divorce is final. This book provides powerful insights into the divorce process and should be required reading for anyone facing a divorce.

What happens in the days following the separation of a married couple decides the future. The events of those initial days will determine who raises minor children, who retains marital property, and other crucial issues. Unfortunately, many people make catastrophic errors at this time, and pay for their mistakes for the remainder of their lives. This book will help you protect yourself and your family from the beginning.

Do you fear your divorce will ruin your children's lives forever? Feeling helpless and overwhelmed with what to do or NOT to do with your children in regard to the divorce? Psychotherapist Dilyse Diaz created The Do's and Don'ts of Divorce as an invaluable blueprint to keep your sanity, protect your children, and live in peace. This tool kit provides crucial perspectives from children of divorce that will help you empathize with your own children, and alleviate your painful feelings of guilt, shame, and loss. More than ever, your children need security, support and stability. Your decision to invest in your lives will create the peace, love and encouragement that you all need to survive.

None of us wants to do this. None of us wants to think about our passing and perhaps even more becoming incapacitated before our death leaving a burden on those we love. That is why wills are put off, powers of attorney are put off and even making a living will and medical directive that will ease the burden of those who have to deal with problems we have not anticipated. This is not a book only for those in retirement or who have just been diagnosed with a serious illness. It is for anyone of any age who has loved ones and has affairs that they will have to handle on your incapacitation or passing. There is little you can do to show your love more than to anticipate and help them to survive without you. This book may be helpful even if a manual is not prepared as it will cover subjects to think about and if you are someone charged with taking care of affairs of a friend or family member it may also help you to start a checklist of things you need to consider. Of course that is a whole lot easier if there is a manual to help direct you in your search and in performing your duties.

That night was my first real night earning my keep as Moses put it. I didn't struggle with anyone after that. My nose was broken and I was covered in blood and filth from the men who came to the room.... I had survived my first day as a captive, well my body had survived, something broke inside me...my soul, my spirit, whatever you want to call it. I lost my ability to hope and dream. ********** Mark's chair scraped across the floor and fell with a loud bang as he jumped back from the table. He ran to the sink feeling nauseous, but all he could do was dry heave. Was all of this real? He just couldn't believe what he was reading..... The girl with the blue-eyes, eyes so filled with agony he almost couldn't bear to look at them, had entrusted him with her secret. She had looked to him to save her. Mark felt lost in a whirlwind of emotions as he realized he might be her only hope of survival.

Today's legal landscape is increasingly demanding practical skills from recent law school graduates and new attorneys. In light of this, the authors realized that there was a gap between theory and praxis with regards to family law in Florida. This workbook bridges this gap by designing an easily accessible book that better equips students and attorneys with the skills, confidence, and experience needed to serve the community with the highest level of professionalism. As a result, this workbook has multiple uses and benefits. It can serve as a teaching tool for professors. It also may be used by individuals who plan to take the Florida Bar and wish to use it as a study guide. Furthermore, this workbook can serve as a valuable legal resource for new attorneys who plan to practice family law in Florida. In an effort to accelerate and optimize the users' learning process, this workbook utilizes a fictional community of families that provide the scenarios for hypothetical exercises that are integral to the honing of practical legal skills. In the exercises, users will be required to perform real-life legal tasks for one or more families from this fictional community. The workbook includes relevant statute(s), case law, and internet links for the user who needs to act on or resolve a family law issue. Each chapter also includes a checklist, though not exhaustive, of key interview questions to ask a client. The authors hope users enjoy delving into these scenarios and finish this book better prepared to meet the marketplace's demands.

The child support system is unfair and victimizes those who learn this fact too late. You owe it to yourself and your loved ones to arm yourself with facts, and insure that the process is fair to you. This book can save you thousands of dollars, and the endless headaches that come from making disastrous legal mistakes. It discusses every stage of the child support enforcement process from beginning to end, and is loaded with information that can make a real difference. It also includes a summary of the child support process and law for each of the fifty states. Without the benefit of legal advice, men who may or may not be parents are encouraged and even pressured to sign documents acknowledging paternity of a child, without ever being told that they are waiving valuable legal rights. They are not told that they are waiving their constitutional right to paternity testing forever. They are then ushered through a hurried process with the sole emphasis being documenting their income and creating a legal obligation to pay. They are not even told that the social worker who is typically guiding them through the process is effectively in the child support business. His or her job is to collect as much money for the custodial parent as possible and to do it quickly. The process by which a child support obligation is instituted and enforced has a financial impact on a equivalent to buying a house or a car. Arguably, the impact is far more, since the payments will often go on for a longer time, and failure to make them will possibly result in imprisonment, a result much worse than foreclosure. Yet, every week, thousands of men show up for child support hearings in every state armed with nothing more than a few old pay stubs. A man has an obligation to support his child, but also a right to question whether he is the parent of the child. He also has a right to have his support payment set at an amount that is fair and reasonable, so that he can continue to pay his bills and other obligations, and enjoy life. This book was written based on the experience of twenty five years practicing law, and several more as a university professor. While there is no substitute for legal advice about your unique situation, this book will help you.

Providing accurate and objective information to help make the right decisions during a divorce in New York, this guide provides answers to 360 queries such as "What is the mediation process in New York and is it required? How quickly can one get a divorce? Who decides who gets the cars, the pets, and the house? What actions might influence child custody? How are bills divided and paid during the divorce? How much will a divorce cost?" and" Will a spouse have to pay some or all attorney fees?" Structured in a question-and-answer format, this divorce handbook provides clear and concise responses to help build confidence and give the peace of mind needed to meet the challenges of a divorce proceeding.

Canadian parents facing the removal of children from their home are in for an uphill battle, and it's important that their interests be protected. In Who Takes This Child?, author Allan Dare Pearce discusses the child protection laws, agencies, and processes in Canada. For more than thirty years, he has counseled and represented parents in their battles with the child protection authorities, preparing pleadings, arguing motions, and conducting trials.

In Who Takes This Child?, he shows what happens in typical child protection cases in Canada. Pearce discusses the overarching agency that's assigned to protect children; how the agency gets involved; the process of apprehension and temporary (or interim) care; plans of care; how parents' capacity is assessed; the issues of mental health, disabilities, and the system; parents with addiction and parents who abuse; the trial; and strategies for specific situations.

Through examples and personal accounts, Pearce communicates the importance of understanding the child protection process so parents can keep custody of their children and avoid the foster care system.

The book is an extract from my doctorate degree thesis dealing with the formal requirements for the celebration of marriage: a comparative study of canon law, Nigerian statutory law, and customary law. It is universally recognized that consent of parties brings about marriage. But for consent to result in marriage, it must be validly exchanged/manifested. Formal requirements for marriage celebration deals with valid exchange of consent. The work thus concentrates on what makes a valid matrimonial consent under the Nigerian law.

Tales from the Bench by Sandra Simms is a pioneer memoir about a neglected slice of Hawaii judicial history. In this unique, insightful, and compelling book, written by the first African American woman judge in the Hawaiian Islands, Simms candidly reveals the cultural and political events and forces on the Mainland, and the diversity, crime, and social problems in the Islands that shaped her courage and commitment to justice, in spite of and because of her history: growing up black in Chicago. She credits her family, community, social networks, church, the dynamic forces of post WWII African American migrations to Chicago, and the Civil Rights Movement for her choice and dedication to a career in law. Simms uses words and storytelling to skillfully integrate her personal background with her subsequent 30 plus years in Hawaii where she successfully served as an attorney, a politically appointed judge, and a witness (observer) of many fascinating experiences. In this book, Simms sensitively recounts memorable criminal cases involving women, drugs, island families and their support for their loved ones, simultaneously revealing the heart and responsibility of a judge to remain objective and fair in face of complex situations and island politics.

Research on violence against women has exploded in the past 20 years, particularly in the areas of intimate partner violence and sexual assault. Despite this outpouring of research, many gaps exist in our understanding of violence against women. For instance, reliable information on minority women's experiences with violence is still lacking. Few empirical data exist on the relationship between different forms of violence against women, such as victimization in childhood and subsequent victimization. Finally, empirical data on the consequences of violence against women, including their injury rates and use of medical services, are lacking. To further understanding of violence against women, the National Institute of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention jointly sponsored, through a grant to the Center for Policy Research, a national survey that was conducted from November 1995 to May 1996. The National Violence Against Women (NVAW) Survey sampled both women and men and thus provides comparable data on women's and men's experiences with violent victimization. Respondents to the survey were asked about: Physical assault they experienced as children by adult caretakers; Physical assault they experienced as adults by any type of assailant; Forcible rape and stalking they experienced at any time in their life by any type of perpetrator. Respondents who disclosed that they had been victimized were asked detailed questions about the characteristics and consequences of their victimization, including injuries they sustained and their use of medical services. This NIJ Research Report presents findings from the NVAW Survey on the prevalence and incidence of rape, physical assault, and stalking; the rate of injury among rape and physical assault victims; and injured victims' use of medical services. The data show that violence is more widespread and injurious to women's and men's health than previously thought-an important finding for legislators, policymakers, intervention planners, and researchers as well as the public health and criminal justice communities.

Commentaries on the Conflict of Laws: Foreign and Domestic in Regard to Contracts, Rights, and Remedies, and Especially in Regard to Marriages, Divorces, Wills, Successions, and Judgments (Volume II)
By Joseph Story, LLD
Contents
IX-Personal Property
X-Real Property
XI-Wills and Testaments
XII-Succession and Distribution
XIII-Foreign Guardianships and Administrations
XIV-Jurisdiction and Remedies
XV-Foreign Judgments
XVI-Penal Laws and Offences
XVII-Evidence and Proofs
Excerpt from Chapter IX
"Subjects to be considered"--We next come to the consideration of the operation of foreign law in relation to personal, real, and mixed property, according to the known divisions of the common law, or to movable and immovable property, according to the known divisions of the civil law and continental jurisprudence. For all the purposes of the present commentaries it will be sufficient to treat the subject under the heads of personal or movable property, and real or immovable property, since the class of mixed property appertains to the latter.
"Terms of Foreign Law"--We have already had occasion to state that in the civil law the term 'bona' includes all sorts of property, movable and immovable; as the corresponding word 'biens' in French, also does. But there are many cases in which a broad distinction is taken by foreign jurists between movable property and immovable property, as to the operation of foreign law. We have also had occasion to explain the general distinction between personal and real laws respectively, and mixed laws, in the sense in which the terms are used in continental jurisprudence; personal being those which have principally persons for their objects, and only treating of property incidentally; real, being those which have principally property for their object, and speaking of persons only in relation to property; and mixed, being those which concern both persons and property.
"Doctrine concerning Movables"--According to this distribution all laws respecting property, whether it be movable or immovable, would fall under the denomination of real laws; and of course, upon the principles of the leading foreign jurists, would seem to be limited in their operation to the territory where the property is situate. This however is a conclusion which upon a larger examination will be found to be erroneous, the general doctrine held by nearly all foreign jurists being that the right and disposition of movables is to be governed by the law of the domicil of the owner, and not by the law of their local situation.
"Grounds of the Doctrine"--The grounds upon which this doctrine as to movables is supported, are differently...
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