Archive for June, 2011
It was the philosopher Alfred E. Newman who coined the epigram, “What, me Worry?” I suspect he also came up with the fallacious thought that “What you don’t know can’t hurt you,” which as any lawyer can tell you, is tragically and dangerously untrue. Take as a case in point Ivison v. Ivison, 762 So.2d 219 [ READ MORE ]
It is axiomatic that as between a natural parent and a third party, it is presumed that the best interest of the child will be preserved by being in the custody of the natural parent. Sellers v. Sellers, 638 So.2d 481, 486 (Miss. 1994). This natural parent presumption over third-party custody has been the subject [ READ MORE ]
Q: Father’s child support obligation is $300 a month, and the child begins receiving $250 a month from social security due to the father’s disability. What is the effect of social security on the father’s obligation? A: The father is entitled to a credit up to the amount of his support obligation. Mooneyham v. Mooneyham, 420 So.2d [ READ MORE ]
You can read here and here some of the snares in MRCP 4 that can snap painfully on the unwary. Unwary = those who don’t bother to read the rules. MRCP 4 publication claimed its latest victim on June 14, 2011, in the COA case of Turner v. Deutsche Bank. In that case, the bank filed [ READ MORE ]
The Legal Ethics Forum has a thought-provoking post about a study in Minneapolis in which lawyers were called upon to define professionalism by identifying lawyers they considered exemplars, and by identifying the traits they displayed. ” … [T]hese exemplars talked about a way of being, of acquiring habits of reflection and soul searching, of questioning their personal [ READ MORE ]
Nobel Prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway worked as a reporter for the Kansas City Star newspaper in 1917. The sparse, compact language of journalism proved to be ideally suited to his writing skills, and he adopted it as his style. The minimalist prose that resulted became his trademark. Here are excerpts from the paper’s style sheet: Use short sentences. Use short [ READ MORE ]
By Ben McMurtray Yesterday the United States Supreme Court handed down its decision in the case of Turner v. Rogers. The question before the court was whether a respondent in a civil contempt proceeding, namely someone who was being threatened with jail time for failure to pay child support, has a right to have counsel [ READ MORE ]
The US Supreme Court yesterday ruled in Turner v. Rogers that it is a violation of the Due Process Clause of the US Constitution for the state to incarcerate a defendant for non-payment of child support when he was afforded neither benefit of counsel nor some alternative procedures, and he was not given adequate notice. I [ READ MORE ]
Sometimes the parties want the property settlement part of the PSA to be a final, binding contract regardless whether there is any contest. If you don’t include that provision unequivocally stated, the law is clear that the court can not enforce the contract piecemeal. If a payment is to be made, such as child support, [ READ MORE ]
I don’t think it’s an overstatement that the Mississippi Supreme Court’s decision in McDonald v. McDonald, 39 So.3d 868 (Miss. 2010), set chancery court practice vis a vis guardians ad litem (GAL) on its proverbial ear. And it’s not so much what McDonald held as what it hinted at. Before McDonald, it was common practice to allow [ READ MORE ]
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