Family law

Family law is an area of legal practice covering issues commonly faced by families and people in long-term, legally recognized romantic relationships. Some of the issues related to family law, such as adoption and paternity, relate to the creation and building of the family unit. However, most are related to the breakdown and dissolution of the family unit. Examples of these issues include child custody, child support, and child visitation rights; divorce, spousal support, and alimony; and the division of financial assets and liabilities when a common-law or married couple ends their relationship. Lex Mundi, a Houston, Texas, professional legal services association, notes that a large majority of family-related legal cases reach the stage of court proceedings when a marriage or common-law relationship ends. In the United States, most family law-related matters are administrated at the state level in a system of family courts.

Background

Around the beginning of the twentieth century, the United States established its first juvenile courts. The foundational principle behind juvenile courts was to create a separate forum for legal matters related to children and adolescents. This idea was soon broadened to consider the need for a specialized system of courts for families. In 1912, the New Jersey state legislature authorized a motion granting county-based juvenile courts authority over all matters related to domestic and family disputes. This act of law was the first to specifically assign such disputes to its own system of designated courts. Two years later, Ohio enacted a similar motion, establishing a Division of Domestic Relations within the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas. The Division of Domestic Relations was granted legal jurisdiction over a range of family-related matters, including alimony, child support, divorce, parental neglect of children, and legal issues arising from child or juvenile delinquency.

By the 1950s, a growing number of states began following New Jersey and Ohio's leads by consolidating domestic- and family-related matters into separate, locally administered courts. The first state-administered family courts appeared in the 1960s, when Rhode Island (1961), New York (1962), and Hawaii (1965) adopted such systems. As of 2024, dedicated family courts operate in thirty-eight states.

As a specialized legal topic, family law has a much longer history. Social customs and legal obligations regarding marriage have been a feature of European society since the feudal era of the Middle Ages. At this time, legal matters related to marriage were primarily administrated under church authority, as the institution of marriage was considered religious rather than secular. Common law and property law evolved much later, eventually shaping into a legal relationship that saw a woman's property become the property of her husband upon marriage. In exchange for receiving ownership of his wife's property, the husband was legally required to financially support his wife and their children.

In the United States, this legal view of marital property rights persisted into the nineteenth century, when states began to pass laws granting women exclusive ownership and transfer rights over their own property. Initially, these rights were limited to inherited property but eventually included all forms of property. Further changes, which were generally aimed to provide men and women with equal rights in all domestic- and family-related legal matters, followed in the twentieth century.

Overview

In most cases, family law relates to civil rather than criminal issues. Instances in which one or more parties in a family unit are accused of unlawful activity are processed by the criminal court system. Civil family law covers topics such as the division of marital assets, child custody and visitation rights, child support, spousal support, consumer credit, and consumer bankruptcy. Adoption is another major issue in family law, which is shaped by federal guidelines. State-level statutes are required to comply with those guidelines. Together, these laws establish the legal framework under which individuals or couples are able to become the legal guardians of children who are not biologically their own and the responsibilities of individuals and couples who choose to adopt children.

Courts intervene to determine the division of marital assets in cases in which the couple did not enter into a prenuptial agreement. A prenuptial agreement is a legal agreement in which both parties in a marriage or common-law relationship consent to split marital assets in a predetermined manner if the relationship terminates in the future. In addition to common marital assets such as real estate, vehicles, and liquid assets such as cash or securities, this aspect of family law also covers jointly owned and operated businesses and financial liabilities. For example, if one party in the partnership has declared bankruptcy or accrued more debt, this will be taken into account when the remaining assets are divided between the involved parties.

Child custody and visitation rights are other major issues in family law. In determining which parent will get primary custody rights, courts are primarily concerned with the best interests of the child. They generally seek to create arrangements that lead to minimal disruption of the child's education, extracurricular activities, and physical, psychological, and emotional well-being.

Since the 1990s, family courts have adopted a general shift toward the democratic distribution of assets and income with regard to alimony and spousal support. Under this arrangement, courts will generally seek to maintain an economic balance among families that have a primary breadwinner, or financial earner, if the family splits. The primary earner often will be required to shoulder increased financial responsibility in support of the other partner. Child custody arrangements will also be taken into account in such cases, with the parent retaining primary custody of the child or children frequently becoming entitled to receive support payments from the other parent.

While American family law is theoretically configured to offer equality to both partners in a dissolving relationship, it has been criticized in some circles for favoring women in spousal support, alimony, and child custody cases in its actual application. Trends toward rising divorce rates have also contributed to an increasingly burdened family court system in states that maintain such courts.

Bibliography

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