Family Law

Supreme Court skeptical of efforts to restrict access to abortion pill

The Supreme Court on Tuesday seemed unlikely to limit access to mifepristone, a key medication that is used in more than 60 percent of U.S. abortions and has emerged as the next front in the battle over how and whether women can terminate their pregnancies.

Mar 27, 2024 9:30 AM CDT

It’s a crime to cheat on a spouse in NY. The law might soon change

Cheating on one’s spouse may be a betrayal of the heart, but in New York State, it’s long been a criminal offense.

Mar 25, 2024 1:00 PM CDT

Rape survivor Chanel Miller will speak at ABA’s ‘Write & Tell Live’ series

Chanel Miller, whose victim impact statement at the rape trial of Brock Allen Turner went viral in 2016, will present about the importance of survivors’ stories at an ABA event on April 16.

Mar 19, 2024 8:46 AM CDT

Alabama governor signs IVF bill giving patients, providers legal cover

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) on Wednesday signed a bill to protect providers and patients doing in vitro fertilization from legal liability if embryos they create are damaged or destroyed, a move that comes weeks after a state Supreme Court ruling threatened the treatment’s use.

Mar 7, 2024 2:25 PM CST

Lawyer who wrote on ethics issues is suspended after he is accused of helping client hide assets

An Iowa lawyer has received a two-year suspension for helping a client hide money from creditors and for "furtively" inserting a provision into a custody agreement.

Mar 7, 2024 12:49 PM CST

Catholic student sues a Virginia school board over transgender protections

A Fairfax County (Virginia) Public Schools student is suing the school board, sayings its policy aimed at protecting the rights of transgender students violate the rights of others and violates the state constitution.

Mar 7, 2024 12:15 PM CST

Fourth couple sues Alabama clinic at heart of IVF court ruling

A Florida couple has sued the Alabama in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinic at the heart of the state’s consequential state Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos are children, becoming the fourth set of plaintiffs to pursue a wrongful-death claim over destroyed frozen embryos from a 2020 incident that in recent weeks has thrown the state’s legal landscape for IVF into uncertainty.

Mar 5, 2024 2:45 PM CST

LGBTQ organization sues Texas AG over youth transgender records probe

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) earlier this month demanded records pertaining to the support an LGBTQ+ nonprofit provides to families seeking gender-affirming care for their transgender children—a treatment the state banned last year.

Mar 1, 2024 11:05 AM CST

Utah Supreme Court rules for adult adoptee who wanted to unseal records for medical and genetic information

A district court misinterpreted the law when it ruled that an adult adoptee can’t obtain her 1978 adoption records to provide her doctors with information about health predispositions, the Utah Supreme Court has ruled.

Feb 28, 2024 8:42 AM CST

Use of ChatGPT to support fee bid is ‘utterly and unusually unpersuasive,’ federal judge says

A federal judge in New York City has reduced a law firm’s fee request by about half after criticizing its use of the artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT-4 as a “cross-check” to determine prevailing market rates for attorneys.

Feb 27, 2024 8:20 AM CST

Leaving kids home alone wasn’t endangerment, state supreme court says; ‘no parent can shield a child from all risks’

A mother didn’t commit the crime of child endangerment when she left five children ages 5 to 12 home alone while she shopped for groceries at Walmart, the Iowa Supreme Court has ruled in a unanimous opinion.

Feb 22, 2024 3:22 PM CST

Frozen embryos are children, Ala. high court says in unprecedented ruling

The Alabama Supreme Court ruled Friday that frozen embryos are people and someone can be held liable for destroying them, a decision that reproductive rights advocates say could imperil in vitro fertilization (IVF) and affect the hundreds of thousands of patients who depend on treatments like it each year.

Feb 20, 2024 9:00 AM CST

Woman who says she found her father on 23andMe sues after learning of wrongful death settlement

A 26-year-old woman who said she confirmed the identity of her late father through 23andMe has filed a lawsuit after learning that she was left out of a wrongful death settlement reached between other family members and the hospital blamed for his death.

Feb 13, 2024 10:53 AM CST

Texas lawyer’s sentence for spiking wife’s drinks with abortion drug was ‘profound injustice,’ she says

The wife of a Texas lawyer accused of spiking her drinks with an abortion drug isn’t satisfied with the sentence that he received last week following his guilty plea.

Feb 13, 2024 8:37 AM CST

Federal judge refuses to order reinstatement of 96-year-old federal appeals judge, her second loss in a week

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has refused to order reinstatement to new case assignments for a 96-year-old federal appeals judge who claims that the laws governing judicial disability are unconstitutional.

Feb 12, 2024 3:56 PM CST