When a Spy Divorces, Details of the Marriage Often Remain Sealed
Sealing divorce or custody records is not just for spies. Teachers, public businesses and professionals may also choose to do this. We can help.
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The details of spy divorces are often cloaked in sealed court filings.
The numbers are also a mystery, since the CIA does not keep track of how many of its employees divorce, the Washington Post reports. But one retired senior paramilitary officer tells the newspaper he was told in 2005 that the divorce rate was astonishingly high.
High risk jobs “take a toll on relationships,” CIA spokesman Preston Golson acknowledged in a Post interview. Unknowns about a spouse’s work can also damage marriages, divorce lawyers said.
The Post obtained one court file in a spy divorce before it was sealed. The wife had complained that she and her daughter were used to run cover for her husband’s operations, and she never felt safe. The spy husband had refused to answer some of his wife’s discovery questions, citing national security and state secrets privileges.
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Child may have an edge when custody of dog is at stake, but who gets dog when it is the child?
By Associated Press, Published: February 28
LOS ANGELES — They still fight like cats and dogs in divorce court. But more and more they are fighting about cats and dogs.
Custody cases involving pets are on the rise across the country.
In a 2006 survey by the 1,600-member American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, a quarter of respondents said pet custody cases had increased noticeably since 2001. The academy is due for another survey, but there is no doubt such cases have grown steadily since then, said Ken Altshuler of Portland, Maine, a divorce attorney and AAML president.
If there is a child involved in a divorce, many judges will keep the pet with the child, attorneys said.
“But what do you do when the pet is the child?” Altshuler asked.
Breakups in same-sex marriages, civil unions and domestic partnerships are among reasons pet custody fights have become more common, attorneys said.
Pet custody cases have grown as much as 15 percent in his office over the last five years, said attorney David Pisarra of Santa Monica.
He is his own best example. He shares custody of 8-year-old Dudley, a longhaired standard black-and-tan dachshund, with his ex, who has remarried and introduced a step-dog to Dudley.
Pet consultant Steven May hired Pisarra six years ago to handle his divorce. Besides a daughter, May and his ex worked out custody of three dogs, two cats and Tequila the parrot.
Pisarra and May became good friends and often take their dogs for walks in Santa Monica. They also teamed up last year to write a book about co-parenting a pet with an ex titled “What About Wally?”
Pets are considered property in every state in the country. For years, they have been divvied up like furniture during divorce proceedings. But times are changing.
“Judges are viewing them more akin to children than dining room sets. They are recognizing that people have an emotional attachment to their animals,” Altshuler said.
“There is a shifting consciousness,” Pisarra said. “Pets are being given greater consideration under the law.”
More people have pets than ever before and they consider them part of the family rather than possessions, said Silvana Raso, a family law attorney with the Englewood Cliffs, N.J., law firm of Schepisi & McLaughlin.
Hourly Billing Rates Continue Upward Climb; Partner and Senior Counsel Average Is $661
By Debra Cassens Weiss
1 hour, 33 minutes ago
Hourly billing rates increased last year, reaching an average of $661 for partners and senior counsel.
The average for that group was $639 in 2010, according to an analysis by the Daily Report Online. The average for associates was $445 in 2011, compared to $439 in 2010.
“Certainly hourly rates were alive and well in 2011,” the story says. “And, although the average cost for an hour’s counsel has not increased at the same pace as gasoline and eggs, rates have continued to sneak upward past many indicators, even during the Great Recession of 2009.”
The publication compiled about 6,000 hourly rates last year based on Chapter 11 filings, mostly from five bankruptcy courts.
Smokers Losing Custody in Growing Trend
SAN DIEGO – February 21, 2012 – If you smoke cigarettes, by now you have heard all the reasons you should quit: the harm to your health, the expense, the limits on where you can indulge your habit.
How about the possibility of losing custody of your children? Would that motivate you to quit?
If you are involved in a child custody dispute and you are a cigarette smoker, your chance of getting full or even joint custody might go up in smoke.
States are increasingly factoring in cigarette smoking in making decisions about who gets custody of minor children. The group Action on Smoking and Health, an anti-tobacco advocacy group, surveyed custody issues involving cigarettes and tobacco use.
Texas Justices Consider Whether Inmate Deserves Freedom Because of Pedophile ID by Swimsuit Test
This upcoming decision highlights the danger of false allegations of abuse in custody cases:
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Mar 2, 2012, 09:14 am CST
The Texas Supreme Court is considering whether a 29-year-old inmate should be freed because jurors were misinformed about the effectiveness of a test that identified him as a pedophile at the age of 16.
Michael Arena contends the test is junk science and improperly influenced his 20-year sentence for sexually assaulting his 7-year-old cousin, a crime he says he never committed, the Austin American-Statesman reports.
Arena was only 16 when he took the computer test. He was asked to click through images of people of various ages dressed in swimsuits, while the computer measured how long he looked at each photo.
The cousin has recanted and now says she lied about molestation at the urging of her mother, who was in the middle of a custody battle at the time. Arena’s lawyers are seeking a declaration of actual innocence, or, in the alternative, a new sentencing hearing because jurors were improperly influenced by the test.
Arena’s lawyers say the expert who testified about the test, which has a 35 percent error rate, inflated its effectiveness.
Justice Nathan Hecht appeared to agree with the defense view of the test during January oral arguments, the story says. Hecht said it was “bordering on hokum” and less likely to produce valid results than lie-detector tests, which aren’t admissible in criminal court.
Family Law in Texas
Family Law in Texas includes divorce, custody, child support, rights and duties, adoption, and premarital agreements.