Barring marriage by same-sex couples is not the only way that New York State’s policies on marriage are stuck in the past and inflict needless pain.
In 2006, a special blue-ribbon state commission sensibly called for overhauling state law to allow no-fault divorce. The reform enjoys broad support within legal circles and well beyond. Practically every New Yorker has a bitter divorce story, even if it’s not his or her own. Yet four years, and a countless number of traumatized parents and children later, Albany has yet to act.
As a result of that inaction, New York …

 By Judy Parejko
Canticle Magazine, ³The Voice of Women of Grace,²
May / June Issue 2009
What is no-fault divorce?
When you ask most people, they will say it’s a mutual-consent process, or that it preserves privacy, or that it eliminates blame for the failure of the marriage.
Not many people will answer that it’s a lawsuit in which one party is suing the other party. And even fewer will know that it came from the Soviet Union.
Like previous divorce actions, no-fault divorce is still a lawsuit, which means that one party is invoking the state’s police powers against the …

By STACEY ALATZAS 
You’re owed child support, but the money isn’t coming. What can you do? Experts say successful child support collections are on the rise thanks in part to stronger laws and an increase in the number of resources available to parents. Many of these resources can be found at the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement’s Web site: (http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cse/extinf.html).    
“There has been a dramatic improvement in the past 20 years,” says Geraldine Jensen, founder of the Association for Children for Enforcement of Support and the author of “Child Support: A Complete Reference.” “The biggest one is collecting …

When you are standing at the altar saying “I do” with 300 of your friends and family around you, the very last thing on your mind is the possibility of a divorce in your future. Damn the statistics, it cannot happen to me, you think.
Think again. Recent studies have shown that the divorce rate is almost at the 50% mark for couple being married in the past 5 years. What is the cause of that? Are people being too reckless with their commitments? Do people really think that the love they feel will see them …

Child support advocate and enforcement veteran Vanessa Diaz has compiled a list of tips for parents who are considering a divorce for how to best plan ahead for the collection of child support. With government child support enforcement agencies struggling with a backlog of over 15 million cases of unpaid child support, difficulties in collecting the money owed to America’s children are all too common. Planning ahead - before and during a divorce - can help avoid years of frustration.
“In many cases following a divorce, the non-custodial parent starts paying child support, but then stops …

What is a “no fault” divorce?
“No fault” divorce describes any divorce where the spouse asking for a divorce does not have to prove that the other spouse did something wrong. All states allow no fault divorces.
To get a no fault divorce, one spouse must simply state a reason for the divorce that is recognized by the state. In most states, it’s enough to declare that the couple cannot get along (this reason goes by such names as “incompatibility,” “irreconcilable differences,” or “irremediable breakdown of the marriage”).
In some states, however, the couple must live apart for …

SOURCE: Christian Science Monitor 
Sixteen months after his divorce, Richard Parker made a devastating discovery. A DNA test revealed that his 3-year-old son had been fathered by someone else.
Mr. Parker immediately filed a lawsuit claiming fraud by his apparently unfaithful ex-wife. He took his case all the way to the Florida Supreme Court. Last week, the Florida justices ruled 7-0 against him. They said that Parker must continue to pay $1,200 a month in child support because he had missed the one-year postdivorce deadline for filing his lawsuit. His court-ordered payments would total more than $200,000 …

By Sheri Gray
Have you ever heard day to day kidnapping news revolving around events like a mother kidnapping her own son from her businessman husband who abused their child? Or maybe you have heard cases like this: about a stepfather who kidnaps his step daughter then takes her out of the country to force his wife to pay him a fortune in order to get her back?
These types of cases of kidnapping are known as Parental Kidnapping, to be precise. While some people do it to free their children from abusive and tyrant spouses …