Family Law for Non-Lawyers

Family Law for Non-Lawyers uses current events, sometimes with tabloid-style fact patterns or celebrity participants, to illustrate the complexities of and rapid changes in the field of family law in the United States. The book also presents recent U.S. Supreme Court family law cases to allow the reader to play Justice and try to determine how the cases will be decided after publication. The book surveys family law, familiarizing readers with the similarities and differences in the law throughout the country. Short summaries of the law and related cases bring legal principles to life in an approachable and entertaining way. Contentious issues such as same-sex marriage, birth control, and assisted reproduction technologies share the stage with traditional family law matters like courtship, marriage and divorce, and custody and child support. The fourth edition includes a new chapter exploring the argument that pets should be considered family under the law. It also explores recent changes in areas like abortion. It expands the chapters on parental rights to include the impact of the new Parent's Rights Movement on issues of medical decision-making, including vaccinations, and education, including curriculum and censorship. Family Law for Non-Lawyers raises issues and covers topics that will challenge both the reader familiar with family law and anyone new to the subject. The book is ideal for courses in family studies, couples and family therapy, paralegal studies, and family law.

Kerry Weil Tripp, J.D. is a graduate of the Notre Dame Law School and practiced law in San Francisco and Baltimore before joining academia. She is a principal lecturer in the Department of Family Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate law classes, including a study abroad comparative family law class in Havana, Cuba. She also teaches virtual law and ethics courses on assisted reproduction technologies, international family law, and the parent/child relationship in the Americas with the University of Espirito Santo and the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.