Tag: Family Law

The Use of Psychotropic Medication in Michigan Foster Care

Posted onAuthorAdministrator

Every year in the United States over 800,000 children spend some amount of time in foster care. Recently, there have been nationwide allegations that certain medications are being used in foster care to manage disruptive behavior rather than to treat genuine disorders. Children are largely defenseless, as they have little say regarding what medication they are given. The problem is further exacerbated by the fact that these medications are poorly understood and poorly tracked.
To protect foster care children from being overmedicated and misdiagnosed, additional legislation is needed that provides more stringent and sweeping oversight, and places an emphasis on coupling medical with psychotherapeutic treatments. Additionally, biological parents, whose parental rights have not been terminated, should have a more active role in treatment decisions. Read More …

Family Law

Posted onAuthorAdministrator

Family law, unlike so many areas of the law, is primarily driven by facts, turning on human behavior, equity, and the societal view of familial norms. The rule of law in family law becomes particularly important as each client, practitioner, and judge brings his own judgments about the progression of those norms, his own interpretation of rightness within our current society, and his own understanding of how society should adapt to an ever changing social culture. Read More …

Family Law

Posted onAuthorAdministrator

In Corporan v. Henton, the defendant father appealed the trial court‟s order denying him an evidentiary hearing on his motion for a change of custody. He argued that he had presented sufficient evidence to warrant a hearing. The Michigan Court of Appeals (1) held the trial court “employed the proper procedure by first determining whether proper cause or change of circumstances had been established by a preponderance of the evidence”; and (2) affirmed “the trial court‟s ruling that negative financial changes . . . are more appropriately addressed in achild support context rather than in a change of custody motion.” The father had alleged financial difficulties, (specifically that the mother failed to pay her rent timely, a fact relevant under best interests factors). However, the court found this did not meet the Vodvarka standard because the mother‟s financial difficulties, if any, could be remedied by an increase in child support. The father further alleged that the minor child‟s grades had significantly declined but the trial court held that this “did not demonstrate a change of circumstances,” and the court found that although “the child‟s grades have declined to a minor extent in certain subjects, the child‟s grades do not show anything, more than the normal life changes (both good and bad) that occur during the life of a child.‟” Read More …