A couple of interesting family law cases that have been recently reported:

First was Schroeder v. Winyard regarding an Alienation of Affections suit. This sort of suit is where a former spouse sues a person for tempting her/his former spouse to have an affair and if successful is awarded monetary damages. The plaintiff was divorced from her husband in 2003 and brought the Alienation of Affections case in 2005. However, the defendant had filed for bankruptcy in 2001. The trial court dismissed the case saying that this liability was discharged as part of the bankruptcy. It's interesting because if the trial court said this type of case were an intentional tort this would NOT have been dischargeable. Strange because as a lawyer I surely consider this type of case a tort.

The second as was In re Marriage of Rife. This one's almost funny. Here the marital settlement agreement said that the mother's right to receive child support would be terminated if she tried to modify visitation, child support or custody. No suprise, the court ruled that this was against the public policy of preserving the trial court's ability to modify child-related provisions of the judgment for dissolution of marriage if it's in the child's best interests.