Family Law During COVID-19: Practical Responses and Systemic Innovations

Domestic Relations

How the Judiciary Has Driven Systemic Innovation During the Pandemic

Samuel V. Schoonmaker IV

COVID-19 compelled practitioners and state courts to adapt in uncomfortable, ad hoc ways. Many courts seized the opportunity to implement NCSC innovations, which rely heavily on technology and problem-solving rather than litigation.

Domestic Relations

Lessons from a Pandemic: The Georgia TPO Forum’s Recommendations for Strengthening Protections Against Domestic Violence

Sarah White, Christine Scartz, Jamie Bormann

The Georgia Temporary Protective Order Forum is a collaboration of practitioners who are passionate about ending domestic violence. This Article offers practical recommendations for other advocates and attorneys working towards the same goal.

Domestic Relations

COVID-19 and Families with Special Needs

Margaret “Pegi” Price & Jack Hamlin

Dramatic changes to daily life during the pandemic have weighed heavily on families of special needs children and adults. We hope this Article helps the family law community and policy makers aid such families and learn from the COVID-19 experience.

Domestic Relations

Co-Parenting During Lockdown: COVID-19 and Child Custody Cases Before the Vaccine

New York Law School Family Law Quarterly Editors

This Article looks at child custody disputes from the early, pre-vaccine days of the pandemic to show how courts balanced physical and emotional health considerations and the parties’ circumstances to determine the child’s best interests.

Domestic Relations

Family Law Court Proceedings in the Pandemic’s First Year: The Experience of Each State as Reflected in Contemporaneous Interviews and Reviews of Court Websites and Orders [PDF Download]

A project directed by UNC Law Professor Maxine Eichner evolved from the work of the ULC’s Study Committee on Family Court Emergency Procedures to provide a snapshot of each state’s response to family law issues during the pandemic’s first year.

Domestic Relations

Charts 2020: Family Law in the Fifty States, D.C., and Puerto Rico, Part 2 [PDF Download]

We introduced the first four of eight new family law charts in our last issue. This issue contains the next two: Chart 5. Property Division Statutes in 2020 and Chart 6. Child Support Statutes in 2020.