Family Law Flashcards
Family Law Road Map (1-10)
- General Sources of Family Law
- Creation of Marriage
- Husbands and Wives
- Annulment
- Divorce
- Establishing Legal Parent-Child Relationships
- Termination of Parental Rights
- Parenting Plans
- Financial Consequences of Divorce
- Family Law Procedure
Constitutional Rights Under Family Law (List 8)
- Right to Marry
- Right to Procreate
- Right to engage in intimate relationships
- Right to use contraception
- Right to an Abortion (ehhhh…lol)
- Right to make family-based decisions
- Right to live with family members
- Right to a meaningful relationship with one’s child
Constitutional Right to Marry
- Fundamental right under the U.S. Constitution
- Subject to protection under both the Equal Protection and Due Process clauses.
- States may impose reasonable regulations but CANNOT substantially interfere (Strict Scrutiny review)
Constitutional Right to Procreate
Fundamental right to have children.
Constitutional Right to Engage in Intimate Relations
Under the Due Process clause, states may not criminalize consensual sexual relationships between adults.
Constitutional Right to Engage in Intimate Relations
Under the Due Process clause, states may not criminalize consensual sexual relationships between adults.
Constitutional Right to Use Contraception
The right of adults - married or unmarried - to use contraception and otherwise make decisions whether to bear children, is protected under substantive due process.
Constitutional Right to Make Family-Based Decisions
- Fit parents have the right to make decisions about the care, control, and upbringing of their children.
- The state may not interfere with that right unless it is necessary to protect children from harm.
Right to Live With Family Members
- States or localities cannot enact zoning ordinances or other regulations that ban individuals who are related by blood, marriage, or adoption from living together.
- Government entities can, however, restrict unrelated individuals from living together, as long as the regulations are not arbitrary or capricious.
- “Arbitrary or capricious”: Do not follow the law or logic.
Constitutional Right to Have a Meaningful Relationship with One’s Child
- Biological parents have the right to pursue a meaningful parent-child relationship with their offspring.
- Right is more absolute for mothers.
- Fathers must have the opportunity to establish a relationship, but if they do not avail themselves of the opportunity to establish parent-child relationship, they may be held to forfeit their rights.
Creation of a Marriage
- Controlled by state law.
- Is a contract between two individuals; essentials of a contract, such as capacity and consent, are required.
- A marriage is presumed to be valid unless demonstrated otherwise.
Void Marriages (List 3)
NOTE: Children born to void marriages are illegitimate.
NOTE: Void marriages are void from inception.
Bigamy:
- It is illegal to be married to more than one person at the same time.
- NOTE: Not subject to criminal sanctions if they reasonably believed spouse was dead, spouse abandoned them for 3 years and is believed to be dead, or otherwise reasonably believes he is legally eligible to remarry.
Incestuous Marriage:
- Illegal to marry child or parent, brother or sister, aunt or uncle, nephew or niece.
Common Law Marriages:
- Common law marriages entered into after January 1, 1968 are VOID.
- NOTE: FL will recognize a common law marriage entered into in a state allowing it
Voidable Marriages (List 5)
- Mental or Physical Incapacity (No consent)
- One or both parties are underage (No consent)
- Minors under 16 cannot get married, even with parental consent.
- If one or both are 16 or older, parental consent of minor required. EXCEPTIONS: Both the minors parents are deceased or minor has been married before.
- County court judge or circuit court clerk CANNOT issue a license to any person under 18 unless person is at least 17 and provides written consent from parent or guardian, AND the older party is no more than 2 years older.
- Duress
- Undue Influence
- Fraud
Prerequisites to Marry
- Must have capacity. Must be competent to give consent. Lower than contracts; must only understand what marriage is and what is expected of a married person.
- Must have consent.
- Must have intent.
- Cannot enter into marriage as a joke or under a dare.
- Marriages entered into for a limited purpose, such as to legitimatize a child, may be allowed.
Procedural Requirements of Marriage
In Florida, parties applying for a marriage license must:
- Provide a signed affidavit providing their social security numbers;
- Show that they have read or otherwise accessed the information contained in the state’s handbook of rights and responsibilities of parties to a marriage;
- Recite their true and correct ages in their affidavit, if they are under 18; AND
- Either complete a premarital preparedness course OR be subject to a three-day waiting period.
Ceremonial Marriages (Solemnization)
- Ceremonial marriages must be solemnized by an authorized person (i.e. clergy, a judge, justices of the peace, notaries public, circuit court clerks, etc.)
- After the ceremony during which parties give their consent to marry, the person solemnizing the marriage is required to complete and file the marriage license with the court.
Failure to Comply with Statutory Requirements
- In the absence of fraud, most states will recognize the validity of a marriage that was intended to comply with statutory requirements but failed to do so.
- Example: A couple who formally married in church but without a license and who acted as man and wife are deemed married.
- Example: A marriage performed by a person not qualified to do so will often be recognized, particularly if at least one of the parties was unaware of his status.
Putative Marriage
- = When one person has been living with another person in a genuine believe that the two are married, even though they are not.
- Such a marriage may arise when there was some legal impediment to the marriage of which the innocent spouse (“Putative spouse”) was unaware of.
- Putative spouse is entitled to compensation and benefits upon discovery of the defect, just as she would be in the case of a divorce in a legitimate marriage.
- Ex. Partner is already married or their is an unknown blood relationship.
- NOT A VALID MARRIAGE.
Gender Roles in Marriage
States may not assign marital rights and obligations on the basis of gender.
Ex. The Supreme Court struck down a statute under which only husbands and not wives could be ordered to pay alimony upon divorce.
Property Rights Under Marriage
- FL law creates a tenancy by the entirety that applies only to married couples.
- Presumed to have been created when spouses take title to real property at the same time.
- Each spouse may acquire property and maintain title solely in their name during marriage.
- Can create a tenancy by the entirety by simply conveying the deed to the marriage.
- EXCEPTION: Such a conveyance is NOT valid if it is made for the purpose of defrauding any creditor or avoiding debt, or even if it has the effect of doing so.
Marital Privileges
- Marital privilege, both during and after the marriage, to refuse to disclose communications made during the marriage, and to prevent the other spouse from disclosing.
- May be claimed by the spouse, the spouse’s guardian, or the spouse’s conservatorship.
- May NOT be asserted:
- In any legal proceeding between the spouses;
- In a criminal proceeding where one spouse is charged with a crime against the other spouse or his or her children; OR
- In a criminal proceeding where the defendant-spouse seeks to offer the communication in evidence.
Obligation to Support
- A spouse who has the ability to contribute to the maintenance of the other spouse, and the support of his or her minor children, must do so.
- If he or she does not, the spouse may sue for alimony and child support, as appropriate, even without filing for divorce. (CAN SEEK ENFORCEMENT OF SUPPORT IN FL EVEN BEFORE DIVORCE.)
Tort Rights
- Florida has abolished interspousal immunity for battery, meaning that one spouse may sue the other for an intentional tort.
- FL allows battery claims to be raised as a separate count in a divorce proceeding.
- Ex. A wife was allowed to raise a claim for infliction of genital herpes in a divorce proceeding.
Crimes Between Spouses
- FL will grant civil protection, including access to ex parte restraining orders, to individuals abused by spouses or cohabiting partners.
- The FL legislature has stated that it intends to treat domestic violence as a crime, and not as a private “family matter.”
- With the exception of people who have a child in common, family or household members claiming domestic violence MUST be living together, or must have lived together in the same dwelling in the past.