Legal News

The Often Sad and Sometimes Crazy World of ?Family Law?

By Ashby Jones

Way back when, before we knew anything about anything, we were intrigued by the notion of “family law.” It seemed like an area where you could actually make a difference in peoples’ lives and that your days as a “family lawyer” would be sorta fun. You’d sit across tables from people who looked like Wilford Brimley, sipping chamomile tea and listening to them talk — wistfully but not unhappily — about what they’d like to do with their rare-books collection once they died. You’d wear not a tie, but a Mr. Rogers cardigan on our house calls. You’d learn CPR, just in case, but never have to use it.

We couldn’t have been more wrong. We’re sure there are some above-described lawyers out there, but to a large degree, the practice of “family law” seems in its best light, sad, and in its worst, downright nasty and brutish. And on each of those fronts, we bring you a story from the news (and we’ve already brought you this one).

Sad: Amid the awful details of the Brooke Astor trial comes another tale of celebrity and dementia. This one involves Peter Falk, of Columbo fame. According to this story in the LA Times, Falk, 81, is suffering from dementia. And his daughter and wife are embroiled in a fierce battle over control over him and his estate.

The whole thing strikes us as a bit of a downer. Catherine Falk, his daughter, said she filed the petition requesting that she be made conservator of her father because his wife, Shera Denise Falk, has not allowed her to visit or speak to him since his hip replacement surgery last year. Shera Falk has contended that the daughter is estranged from her father, and questioned her motive in filing for a conservatorship.

According to the LAT, in lengthy testimony that lasted about four hours, Catherine recounted that when she was growing up, Peter Falk was a loving father whose affection was limited by his new wife. On cross examination, Marshal Oldman, the attorney for Falk’s wife, Shera, questioned Catherine Falk about her interest in her father’s estate.

“There is certainly concern about finances on the part of Catherine,” Oldman said after the hearing. “Whether that’s the primary motive, we’ll let the court decide.”

The well-to-do suburban professional hid a tiny GPS tracking device in his family car.

His cheating wife dropped her kids off with her dad, a convicted felon. She headed to a South Side motel for a rendezvous with her lover.

Nasty and Brutish: The new tool for skeptical spouses: GPS systems. According to a Chicago Sun Times story out this week, small GPS devices are getting tucked into glove compartments to track a spouse’s maneuvers. Later, the cheatin’ spouse gets confronted with detailed information about where they were, and when.

In a survey last year of the nation’s top divorce attorneys, 88 percent of them reported a rise in cases relying on electronic data as evidence.

“The GPS is a poor man’s investigator,” one divorce lawyer, Enrico Mirabelli, told the Sun-Times.

“You can sit out there for four days, and nothing might happen,” added private investigator Paul Ciolino. “If I have someone out there at $120 an hour for 14 hours a day and nothing happens, that gets expensive. But if the GPS says the car is going to a location every Thursday at 2, now you can go take a look.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on May 28, 2009 (boomark / email).