A $21 Million Verdict Didn’t Give Cynthia Hayek Her Kids Back
A jury awarded Cynthia Hayek and Kenneth Hamp more than $21 million after finding that false abuse allegations helped cost Hayek her children. The judgment survived appeal. What remains unclear is whether the custody system ever gave her relationship…
The Holdout Nobody Can Name
Eleven jurors reportedly favored finding Lindsay Clancy not criminally responsible. One did not. The result was a mistrial — and a revealing look at what happens when unanimity protects a defendant while also preventing an acquittal.
The Doubt Nobody Defined
The public debate over Lindsay Clancy has focused on guilt, sympathy and postpartum mental illness. But the jury’s deadlock appears to have turned on something narrower: whether one juror was properly applying the court’s reasonable-doubt…
The Carve-Out Nobody Applied
Karyann Parkinson faced legal repercussions after allowing her five-year-old son to walk alone in their gated community, despite Virginia's 2023 "Reasonable Childhood Independence" law designed to protect such independence. The case highlights the law's…
The Prescription Nobody Can Enforce
A West Virginia father's push for timely vaccinations for their children clashes with their mother's vaccine skepticism, leading to custody disputes in family court. The article explores the inadequacies of family court in resolving medical disagreements…
Maryland Proclaims a Month for Collecting. Not One for Showing Up.
Maryland has declared August 2026 National Child Support Awareness Month, praising its support enforcement system. However, the article critiques this approach, highlighting a lack of similar enforcement measures for parental access issues. The disparity…
The Mitigation Nobody Carries Home
Massachusetts is considering a bill to acknowledge postpartum psychiatric illness as a mitigating factor in criminal cases, allowing for potential resentencing of women convicted without regard for their mental health. However, in family court, mental…
The Lawyer Nobody Fully Hires
Unbundled legal representation is increasingly proposed as a solution to the access-to-justice gap in family court, where most litigants self-represent. However, it often fails to address the complexities of contested cases. While it can be beneficial…
Diagnosis as Evidence
In California family courts, a parent's psychiatric diagnosis can suffice as evidence of dangerousness for a domestic violence restraining order, even without corroboration. The law's low evidentiary standard allows subjective claims to influence serious…
The Boys Nobody Budgeted For
The article discusses two contrasting perspectives on the challenges faced by boys and young men, emphasizing that policy decisions have disproportionately affected them in education, discipline, and mental health. Key issues include lenient due process…