2024 continues the trend in which most calendar years have fewer than ten published family law appeals.
For the third year in a row one of the published opinions was from one of my appeals, Abbas-Ghaleb v. Ghaleb. For the first year in three, it was a published victory. Abbas-Ghaleb isn’t groundbreaking but it does divide legal custody and notes vaccine resistance as a basis to award the secondary physical custodian legal decision making on medical. It also demonstrates, in the equitable distribution sections, how the appellate courts are conducting de novo review.
Grungo-Smith v. Grungo demonstrates that if the appellate courts modify alimony on appeal, they also need to address child support. Bristol v. Lipnevicius discusses what litigation issues remain viable after administrative dismissal. E.G. and J.J. v. SCDSS discusses how the family courts should address access to sealed adoption records when those records are relevant in a subsequent case.
Rish v. Rish held that agreements to make alimony non-modifiable are enforceable but if the parties still agree to modify alimony the family court has jurisdiction to do so. Bostick v. Bostick indicates goodwill from a professional practice will most likely be personal rather than enterprise goodwill—and thus its value will not be subject to equitable distribution.
I’m hoping the Supreme Court accepts certiorari in Carter v. Carter as I think the Court of Appeals opinion is wrong on multiple issues. Gandy v. Gandy affirmed a relocation to Louisiana but reversed a rehabilitative alimony award by denying alimony altogether. Gandy continues a 35 year streak of the appellate courts not affirming rehabilitative alimony over one party’s objection. I argued a case last month in the Court of Appeals where my client was awarded rehabilitative alimony but is seeking permanent alimony. I’m hoping that streak continues.
Eight published family court appears in a year is simply too few for the appellate courts to address serious issues that commonly arise in family court. The Court of Appeals needs to publish more family law opinions and my colleagues need to be appealing more adverse decisions.
In 1993, the year I opened my practice, there were over 25 published family law opinions. The first two full years I wrote this blog (2010 and 2011) each featured 20 or more published opinions. We haven’t hit 20 published opinions in a year since. It’s rare that we now reach 15. My colleagues frequently complain about the lack of uniformity on the family court’s handling of matters. Appellate opinions support uniformity by providing authoritative guidance that is applicable state-wide. Yet, no matter how much I encourage my colleagues to handle appeals, fewer and fewer heed the call.
I enjoy doing appeals and have tried to encourage unhappy litigants to appeal. The problem that I see is that the appeal process is too slow. For custody and visitation decisions, litigants are often better off filing again in family court (material change in circumstances) than waiting for a case to go through the appellate court.