Category: Family
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Common-law marriage shouldn’t exist in 2026
Common-law marriage was useful when frontier couples couldn’t reach a courthouse. In 2026, it mostly traps people in obligations they never agreed to.
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The best interest of the child standard is a blank check for bias
Family courts use a vague best interest standard to make life-altering custody decisions. The discretion sounds humane and produces wildly inconsistent results.
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Parental alienation is real, weaponized, and both things are true
Parental alienation describes a real harm and is also a tactic used in custody disputes. Holding both truths is the only honest way to discuss it.
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Family court underestimates domestic abuse in custody decisions
Family courts routinely minimize documented abuse when ruling on custody, with consequences for children that researchers have tracked for decades.
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Surrogacy contracts are a legal minefield states keep dodging
Surrogacy law varies wildly across U.S. states, leaving families and carriers exposed to disputes that legislatures keep refusing to resolve.
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Judges in custody cases have too much discretion and too little accountability
Custody decisions hinge on a single judge’s judgment with minimal review. The system’s defenders call it flexibility, but the inconsistency is the problem.
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Custody evaluators are paid experts whose findings track who hired them
Custody evaluators present as neutral experts, but research shows their findings often track which parent hired them. The bias is structural, not personal.
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Alimony reform has gone too far and is leaving caregivers stranded
Reforming permanent alimony made sense. Eliminating it nearly everywhere did not. Long-term caregivers in long marriages are now landing in poverty after divorce.
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Open family courts would expose how dysfunctional the system is
Family courts operate behind closed doors in most states, and the secrecy hides systemic failures. Sunlight would be uncomfortable, and that’s exactly why we need it.
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Frozen embryo disputes show family law isn’t ready for modern reproduction
Frozen embryos sit in a legal gray zone between property and personhood. Courts are improvising, and the rulings contradict each other from state to state.