"Indiana family law"

January 18, 2017

Judge Upholds Indiana Birth Certificate Ruling

5662029278_ea66e0d9bf_q In 2015, eight female same-sex couples filed a federal lawsuit claiming that Indiana violated their constitutional rights regarding the information on their children’s birth certificates. Until recently, Indiana did not include the non-birth mother or father’s name on the birth certificates of children born into same-sex marriages, and classified these births as “out of wedlock”. In the 2016 decision, Judge Tanya Walter Pratt of the United States District Court, Southern District of Indiana determined that Indiana law regulating birth certificate documentation violated the equal protection and due process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. The judge also ruled that the state cannot classify children born to a birth mother who is married to a same-sex spouse as born out of wedlock.

Weeks after the judgment, the state of Indiana sought to amend the order, raising questions of jurisdiction and asking whether the judgment applies to all wives of all birth mothers, or only to wives of birth mothers who conceived through artificial insemination. The judge refused to amend the decision and said, “The order means what it says and says what it means and the law intends to give wives of birth mothers comparable rights to husbands of birth mothers.” With the Supreme Court declaring same-sex marriage legal in the U.S. just over a year ago, this is another great leap in giving same-sex couples equal rights in parenting. Indiana must now name both same sex-parents on their child’s birth certificate if the parents are married, not just the birth mother.

The attorneys of Harden Jackson Law are devoted to servicing clients in all areas of family law, including divorce, custody, child support, property division, paternity, post-divorce modifications, prenuptial and postnuptial agreements, simple wills, adoption, surrogacy, and other areas of reproductive law. For more information, please contact us at 317.569.0770 or www.hardenjacksonlaw.com.

September 26, 2016

Best Workplaces for Adoptive Parents List Released

by Harden Jackson, LLC

The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption recently released its annual “100 Best Adoption-Friendly Workplaces” list. The Foundation has compiled a yearly list of workplaces that offer the best policies for employees growing their families through adoption since 2007. The criteria involve benefits such as financial assistance and paid leave for adoptive families. Employers submit applications and complete surveys, and the Foundation analyzes their data to create the list. The highest amount of financial reimbursement offered by this year’s applicants was $25,000.00, and the longest duration of paid leave was eighteen weeks. The average amount of financial assistance employers offered was $8,000.00, and the average duration of paid leave was five weeks.

Ferring Pharmaceuticals topped the 2016 list, with adoption policies that include reimbursement of up to $25,000.00 in adoption expenses, up to five and a half weeks of paid leave, and adoption counseling resources. The rest of the top ten is comprised of:

Citizens Bank ($23,460.00 in reimbursement of adoption expenses and 1 week of paid leave);

September 11, 2014

Attorney Christine Douglas volunteers at Mediation Day

by Harden Jackson, LLC

Attorney Christine Douglas will be volunteering with the IndyBar Alternative Dispute Resolution division at the 5th annual Mediation Day on Friday, September 26th. Mediation Day provides a service to the courts and community by volunteering to mediate several screened cases for litigants who qualify for modest means mediation. These litigants will have the use of a registered mediator at no cost to resolve their disputes. A judicial officer will be on-site to approve the mediated agreements.

Christine Douglas practices solely in the area of family law and is a Certified Family Law Specialist, as certified by the Family Law Certification Board. Christine helps individuals resolve a variety of issues that arise in non-traditional and traditional families. Her practice includes: adoptions, custody disputes, domestic partnership agreements, divorces, grandparent visitation, guardianships, parenting time enforcement, paternity cases and premarital agreements. She has extensive mediation and trial experience and completed the American Bar Association’s Family Law Trial Advocacy program in Denver, Colorado. She has been practicing for over sixteen (16) years and has extensive litigation experience managing heavy volume caseloads in complex, contested family law matters. Christine is also a trained parenting coordinator.

The attorneys of Harden Jackson Law are devoted to servicing clients throughout the Indianapolis area and the state of Indiana in all areas family law, including divorce, custody, child support, property division, paternity, post-divorce modifications, prenuptial and postnuptial agreements, simple wills, adoption, surrogacy and other areas of assisted reproductive technology law. For more information, please contact Leah Potter at 317.569.0770 or www.hardenjacksonlaw.com.

August 22, 2014

Harden Jackson takes the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge and Donates

by Harden Jackson, LLC

The Indiana family law attorneys of Harden Jackson donated $500 to the ALS Association AND took the Ice Bucket Challenge. Man, that was cold! Who’s next?

June 17, 2014

Attorney Christine Douglas – Trained Parenting Coordinator

by Harden Jackson, LLC

Harden Jackson is pleased to announce that attorney Christine Douglas has been trained as a Parenting Coordinator and is now accepting clients. Christine practices solely in the area of family law and is a Certified Family Law Specialist, as certified by the Family Law Certification Board. She has extensive mediation and trial experience and completed the American Bar Association’s Family Law Trial Advocacy program in Denver, Colorado. She has been practicing for over sixteen (16) years and has extensive litigation experience managing heavy volume caseloads in complex, contested family law matters.

A Parenting Coordinator (PC) is a court-appointed “special master” tasked to assist parents with the development, implementation, and monitoring of parenting plans in hopes of reducing re-litigation. PCs also help parties and their children adjust to divorce and resolve impasses between parents. A PC’s authority is specifically defined by the Court through an Order of Appointment prepared by the parties and their attorneys. The order outlines which matters a PC can address as well as confidentiality, length of appointment, authority to request information, fees, etc.

The attorneys of Harden Jackson Law are devoted to servicing clients throughout the Indianapolis area and the state of Indiana in all areas family law, including divorce, custody, child support, property division, paternity, post-divorce modifications, prenuptial and postnuptial agreements, simple wills, adoption, surrogacy and other areas of assisted reproductive technology law. For more information, please contact Leah Potter at 317.569.0770 or www.hardenjacksonlaw.com.

November 1, 2013

Harden Jackson Announces New Attorney, Of Counsel

by Harden Jackson, LLC

CARMEL, IN – November 1, 2013 -Harden Jackson is pleased to announce that Christine M. Douglas has joined the firm as Of Counsel.

Christine M. Douglas practices solely in the area of family law. She is a Certified Family Law Specialist, as certified by the Family Law Certification Board. Christine helps individuals resolve a variety of issues that arise in non-traditional and traditional families. Her practice includes: adoptions, custody disputes, domestic partnership agreements, divorces, grandparent visitation, guardianships, parenting time enforcement, paternity cases and premarital agreements. She has extensive mediation and trial experience and completed the American Bar Association’s Family Law Trial Advocacy program in Denver, Colorado. She has been practicing for over sixteen (16) years and has extensive litigation experience managing heavy volume caseloads in complex, contested family law matters

To read Christine’s full bio, please click here.

September 6, 2013

What are your rights as a grandparent in Indiana and what the tabloids are getting right

by Harden Jackson, LLC

By: Amanda E. Glowacki

People watching Bravo’s spin-off series featuring Real Housewife of Atlanta Kim Zolciak this past season saw firsthand that it is possible for grandparents to petition a court for visitation with their grandchildren. During the show’s first season, Kim was shocked to be served with a petition from her parents requesting that the Court enter an order for grandparent visitation because Kim was estranged from her parents since her wedding to NFL player Kroy Biermann. For Kim, and many others served with similar petitions, it can be shocking to be told that grandparents may be able to demand visitation with their grandchildren. While the roots of such visitation used to be grounded in third party custody petitions, i.e. people other than the child’s parents, many states, including Indiana, have specific provisions regarding the grandparent visitation.

In 2000, the Supreme Court weighed in on the issue as it pertained to a Washington state law. The case of, Troxel v. Granville, 530 U.S. 57 (2000), involved a vastly different fact pattern than what was portrayed on Zolciak’s show in that the petitioning grandparents were paternal and requesting visitation rights. The children’s mother, who had cut down the amount of visitation in the wake of their father’s death, objected. The issue before the Supreme Court was whether Washington’s law unconstitutionally infringed on a parent’s fundamental right to rear his/her children if it permitted any person to petition for visitation rights at any time and allowed courts to grant such rights whenever the visitation was in the child’s best interest. The Court decided to strike down the law because the “custody, care and nurture of the child reside first in the parents” and should not be “hinder[ed]” by the state. However, the Supreme Court also acknowledged that grandparents and other family members are increasingly relied upon to assist in parental duties and may deserve some protection or deference when requesting visitation. In the end, the decision created a need for states to tailor their domestic relations laws if they wanted to create specific actions for grandparent rights.