Family Law

As we approach Mother's Day, it is worth re-examining our understanding of what it means to be a mother.At first blush, the law seems an unlikely place to turn. Until recently, legal scholars have written little about the subject of motherhood. There is even confusion about how to define "mother" under the law. As Columbia Law School Professor Carol Sanger said, "'Who is a mother?' no longer has a simple answer, now that genetic contribution, gestation and stroller pushing may each be provided by a different woman."

Judge John F. Fader II's benign, fatherly appearance doesn't fool anybody once he starts lecturing troubled families in his Baltimore County courtroom.The Circuit Court judge tells a divorced couple fighting over visitation with their teen-age sons: "We can't have two armed camps at their weddings."He tells a belligerent man in leg chains who owes $13,000 in child support: "There are murderers, there are pedophiles, and there are people who don't pay child support."As the Maryland Court of Appeals considers establishing family courts in Maryland's largest counties, Fader has carved a niche for himself as an authority on family law -- divorce, custody, child support, domestic violence.

A state appeals court overturned the criminal kidnapping convictions yesterday of an Iranian charged with taking his two children to live with him in Iran in violation of a court order granting custody to his former wife.But the Court of Special Appeals let stand the parental abduction convictions against Hossein Nasri Ghajari, 53.Mr. Ghajari, 53, was given a 10-year suspended sentence March 15, 1995, by Carroll County Circuit Judge Luke K. Burns Jr. He was convicted of two criminal counts of kidnapping and two of parental kidnapping for taking his children with him to Iran, where they had lived from 1990 to 1993.

The two attorneys running Carroll County's only all-female law firm are daughters of Sparrows Point steelworkers with a strong desire to help their clients in and out of the courtroom.Despite their similar roots, Kathi Hill, 38, a former assistant state's attorney in Carroll, and Zoa Barnes, 40, who used to work as a civilian in the field of biomedicine and genetics at Fort Detrick in Frederick, did not meet until 1990."I entered law school, began working as a law clerk and got to know Kathi in her role as a prosecutor," Barnes, who also has been a volunteer counselor, said last week.

A 17-month project designed to provide legal services to people embroiled in family disputes, including divorce cases, has found that as many as 12,000 such people in Maryland each year forego hiring a lawyer, often because they can't afford it.The needs of these people can be met with a range of lower-cost alternatives to traditional lawyering, according to a study conducted by the University of Maryland Law School's assisted pro se project.Among options suggested by the study are counseling sessions with law students trained in family law and increased use of mediation.

A state appeals court overturned the criminal kidnapping convictions yesterday of an Iranian charged with taking his two children to live with him in Iran in violation of a court order granting custody to his former wife.But the Court of Special Appeals let stand the parental abduction convictions against Hossein Nasri Ghajari, 53.Mr. Ghajari, 53, was given a 10-year suspended sentence March 15, 1995, by Carroll County Circuit Judge Luke K. Burns Jr. He was convicted of two criminal counts of kidnapping and two of parental kidnapping for taking his children with him to Iran, where they had lived from 1990 to 1993.

Family CourtThank you for your March 25 editorial in support of a family court for Maryland.I chaired the subcommittee of the Governor's Task Force on Family Law investigating the need for such a court.I, together with other members of the task force, traveled throughout the state listening to citizens' concerns regarding family law and the process available to them for resolving their issues.We heard repeatedly, and without solicitation, their unhappiness with our present system.The only opposition we heard then, and have ever heard since, has been from judges.

Kathleen Murphy wants Maryland's judges and lawyers to stand up and listen to her silence.The Westminster bank teller, who in 1992 was ordered to pay her ex-husband $315 a month in child support, on Dec. 15 staged the second of what she hopes will be many "silent marches" at the Carroll County Courthouse, protesting the way state courts handle domestic disputes."

Although Leonard S. Jacobson retired early from the Baltimore County Circuit Court, he wants to quash rumors that he's dying -- or running for county executive.Instead, the gregarious judge said, he was tempted off the bench three years before mandatory retirement to serve as a special master in the Family Law Settlement Court, helping parties entangled in divorce and custody cases work out their differences without a trial.It's the kind of grueling, difficult work many jurists dislike, but Judge Jacobson said he was always drawn to it."

Christmas is supposed to be the season for goodwill, peace and family, and it is not the appropriate time for recriminations. But for a number of divorced mothers and fathers in Carroll and other Maryland counties, this festive holiday is an unpleasant reminder of the injustices they suffered in the state court system.In Carroll, the ranks of the unhappily divorced women keep increasing. Nearly all of them have lost custody of their children, are paying irrational levels of child support and spend much of their income paying lawyers' fees.

Michael E. Loney took a long weekend of forced retirement when the calendar shoved him out of his judicial chambers. "I am statutorily senile," he said, referring to the state's requirement that judges retire when they reach age 70. After 19-plus years on the bench, Loney packed up his judicial chambers on the fourth floor of the Anne Arundel County Courthouse and was gone July 16. Five days later, he was back. Like many judges around the state, he is working part time in retirement - balancing golf, travel and work around the house with work at the courthouse.

Monica Doherty, an attorney who worked in family law, ended her life July 1 in Largo, Fla. The Wyman Park resident was 40. Born Monica Christine Doherty in Virginia Beach, Va., and raised in Dunedin, Fla., she earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Florida in Gainesville. After moving to Baltimore in 1999, she taught computer science at the Roland Park Middle School. She received a degree from the University of Baltimore School of Law in 2005. At her death she was practicing law in Towson and worked in family law. She enjoyed travel and outdoor activities and completed the 2006 Baltimore Marathon.

Ralph K. Rothwell Jr., a law firm's managing partner, died of bone cancer Jan. 4 at Sinai Hospital. The Homeland resident was 58. Born in Fort Lee, Va., he was raised in Austria and Germany, where his father was stationed in the military. The family later relocated to Elkton, and he was a 1966 Tome School graduate. He was class valedictorian. He earned an English literature degree at the Johns Hopkins University, where he participated in the ROTC and was on the varsity swim team. He received a law degree at the University of Maryland.

Mary M. Kramer came to family law by way of a boss with old-school views. In the 1980s, a male lawyer hired her and said, "You're a woman, you'll do the divorce cases." William V. Tucker first worked with kids and the criminal justice system as a police officer in New Jersey, when he was part of a program similar to DARE. Kramer and Tucker will bring their diverse experiences to their latest jobs as Howard County Circuit Court's newest masters in chancery, filling vacancies left by two masters who retired from their seats this fall.

Between the entrances to two Carroll County courtrooms is a door with a paper sign reading "Please walk in." Anybody who does finds a suite of offices where parents can work out custody battles while their children play in a room adorned with a mural of forest animals frolicking in a green meadow. This is the new home of the Carroll Circuit Court's Family Law Administration in the Courthouse Annex. In the past, children would sometimes amuse themselves in a judge's chambers while the grownups settled their legal differences.

Between the entrances to two Carroll County courtrooms is a door with a paper sign reading "Please walk in." Anybody who does finds a suite of offices where parents can work out custody battles while their children play in a room adorned with a mural of forest animals frolicking in a green meadow. This is the new home of the Carroll Circuit Court's Family Law Administration in the Courthouse Annex. In the past, children would sometimes amuse themselves in a judge's chambers while the grownups settled their legal differences.

McDaniel College to hold town hall meeting on drugs McDaniel College will hold a town hall debate on the drug war at 7 p.m. Wednesday in McDaniel Lounge. Eric E. Sterling, president of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation, and Anthony J. O'Donnell, minority whip for the Maryland House of Delegates, will discuss "The Drug War: Our Domestic Vietnam?" The event is free to the public. Information: 410-857-2294. Transportation Dept. seeks residents' feedback The Maryland Department of Transportation will hold a series of open houses and public meetings around the state for citizens to voice their ideas and comments on the state's transportation network.

It's taken decades, but Hamilton Burger finally has his revenge. The district attorney who lost to Perry Mason week after hopeless week, year after excruciating year -- could, if he were alive today, see prosecutors celebrated by the same medium that once treated them like so many crash dummies, foils for flamboyant defense lawyers with right on their side. As Law & Order producer Dick Wolf is fond of reminding people, TV-watchers are seldom more than a click away from one of his cops-and-prosecutors shows.

If Judge Catherine Curran O'Malley feels like talking these days, she should probably spend some time with Sheila K. Sachs. Sachs and her husband, Stephen H. Sachs, were like the Judge O'Malley and Mayor Martin O'Malley of a generation ago. Even today, Sachs is a bigtime city lawyer, a specialist in family law - alimony, child custody, that sort of thing, and often represents the local celebrities when they wind up in divorce court. But in January 1979, she was a part-time attorney who was in the midst of an ethical conflict that would greatly influence her career.

He's arranged seating for confirmations and weddings because warring parents couldn't agree on who would sit where. He's thrilled and disappointed thousands of adults in decisions on child custody and support. In nearly two decades on the bench, Judge James C. Cawood Jr. has presided over the dissolution of countless failed relationships, and he's patiently dealt with the couples who return to his courtroom year after year. "When a case comes in, everybody loves you. When they keep coming back, at least one of them doesn't love you," Cawood said with characteristically dry wit. At 65, Cawood, considered the grandfather of family law matters in the county and an expert in the field throughout the state, is leaving the Anne Arundel County Circuit Court bench.