Family Law

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.

Paul A. Dorf, a former state senator and Baltimore City circuit judge who championed the use of arbitration and mediation as alternatives to an overcrowded court system, died of renal cancer Thursday at his home in Harbor Court. He was 86. "Paul brought a very strong spirit of collegiality, high ethical standards, energy and enthusiasm to the practice of law," said Oren D. Saltzman, managing partner of the law firm of Adelberg, Rudow, Dorf & Hendler, LLC, which Judge Dorf joined in 1983 after retiring from the bench.

When Phyllis Brown went to college, her father suggested that she take education courses because someday she might want to become a teacher. Teaching was a good job for a woman, he told her, whether or not she ever married. That was in the 1970s and Brown, the youngest of four children and the only girl in her family, devised a plan to deal with her father, a well-established and well-meaning lawyer in Rockville. "I decided not to take any education courses," says Brown, a 46-year-old mother of two. Instead, she followed her father into law, a career decision that paid off this month when she was formally appointed to one of three highly sought-after domestic master posts in Baltimore County Circuit Court.

There is serious confusion about the basis (legal or otherwise) for redefining an ancient human institution (marriage) to fit the social mores of 21st century society. The conservative view is that marriage as traditionally defined is an ancient human institution that predates civil society and therefore deserves the respect of the more recently established civil institutions that may support it; the more modern view, apparently shared by the governor and by a majority of the Maryland legislature, is that the term "marriage" can be redefined by an existing legislative majority without regard to that tradition.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.