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Section News
ABA-APA Joint Conference Update
The Section is in heavy planning
mode for the upcoming Spring CLE Conference taking place in
Chicago this April 30-May 3, 2008, but we wanted to let you
know that you can begin making your hotel reservations now!
To lock in the special discount rate of $219 per night (single/double occupancy) at
the Chicago Marriott Downtown (Magnificent Mile), just call 1-800-228-9290 or 312-836-0100,
and mention that you're part of the ABA-APA 2008 Meeting.
The conference website will include more information (and a link
to online registration) soon.
Visit the Spring 2008 CLE Conference website.
Council Votes on Model ART Act
In early November, Section
Council voted to approve the latest revisions to the proposed
Model Act on Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART). Drafted
by the Section of Family Law Reproductive and Genetic Technologies
Committee, the Act seeks to give ART patients, participants,
parents, providers--and the resulting children and their siblings--clear
legal rights, obligations, and protections by establishing
legal standards for the use, storage, and other disposition
of gametes and embryos by addressing societal concerns about
ART, such as clarifying issues of health insurance coverage
for the treatment of infertility and by establishing legal
standards for informed consent, reporting, and quality assurance.
The revisions to the Act were discussed at a meeting in Memphis on October 10, 2007, at the request
of the Section of Family Law. This meeting was attended by the
National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) and the
following ABA entities: Family Law; Health Law; Individual Rights and Responsibilities;
Real Property, Probate, and Trust Law; Science and Technology; and the Young Lawyers
Division, along with private practitioners. The Act that Council voted on, and which was
submitted to the ABA House of Delegates in November, is a product of that meeting.
A .pdf of the Act is housed on the Section of Family Law website in two places: the
Reproductive and Genetic
Technologies Committee website, and the Online Resource Center
(under the topic of Assisted Reproductive
Technology).
Read the Model Act on Assisted Reproductive Technology (.pdf)
Publications
To say thank you to our customers, we are offering
a 20% discount on your next Web store purchase.
Use source code PAB7ETHK at checkout.
Offer expires December 31, 2007.
Balancing Competing Interests in Family Law
John C. Mayoue
Product Code 5130119
A wide-ranging guide to some of the most challenging
legal issues in family law, this book examines the expanding legal context in which the courts are
defining the rights and obligations of social relationships.
A practical resource that provides an overview of testimonial privileges available in
domestic relations actions and what the consequences there are when such privileges are invoked,
it also examines spousal and third-party privacy rights and contemporary remedies for spousal misconduct.
A significant part of the book involves a discussion and examination of domestic relations law applicable to third parties and persons in alternative or non-traditional relationships.
More
information (including a table of contents)
To order today, call
the ABA Service Center at 800-285-2221 and request Product
Code 5130119 or order online.
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Best of the List Serve
This month's Best of the FamLawEsq deals with five
different areas of family law interest:
1. Qualified Domestic Relations Orders
2. A recent Tax Court Decision on Deductibility of Payments in Kind for Maintenance
3. Military Benefits for Former Spouse of Military Servicemember
4. Term of Child Support – Moving from One State to Another – UIFSA
5. Validity and Enforcement in the United States of an Islamic Nikah
Read more about this month's
selected topics. (You will need to log in to the ABA website.)
Not on the list? All of our lawyer members are encouraged
to join this popular discussion list. Read more about How
to Join FamLawEsq in the Members Only section of our website.
CLE Calendar
TeleConferences
Don't miss out on this month's
teleconference on Friday!
November 30, 2007
Parenting Coordinators: Who Are They and Can They Help?
This teleconference will give you insight into the role of parenting
coordinators, how they can assist you in developing parenting plans, and answers to questions
such as: What is the difference between Parenting
Coordination and family therapy? When is a Parenting Coordinator appropriate for a case and
when is she not? At what point is a case ready for Parenting Coordination?
How can counsel work effectively with a Parenting Coordinator?
Please note that this teleseminar will take place from 12:00
p.m. - 1:30 p.m. Eastern time (i.e., 11:00 a.m. Central, 10:00
a.m. Mountain, 9:00 a.m. Pacific)
More details/register online
Unable to attend a teleconference or a Section CLE conference? Not to worry, you can learn
on your own time when you purchase the CLE materials.
See
a listing of available CLE materials
Submit a CLE Proposal
Want to submit a CLE proposal for our 2008 programming?
Proposals for our Fall CLE Conference are accepted on a rolling basis. (Spring 2008 programming is already in place.)
We look forward to hearing your ideas!
Download the CLE Proposal form
Save the Date!
Spring 2008 CLE Conference of the
ABA Section of Family Law and American Psychological Association
April 30-May 3, 2008
Marriott Chicago Downtown
Chicago, IL
This special interdisciplinary conference, "Reconceptualizing Child Custody:
Past, Present and Future--Lawyers and Psychologists Working Together"
will provide CLE programming that is specially designed to appeal
to both professions. Multiple plenaries and breakout sessions will span
three full days and allow pyschologists and lawyers the opportunity to learn
from judges, lawyers, psychologists, researchers, and academicians.
It's never too early to book your hotel room (see "Section
News" at left for more information).
Visit
the website to keep up-to-date; registration and
more details will soon be available.
Trial Advocacy Institute Update
Looking for information on the 2008 Trial
Advocacy Institute? We're still in the planning stages but would like to keep
you posted.
This year's Institute will (tentatively) take place May 17-23, 2008,
at the Sturm College of Law at the University of Denver. Please note that this information is
subject to change, and we will be sure to send updates to you.
Not sure what the Institute is? Take a look at our Institute
webpage to get a better idea of the programming and how
it can benefit you.
Tech Corner
E-mail Productivity
E-mail is an indispensable tool for most attorneys, but it's not without its shortcomings:
mailboxes become overloaded, messages are missed or swallowed by spam filters, and time is
wasted responding to the same question over and over again. Thankfully, with a
little discipline you can make e-mail a productivity boost rather than a productivity
drain for your firm or organization.
Use Multiple E-mail Addresses
There are several good reasons to avoid mixing work and personal e-mail: it adds to your
mailbox clutter, messages from friends and family may distract you from your work, and in
many firms and organizations it's an inappropriate use of work resources.
Luckily there's an easy fix: get another e-mail address.
Sign up for a free e-mail address from a provider like Google (gmail) or Yahoo!
and make sure friends and family know to use it, rather than your work e-mail, for daily correspondence.
Use Form Letters
It's not uncommon to receive the same question by e-mail several times a week.
Rather than spending the time drafting an original response to each e-mail, save a
good overall response into a text file and copy and paste it as needed.
If you want to go high-tech, try setting up templates in Outlook to render the response automatically.
Pick Up the Phone
E-mail is a great tool, but it isn't always the right tool. If you've got a
quick question or an issue that requires some clarification and discussion, skip
e-mail and go right to the source: pick up a phone and call.
There's no reason to send off an e-mail and wait hours or days for a response if a
five-minute phone call would do the job. Not sure if e-mail is the best way of communicating?
Check out David Pollard's ten situations When Not to Use E-mail.
—Joshua Poje, Research Specialist, ABA
Legal Technology Resource Center
Tell Us! If you have an e-mail form letter to share,
send it along. We may use your sample in a future edition
of the eNewsletter! If there's some other technology you would
like us to investigate, just e-mail glazerh@staff.abanet.org.
Keep the Tech Corner working for you!
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