Family Law

This lesson explores premarital agreements, also known as antenuptial or prenuptial agreements. This lesson assumes you already have a basic understanding of premarital agreements.

This lesson addresses the formal and substantive regulations imposed on the right to marry. The lesson discusses the difference between annulment and divorce and compares void and voidable marriages. The putative spouse doctrine and the marriage presumption are also covered. This lesson assumes prior coverage of this material in class and is designed to help you review theses concepts. If you want to study the constitutional aspects of substantive regulations of marriage in more depth, see the CALI Lessons, Constitutional Aspects of Family Law and Same Sex Relationships.

Cohabitants may litigate to obtain property, support, a share of an estate, or for derivative benefits such as wrongful death or survivor's benefits. This lesson reviews theories of recovery for cohabiting couples who were not formally married. The lesson explores contract, quasi-contract and equitable theories of recovery such as constructive and resulting trusts, quantum meruit, promissory estoppel and implied contract. Note that not all states allow all remedies reviewed in this lesson.

This lesson is intended as an overview of Constitutional Law principles that are important in Family Law. It can be used at the beginning of the Family Law course as a refresher of Constitutional Law. It can also be used during the course to clarify general constitutional doctrine. This lesson is related to two other lessons regarding constitutional aspects of Family Law.

This lesson is an examination of the constitutional law aspects of Family Law. It builds upon lessons which provide a review of Constitutional Law in the Family Law context, but is much more detailed. It is intended as a supplement and review of constitutional doctrine as it occurs in specific Family Law areas such as marriage, divorce, parenting, procreation, sexuality, the rights of minors, and end-of life issues.

The purpose of this lesson is to review basic doctrines and theories of individual rights covered in Constitutional Law courses. The lesson covers the Due Process Clause, the Equal Protection Clause, and the First Amendment, as they apply in the Family Law context.

This is an introduction to some of the legal aspects of the husband-wife relationship, including property and support obligations along with a number of issues involving the marital status

This lesson covers characterization of commingled property at divorce. It covers tracing, transmutation, differentiation between income and passive appreciation and other rules regarding characterization of commingled property as marital or separate.

This lesson focuses on distribution of property that has already been identified and valued. Before beginning the lesson students should have a general understanding of the differences between common law and community property systems. They should also be aware of the basic distinction between marital and separate property. This lesson may be used either as an introduction to the distribution of property at divorce or as a refresher that tests a student's understanding of this subject.

This lesson considers the special classification issues associated with pensions, professional licenses and goodwill, personal injury and workers' compensation awards, and life insurance. The student should have a general understanding of the distinction between marital and separate property before working this lesson. The lesson can be used as an introduction to or review of the materials covered. It also works well as an independent lesson.

This lesson deals with a topic more commonly known as alimony, spousal support, or maintenance. Its focus is Chapter 5 of the American Law Institute Principles of the Law of Family Dissolution. This is an introductory lesson. It assumes you have spent little or no time discussing this material in class.

This lesson reviews the general law of alimony. It focuses on the differences between alimony and property distribution; the gender implications, justifications, eligibility, amount and duration of alimony; and the forms of alimony.