Family Law

Family law is an area of the law that deals with family-related to maintain the matters of any family to retain harmony and peace issues and domestic relations including:

  • the nature of marriage, civil unions, and domestic partnerships;
  • issues arising throughout marriage, including spousal abuse, legitimacy, adoption, surrogacy, child abuse, and child abduction
  • the termination of the relationship and ancillary matters including divorce, annulment, property settlements, alimony, and parental responsibility orders (in the United States, child custody and visitation, child support and alimony awards).
  • Paternity fraud and testing
  • Juvenile adjudication

This list is by no means dispositive of the potential issues that come through the family court system. In many jurisdictions in the United States, the family courts see the most crowded dockets. Litigants representative of all social and economic classes are parties within the system.

For the conflict of laws elements dealing with transnational and interstate issues, see marriage (conflict), divorce (conflict) and nullity (conflict).

Famous quotes containing the words family and/or law:

    It’s a family joke that when I was a tiny child I turned from the window out of which I was watching a snowstorm, and hopefully asked, ‘Momma, do we believe in winter?’
    Philip Roth (20th century)

    Jesus said to his Jews: “The law was for servants—love God as I love him, as his son! What are morals to us sons of God!”
    Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)