The Best Family Law Books 2024

1. Defiant Dads (Hardcover)

All across America, angry fathers are demanding rights. These men claim that since the breakdown of their own families, they have been deprived of access to their children. Joining together to form fathers' rights groups, the mostly white, middle-class men meet in small venues to speak their minds about the state of the American family and, more specifically, to talk about the problems they personally face, for which they blame current child support and child custody policies. Dissatisfied with these systems, fathers' rights groups advocate on behalf of legal reforms that will lower their child support payments and help them obtain automatic joint custody of their children. In Defiant Dads, Jocelyn Elise Crowley offers a balanced examination of these groups in order to understand why they object to the current child support and child custody systems; what their political agenda, if enacted, would mean for their members' children or children's mothers; and how well they deal with their members' interpersonal issues concerning their ex-partners and their role as parents. Based on interviews with more than 150 fathers' rights group leaders and members, as well as close observation of group meetings and analysis of their rhetoric and advocacy literature, this important book is the first extensive, in-depth account of the emergence of fathers' rights groups in the United States. A nuanced and timely look at an emerging social movement, Defiant Dads is a revealing investigation into the changing dynamics of both the American family and gender relations in American society.

Defiant Dads (Hardcover)

2. A Troubled Marriage (Hardcover)

Choice's Outstanding Academic Title list for 2013 The development of a legal regime to combat domestic violence in the United States has been lauded as one of the feminist movement's greatest triumphs. But, Leigh Goodmark argues, the resulting system is deeply flawed in ways that prevent it from assisting many women subjected to abuse. The current legal response to domestic violence is excessively focused on physical violence; this narrow definition of abuse fails to provide protection from behaviors that are profoundly damaging, including psychological, economic, and reproductive abuse. The system uses mandatory policies that deny women subjected to abuse autonomy and agency, substituting the state's priorities for women's goals. A Troubled Marriage is a provocative exploration of how the legal system's response to domestic violence developed, why that response is flawed, and what we should do to change it. Goodmark argues for an anti-essentialist system, which would define abuse and allocate power in a manner attentive to the experiences, goals, needs and priorities of individual women. Theoretically rich yet conversational, A Troubled Marriage imagines a legal system based on anti-essentialist principles and suggests ways to look beyond the system to help women find justice and economic stability, engage men in the struggle to end abuse, and develop community accountability for abuse.

A Troubled Marriage (Hardcover)

3. Courting Change: Queer Parents, Judges, and the Transformation of American Family Law (Paperback)

Winner of the 2010 Pacific Sociological Association Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship Award A lesbian couple rears a child together and, after the biological mother dies, the surviving partner loses custody to the child's estranged biological father. Four days later, in a different court, judges rule on the side of the partner, because they feel the child relied on the woman as a "psychological parent." What accounts for this inconsistency regarding gay and lesbian adoption and custody cases, and why has family law failed to address them in a comprehensive manner? In Courting Change, Kimberly D. Richman zeros in on the nebulous realm of family law, one of the most indeterminate and discretionary areas of American law. She focuses on judicial decisions--both the outcomes and the rationales--and what they say about family, rights, sexual orientation, and who qualifies as a parent. Richman challenges prevailing notions that gay and lesbian parents and families are hurt by laws' indeterminacy, arguing that, because family law is so loosely defined, it allows for the flexibility needed to respond to--and even facilitate -- changes in how we conceive of family, parenting, and the role of sexual orientation in family law. Drawing on every recorded judicial decision in gay and lesbian adoption and custody cases over the last fifty years, and on interviews with parents, lawyers, and judges, Richman demonstrates how parental and sexual identities are formed and interpreted in law, and how gay and lesbian parents can harness indeterminacy to transform family law.

Courting Change: Queer Parents, Judges, and the Transformation of American Family Law (Paperback)

4. Win Your Child Custody War : How to Find the Evidence You Need to Keep Your Children (Paperback)

Don't let your children be stolen from you. Written by a forensic investigator and a child custody expert with over 20 years of experience, Win Your Child Custody War cuts through the legalese and tells you in a straightforward way how child custody cases are won or lost and how to win yours. In easy-to-understand language, with examples you will relate to, this book explains: How to investigate your case How to gather evidence How to impeach court experts How to expose personality disorders How to choose an attorney Complete with real-life case studies that tell the real story of the controversial game of child custody, this book guides the reader through the step-by-step formula of winning custody of your child with the right evidence.

Don't let your children be stolen from you. Written by a forensic investigator and a child custody expert with over 20 years of experience, Win Your Child Custody War cuts through the legalese and tells you in a straightforward way how child custody cases are won or lost and how to win yours. In easy-to-understand language, with examples you will relate to, this book explains: How to investigate your case How to gather evidence How to impeach court experts How to expose personality disorders How to choose an attorney Complete with real-life case studies that tell the real story of the controversial game of child custody, this book guides the reader through the step-by-step formula of winning custody of your child with the right evidence.