Find Case Law

What is case law?

 

It's decisions judges have already made for each case.  That decision becomes the law for that particular circumstance.  The newer the case law the more important it is.  Also the more cited a case law the more important it is.

 

Which child custody case laws are important?

 

For privacy reasons, most family cases aren't made public so you can't find it on the internet.  But certain cases in some counties  by certain judges may be available.  Most appellate, state, federal court cases are available online.  These are the important ones.  These are the ones that the family court judge should follow, because the state and federal courts are above the county court.
 

Judges follow other judges

 

So your job is to find case law that the 'higher' judges have already decided in your favor.  If you show that to your county judge, you can be fairly sure that the 'lowest' county judge will follow the 'higher' judge's decision.

Judges typically will not go against other judges decisions nor against their own decisions.  As you can imagine, that would make the judicial system seem more unreliable. 

 

The "Must Read Real Deal" Decisions

 

The links below take you to the real deal case law information.  It's not someone's personal take on case laws or filtered or diluted family law decisions.  Rather, these are the actual decisions that higher judges have already made.  It's a gold mine of information for you.

Be warned, it's not fun to read for regular parents, it's not fancy, it takes time to pick up what you need for your case.  But once you put in that time, you'll be so glad you did.  You'll find exactly what you need to know to answer all your family case law questions.

You can find case law to support your position using Google Scholar or your county's or state's judicial website.  It will find just case laws in your state and you can narrow it down to a specific state like Pennsylvania, and dates like after 2007.

 

Examples of child custody laws and circumstances ...

 

 

Get alerted

 

Google will email you new court opinions on child custody or child support through their alert system, click here.

 

 

Find case law on your state or county website

 

You can also find opinions directly from the Pennsylvania Unified Judicial System.

Terrific Summary of PA Case Law for All Family Law Topics