Family Law
Victories
- Successfully advocating in the Washington Legislature to revise the Uniform Parentage Act to recognize the diversity of today’s families and to provide greater recognition for non-biological parents.
Read the bill - Persuading the Washington Court of Appeals to overturn a decision terminating the parental rights of a mother who had been a victim of domestic violence.
- Ensuring that women and men in marriage-like relationships receive a fair and equitable division of pension benefits, even if they are unmarried.
Owens v. Automotive Machinists Pension - Successfully urging the Montana Supreme Court, in the first case of its kind in the nation, to recognize that when a battered woman and her children have fled to another state, a court must consider domestic violence as a reason to let the court of the other state determine child custody issues.
Stoneman v. Drollinger - Fighting for the rights of all couples to marry, without regard to sexual orientation.
Andersen v. King County - Winning the first Washington State case that recognized a non-biological mother's right to parent her child.
In re Parentage of L.B. - Successfully arguing that same-sex couples be accorded the same property division rules as other couples living in marital-like relationships.
Vasquez v. Hawthorne; Gormley v. Robertson - Ensuring that frozen "pre-embryos" are not treated as children, and that decision-making about them does not depend on genetic connection.
Litowitz v. Litowitz - Helping ensure that Montana law protects the rights of lesbian parents to maintain relationships with their non-biological children, and to ensure that lesbian and gay couples have the right to a fair and equitable division of their property when a relationship ends.
Kulstad v. Maniaci
- Forcing the University of Montana to provide domestic partner benefits to same-sex couples as well as to unmarried different-sex couples.
Snetsinger v. University of Montana - Changing Washington law to protect a custodial parent's constitutional right to relocate with her children.
For more information on your legal rights, see Moving With Children: Washington's Relocation Law. - Changing Washington law to ensure that children have the right to adequate post-high school financial support.
- Educating grandparents and other kinship caregivers about their rights and how the legal system can help them.
For information on your legal rights, see Family Law.
Women's rights. Nothing less.
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