Maryland - May 18, 2012 - A new story recently emerged in the heated debate over gay marriage. Last week, Maryland's highest court held that courts in that state must apply divorce laws equally, and grant a divorce, for gay marriages that were legally formed in another state.

A jury has awarded $3.2 million dollars to the family of a man who died in hospice care after leaving a Rocky Ford, Colorado nursing home. The Pioneer Healthcare nursing home is challenging the verdict. At trial, an expert found that the deceased had acquired 16 separate infections during his stay at the nursing home, and over 30 injuries. The final cause of death was determined to be a stage-four bedsore as well as malnutrition and Parkinson’s disease.

Citizens of around 20 countries are now allowed to apply for a permanent resident visa with lower investment requirements. Executive Order 343 of 16 May 2012 was published in the Official Gazette, "which creates the sub-category of Permanent Resident in the form of foreign nationals from specific countries which maintain friendly, professional, economic, and investment relationships with the Republic of Panama within the immigration category of Permanent Resident."

Assessing who is at fault for an accident described by one driver as "the other car came out of nowhere."In my many years of practice as an attorney handling car accident cases, I can hardly begin to count the number of times that I have heard a witness say that "the other car came out of nowhere," which is then typically confidently asserted to demonstrate why they were not at fault and the other driver must have been.

For adults engaged in difficult divorce and custody battles, it can be all too easy to forget the significant, long-lasting impact that these types of proceedings can have on those most sensitive to the fallout, children. Unfortunately, the setup of the court system promotes a competitive approach to determining custody in that one party is the so-called winner (the “primary” custodian) and one party is the so-called loser (the “partial” custodian) in most cases. Children do not see it that way.

While preparing for your upcoming wedding, the last thing you want to think about is getting divorced. When you are about to get married, you think of your partner as your best friend, so you are much more likely to be amicable and fair than when you are about to get divorced, when you probably, albeit not always, think of your partner as your worst enemy. That being said, here are 5 things to consider when drafting a prenuptial agreement:

In most divorces, the marital residence is one of the most substantial assets in the entire marital estate, if not the most substantial asset. What makes real estate unique from other assets, such as bank accounts, retirement accounts, and other investments, is that it is an asset usually tied to a liability, such as a mortgage or a home equity line. Consequently, when parties are going through a divorce, one of the challenges is determining what happens to the marital residence.

For many divorcing couples, retirement accounts can represent much of the value of a marital estate. Retirement accounts come in various forms and include Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs), Roth IRAs, SEP IRAs, 401(k) plans, 403(b) plans, defined benefit pension plans, etc. Division of these various retirement accounts is a common concern for those separating or going through a divorce. Below are 3 important issues that arise with respect to retirement assets:

Out of all the domestic issues that can arise, payment or receipt of child and/or spousal support is one of the most common. Both types of support are governed by the Pennsylvania Support Guidelines which establish a rubric for calculating the amount of the obligation. While the guidelines are fairly straightforward, determining the payor’s support obligation can be challenging, depending on the particular circumstances. Below are some of the issues that can arise:

In litigation that already has lasted nearly twice as long as the war itself, volleys are still being fired over the copyright for a portion of the memorial to a war that ended in armistice and not peace. On May 14, 2012, Gaylord v. United States was remanded by the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to the U. S. Court of Federal Claims for another shot at determining the amount of damages, the fifth courthouse battle in this protracted campaign.