Family Law for Paralegals, Ninth Edition

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Family Law for Paralegals by J. Shoshanna Ehrlich offers a comprehensive and class-tested introduction to Family Law, presented in a student-friendly format.

The Ninth Edition of Family Law for Paralegals continues to provide complete coverage of traditional family law topics with historical context and dynamic cutting-edge issues—such as non-marital families, child abuse and neglect, and same-sex marriage. J. Shoshanna Ehrlich’s balanced approach prepares students to handle the work of a paralegal through examples, assignments, and sample forms that mirror legal practice.

New to the Ninth Edition:
Meticulously updated with new cases and developments in the law, including:

• Chapter 1, Entry into Marriage:
  • a close look at current marriage reform campaign in the United States to raise the minimum marital age to 18 without any exceptions.
• Chapter 3, Intimate Partner Violence:
  • A new section on the call to treat “birth control sabotage”—the deliberate interference with a partner’s efforts to avoid pregnancy—as a distinct category of harm that one can seek protection from.
  • Expanded discussion of recent state initiative aimed at plugging some of the loopholes in federal gun regulations aimed at preventing abusers from possessing or purchasing guns, given the deadly combination of IPV and firearms.
• Chapter 5, Child Custody:
  • A new section covering the post-divorce conflicts that have arisen between parents over the course of the pandemic, particularly during lockdown or stay-at-home orders.
• Chapter 6, Child Support:
  • Examination of the gig economy and how it poses certain challenges to the establishment and enforcement of child support orders, given the status and mobility of workers.
• Chapter 8, Division of Marital Property:
  • Expanded discussion as to whether or not family pets are to be treated more as personal property, or more like a children when it comes to divorce, with a focus on the emerging hybrid approach.

Professors and students will benefit from:

• Helpful real-life examples and sample forms
• Clear pedagogy—including summaries, key terms, and review and discussion questions—helps students better understand the material and develop their critical thinking and writing skills.
• Includes edited cases for analysis at the end of each chapter.
• Classroom-tested, successful text that is authoritative and well-structured.
• A variety of assignments for practicing lawyering skills, such as research, analysis, memo writing, and argumentation
• Up-to-date coverage of all the key topics in family law.