FAMILY LAW EXAM NO.

PROFESSOR BATT

SPRING 1993

I. (20 minutes)

A state statute permits "appropriate punishment" of school children for behaviors or omissions that take place in relationship to the educational process. Punishment is left up to the individual teacher unless the child is to be suspended from school. In suspension cases three teachers who make up the membership of the disciplinary council decide the case. Parents and children, but not their attorneys have a right to appear before the council in suspension cases.

On Day #1 at Robert E. Lee Elementary School a fourth grade girl, age 8, refuses to sing along with her music class. She refuses to sing the "Battle Hymn of Abraham Lincoln's Northern Republic". On Day #2 she refuses to sing "John Brown's Body" (Brown, of course, was a violent opponent of slavery). On being questioned by her teacher on Days I and II about her failure to sing she replies, "I do not sing Yankee songs which pervert the image of the Lord. I do not sing war songs. I came to school to sing nice songs for children and to get ready for college."

On Day #1 the teacher replies to the girl's statement by saying, "We will just see about that you little brat." She takes the child by the arm and marches her to the Box Room. There the child is placed in a large cardboard box (six feet high) with the top of the box cut off so that light can enter. Only the ceiling of the room is visible to the child. The child is forced to sit in the box. She has no books to read or any other materials to be used to occupy her time. The child is told that she will not be released from the box until she complies with the teacher's order to sing. Three hours pass and school ends for the day. The child is released at that time so that she can get on her school bus and leave for home. This scenario is repeated on Day #2.

The child's mother, a member of The Daughters of the Jefferson Davis Society and a member of a Methodist pacifist church asks you to represent her and her daughter. She wants you to sue the school system.

1. What legal arguments would you make in this case?

2. What lay and expert witnesses would you use? Specify exactly what you would expect from these witnesses as testimony in support of your case.

II. (15 minutes)

Discuss the role of the lawyer as counselor in family law cases. Be sure to discuss those things which allow the lawyer to develop a good counseling relationship with the client.

III. (10 minutes)

Write an essay telling me all you can about the law of child support.

IV. (15 minutes)

You are the trial judge in Rose v. Rose (child custody case involving "suicidist" wife and physician husband). You have heard all the testimony. In very specific detail put forth your critical evaluation of the expert psychiatric, psychoanalytic and psychological testimony.

V. (20 minutes)

Explain in detail (use examples) the "best interest" of the child test used in deciding child custody cases. In addition explain how information and expert opinion relevant to the best interest of the child decision is acquired under modern statutes.

VI. (10 minutes)

Explain the law relevant to the making of maintenance awards and property division decisions.

VII. (10 minutes)

Assume you represent one of the child plaintiffs in Parham v. J.R. This case deals with the voluntary civil commitment of children to public institutions providing mental health care. Assume the plaintiff is at present institutionalized. You seek your client's release. What legal arguments will you make on his behalf? What testimony (expert and lay) would you put on at a court hearing on the release issue.

VIII. (10 minutes)

Discuss in as much detail as is possible, in the time allowed, those provisions commonly found in separation agreements.

IX. (10 minutes)

What is the theory of juvenile court? What is the reality?