Oral Arguments

The Mississippi Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments in Carter v. Carter today.  A copy of the cert petition is located here.  There are two issues that are fundamentally important in family law that will be reviewed.  The first, is whether a guardian ad litem is required to satisfy due process dealing with abuse or neglect as it relates to the minor child.  The second issue is how much discretion does the trial court have to find whether abuse or neglect is a legitimate issues.  To me, the second issue is really interesting.  I have been complaining for years about what amounts to just bad parenting vs. actual abuse or neglect.  There is a really good outline of this area in the cert petition worth reviewing on this topic.