Cutting Edge Issues

Consistent with cases from around the world, the California Court of Appeal, Second District held that Israel is not a "war zone" and that a child could return to Israel with his mother. Implicitly, the Court also found that Israel is a trust-worthy partner, and could be expected to enforce a California custody and visitation order. Marriage of Abargil (2003)106 Cal.App.4th 1294, 131 Cal.Rptr.2d 429.

In 2005, the California Supreme Court ruled that parental rights and obligations could arise in a same-sex relationship through presumed paternity statutes, whereby, without adoption, a partner can be declared the mother of her ex-partner's biological child. The court further estopped a biological mother from denying the effects of a pre-birth judgement granting parental rights to her partner. Kristine H. v. Lisa R./ Kristine H. v. Superior Court (Lisa R.) (2005) 37 Cal.4th 156, 33 Cal.Rptr. 3d 81.(Kristine H was heard, along with two companion cases, Elisa B. v. Superior Court (Elisa B., et al.), California Supreme Court Case No. S-125912, and K.M. v. E.G., California Supreme Court Case No. S-125643. Link to an audio of the arguments for all three cases can be found at the Supreme Court's website: http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/courts/supreme/, Archived Audios: 1) Elisa B. v. Superior Court (Emily B., et al., Real Parties in Interest; 2) K.M. v. E.G., and 3) Kristine H. v. Lisa R. The televised broadcast of the arguments for the three cases is available through The California Channel at http://www.calchannel.com/). Ms. Amado represented the mother in this case. Ms. Amado represented the birth mother in Kristine H.

The issue of whether professional goodwill should be a quantifiable asset, valued and distributed upon dissolution of marriage, is an issue continuing interest to Ms. Amado. She was invited to speak on the issue at a panel on representing celebrity clients at the American Bar Association in August 2004, and wrote an article on the issue, "Personal Values," in Los Angeles Lawyer, June 2005, page 38. In "Personal Values," Ms. Amado argues that California should follow the better and well-reasoned lead of sister states to discard the concept of personal goodwill as a community asset. Ms. Amado wrote a similar article, focusing on Celebrity Good Will, entitled " Fiction and Imagination: Celebrity and Personal Good Will " in the American Journal of Family Law, Volume 19, Number 3, Fall 2005, page 172.

Ms. Amado had previously addressed the issue of celebrity goodwill in 1995, cautioning against California adopting the concept. Her article can be found on the Articles page of her website, "To Have and Have Not," published in Los Angeles Lawyer magazine, April 1995.

In 2006, the California Court of Appeal ruled that believable threats to interfere with the parent-child relationship support a finding of duress. The Court of Appeal held that, even though husband was not frightened by wife's physical attacks against him, his fear of her believable threats to withhold their children from him qualified as duress and was a viable defense to the enforceability of a valid transmutation. Marriage of Balcof (2006) 141 Cal.App.4th 1509, 47 Cal.Rptr.3d 183. Ms. Amado represented the husband in this case.