Family law

Family law

Law that deals with family-related issues such as spousal abuse, legitimacy, adoption, surrogacy, child abuse, and child abduction.

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Family law

Collect

Legal services; Family law

To obtain payment of a debt through legal proceedings. See the FAQs on collections for more information.

Alternative dispute resolution (ADR)

Legal services; Family law

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) is the common name for the different ways of settling a disagreement outside the courtroom. ADR includes mediation, arbitration, mediation-arbitration, early ...

When you don't know where the opposing party is to serve them, the court requires that you try hard to find him or her. The effort you make to find the opposing party is called diligent inquiry. If ...

Motion

Legal services; Family law

The name of the paper you must file to ask a judge to make a ruling or take some other action. A motion is the first step in the three-step process called motion practice.

Pro se or pro per

Legal services; Family law

A Latin term that mean representing yourself in court. If you are pro se (or pro per), you are your own lawyer.

Alternate service

Legal services; Family law

Normally, when you start a case you are required to serve the defendant by process server or certified mail/restricted delivery/return receipt. But, sometimes you can't find the defendant so you can ...