Brooklyn, New York Mother and Father have toddler Son together.

Mother is a novelist, filmmaker and adjunct professor at a large university. Father is a corporate attorney in a successful internet media company.

Mother and Father separated and are now embroiled in a dramatic battle over custody and visitation of their Son, as well as alleged domestic violence.

Their disputes reportedly span three different Brooklyn courts, family court, domestic violence court and criminal court.

Mother has alleged that Father has tried to poison her with arsenic and other heavy metals; manipulate her into believing that she is losing her mind; and terrorized her with elaborately conceived schemes of her mutilation and death.

Noteworthy, lab reports allegedly corroborate that Mother’s blood contains abnormally high quantities of arsenic and that some prepared food supposedly purchased by Father contained unusually great concentrations of arsenic and heavy metals.

Nonetheless, Mother’s own father reportedly testified for Father, and the family court awarded custody of Son to Father.

Mother is continuing her campaign to regain custody of Son with, among other things, affidavits from famous friends who are of the opinion that she is a great mom. But her case is clouded by pending assault charges pressed against her by her own stepmother.

On the other hand, Father must also defend against domestic violence charges for allegedly attempting to choke Mother in her bed.

Read more in this New York Post article: Arsenic, cheating, murderous fantasies: Crazy claims in novelist’s breakup

Following up on my previous post, a fourteen year study confirmed 4 behaviors as predictors of divorce with an astonishing 93% rate of accuracy … based on a fifteen minute conversation.

These findings are actually consistent with those reported more anecdotally in my previous post.

The problematic behaviors are:

1. Stonewalling, which refers to suddenly disengaging in the midst of an argument and shifting to a different, unilateral activity

2. Holding & Treating Your Spouse with Contempt

3. Reacting with Personal Criticisms of Your Spouse Rather Than Their Particular Objectionable Action

4. Reacting Defensively to Situations

Read more in this Business Insider article: 4 behaviors are the most reliable predictors of divorce

The warning signs:

1. Cutting personal attacks have replaced communication

2. There’s been a breach of trust

3. There is limited physical contact

4. There is constant arguing or – literally – fighting

5. No sharing is taking place

6. The relationship takes a back seat to other relationships or priorities

7. There’s no friendship or involvement anymore

8. There is no empathy or compassion

9. They are past caring about improving things

Read more in this Prevention article: 9 Ways Therapists Can Tell If Your Relationship Won’t Work

Russian Father has custody of Child. Russian Mother is required to pay child support for Child.

Mother falls several thousand dollars behind in child support.

Russian family court designates Mother’s pig as an asset to be seized and sold to pay down Mother’s child support obligation if Mother does not pay her past due child support.

Mother apparently does not wish her child support arrears to be brought current.

So Mother, with some help from her friends, … eats the pig. It seemed like a clever option to Mother at the time.

Now, maybe not so much.

Mother is under arrest for embezzling seized property. Mother faces up to two years confinement in prison.

Read more in this Moscow Times article: Russian Woman Eats Her Pig to Avoid Paying Child Support

There are many popularly held beliefs concerning divorce that are hard for attorneys to dispel. They seem to just take on a life of their own, even when they lack any basis.

One such belief is that it is somehow advantageous or superior to be the spouse who files first.

Over time, I have learned and confirmed many times over that this belief is widespread in Florida, New York and New Jersey.

Now I can add Ohio to that list, and probably have adequate reason to leap to the conclusion that this old wives’ tale shapes many people’s divorce perspectives across all fifty states – and beyond.

But really, it just ain’t so … almost always.

There is one meaningful exception: where one spouse is secretly planning and preparing for divorce, very actively up to no good for quite a while, and the other spouse is utterly stunned with shock and caught completely unprepared when they are served totally out of the blue.

This does happen from time to time.

But it shouldn’t. There were telltale signs. Little red flags. If not far more to go on.

Almost always, the spouse who was stunned, buried their head in the sand, hoping against hope that it wasn’t so, desperately clinging to their fantasy marriage, refusing to face reality.

Similarly, the spouse who is so totally unprepared for divorce is equally unprepared for their spouse’s sudden death … or accident / illness / disability. Unfortunately, such tragedies strike all the time.

If the spouse who filed first has an advantage in their divorce, in truth it derives not from being the first to file but rather from their spouse living life imitating an ostrich and/or flying by the seat of their pants on a wing and a prayer.

If that describes you, that should be your concern, not just being the first to file.

Read more in this Columbus [OH] dispatch advice column: Wholly Matrimony: Filing first for divorce offers no advantage

Like every divorce attorney, I’ve heard this from time to time.

The truth is, in the average layperson’s mind, if a ruling doesn’t go their way, they often tend to feel that their assigned family court judge is “against them”. But, by definition, most divorce court rulings are going to favor one spouse at the expense of the other.

So, in a sense, most family court rulings will be “against” one spouse or the other. But that doesn’t mean that the divorce court judge is “against” the “losing spouse”. And a spouse isn’t entitled to “swap judges” just because the original family court judge has ruled against him or her.

Judges are required to be impartial and free of bias. But ruling is the very essence of a judge’s duty. True judicial bias is pretty rare.

But not entirely unheard of. Take this case from the UK.

In their divorce, Husband, a very successful business man, was ordered to pay Wife alimony and spousal support.

Husband has allegedly fallen behind in his alimony, on the order of UK £2 million.

The presiding Judge threatens to incarcerate Husband.

Problem is, it does not appear that Husband is willfully non-compliant with the court’s alimony and spousal support order.

Rather, Husband allegedly has cancer and is simply unable to pay the court-ordered alimony. Under such circumstances, if true, of course, incarceration would just not be appropriate.

But Judge apparently refused to hear of it.

A UK appeals court saw the situation differently though and recused the Judge from the case, causing the case to be reassigned to another judge.

Read more in this UK Telegraph news article: ‘Hostile’ divorce judge thrown off case

The UK legislature today approved what is popularly called a Three Parent Baby. This is a baby conceived in a lab using genetic material from two women and one man.

The man and one of the women are who have traditionally been considered parents. The second woman’s participation is understood as being limited to contributing what is termed mitochondrial DNA, intended to replace the “real” mother’s “defective” mitochondrial DNA.

Based on limited animal studies, scientists enthuse that this lab procedure will merely allow mothers with defective mitochondrial DNA to give birth to babies free of crippling, devastating and/or terminal mitochondrial diseases.

For context, roughly 6,500 babies across the planet are born with mitochondrial diseases each year. This procedure will also protect all the babies’ future descendants from the ravages of such defective mitochondrial DNA.

Will this lab procedure alter any other genes or characteristics of the Three Parent Babies or their descendants?

Uh, don’t think so. But why don’t you ask again in, say, 25 years?

What all does mitochondrial DNA regulate in humans?

Well, actually, not really so sure. Why not ask again in, say, 25 years?

Has there been any significant progress in treating mitochondrial diseases lately?

Nah, they only affect about 6,500 births worldwide per year. Not a sufficient critical mass to make it cost-effective to bother researching.

And no need. There’s this nifty new lab procedure that works around mitochondrial diseases … and has the potential to do oh so much more tweaking of the genetic code ….

Clinical trials of the type generally required for approval of new drugs or surgical procedures, have not been conducted on this lab procedure. Nor is it clear how much effort has been directed toward treating or curing the mitochondrial diseases this lab procedure is reportedly intended to prevent.

The vote on whether to allow this lab procedure was under debate in the UK legislature for a full 90 minutes.

Scientists in the US have been conducting similar research and animal testing. Clinical trials are anticipated in the not too distant future.

Hey, childhood obesity is an epidemic. Obesity is believed to cause, contribute to or aggravate Type 2 diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease and heart attack, sleep apnea, arthritis, gallbladder disease, fatty liver disease, and depression, to name a few. Several of these conditions can be extremely debilitating – or fatal.

Maybe a variation of the newly approved procedure could prevent childhood obesity?

Oh, nope, scientists don’t really know precisely which gene(s) and/or DNA segment(s) cause childhood obesity. There are over 50 different genes that appear to be involved in obesity.

Read more in this:

1. BBC News Health article: MPs say yes to three-person babies
2. CNN News Health article: UK lawmakers approve ‘3-parent babies’ law
3. Fox News Health article: Britain votes to allow world’s first ‘three-parent’ IVF babies
4. NPR News the two-way article: ‘3-Parent Baby’ Law Moves Forward In Britain
5. Wired Science article: How It’s Possible for a Baby to Have Three Parents
6. LA Times World article: Britain moves toward allowing creation of babies from DNA of 3 people
7. CDC Public Health Genomics: Genomics and Health, Genes and Obesity
8. CDC Overweight and Obesity: Basics About Childhood and Obesity
9. ScienceNordic: Seven new genetic causes of obesity identified

New Jersey Wife has domestic violence restraining order against Husband.

Husband and Wife are also in the middle of a divorce.

Husband is representing himself in the divorce.

At a divorce hearing, Husband is allowed to cross examine Wife.

In his examination, Husband refers to text messages he sent to his Wife … after entry of the domestic violence injunction.

Unfortunately for Husband, whatever he may have had in mind, it backfired on him. What Husband did was broadcast directly to the judge that Husband had violated the domestic violence restraining order.

As a result, Husband was arrested on the spot for violating the domestic violence injunction.

Husband was then confined in jail pending bond of $2,500.

Husband could have benefited, at the very least, from some legal advice and counsel prior to his divorce hearing …

Read more in this Hunterdon County [NJ] Democrat article: Restraining order allegedly violated by questioning at divorce hearing in Hunterdon