Michigan Husband and Wife have a child together.

Husband and Wife aren’t getting along.

Husband suspects Wife of having an affair.

Husband wants to know for sure.

Husband is concerned about the behavior of third parties around their child.

Wife leaves her e-mail password readily available to Husband.

Husband bought the computer Wife uses. The computer and the home it is in are marital property.

Husband allegedly logs onto Wife’s e-mail account and looks through her e-mail, in search of confirmation.

Some of Wife’s e-mails subsequently are offered into evidence in Wife’s child custody case with her former husband.

Husband is arrested for violation of a state law targeting hackers for profit or with malicious intent to cause damage.

The charge carries a maximum sentence of five years.

This is the first application of Michigan’s criminal statute to spouse’s spying on each other’s e-mails on a shared computer. Husband’s trial is next month.

Florida has a statute similar to Michigan’s.

Read more in this NBC Bay Area TV article: Is Snooping in Your Spouse’s e-mail a Crime? and this ABC World News article: Husband in Hot Water: Man Faces Five Years in Prison for Snooping Through Wife’s E-Mails.

Colorado Husband and Wife have two Daughters together, ages two and four.

Wife is from Argentina.

Husband and Wife divorce.

Custody evaluator appointed by the divorce court reportedly believes that Wife poses an abduction risk to Daughters.

Family court awards primary custody of Daughters to Husband.

Wife is awarded liberal timesharing with Daughters in the US. Wife is also granted the right to take Daughters to Argentina in the summer and in the spring.

During her timesharing with Daughters shortly after the divorce is finalized, Wife takes them to Argentina – for good.

Family court orders that Wife return Daughters to the US right away.

Wife pays no attention to divorce court orders.

Argentina is a party to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

Husband files an application for return of Daughters to the US.

Husband is advised that the process could take eighteen months.

Read more in this [Glenwood Springs, CO] Post Independent article: Snowmass man haunted by international abduction.

Husband and Wife have two Children together.

The time of Husband and Wife’s exchange of the Children approaches.

And Husband allegedly punches Wife in the face … and knocks her out.

Police arrive. And taser Husband.

Who resists arrest.

Husband is arrested on charges of domestic violence and criminal threats.

Read more in this San Jose Mercury News article: Woman punched unconscious during child custody dispute.

Montana currently favors court records being public, as they are in Florida.

But privacy activists are seeking to limit public access to family court records, with the goal of protecting children.

At this time, proposals for restrictions are subject to public comment. The most extreme proposal would seal all family court records except final judgments.

Montana’s law librarian worries because parties without attorneys generally do not know how to apply what privacy protections are already available under Montana law.

Read more in this Washington Post article: Mont. Supreme Court considers access restrictions.

Illinois Husband and Wife have four Daughters from ages four to fifteen.

Wife is not happy in the marriage. Wife files for divorce.

Husband is not served with divorce paperwork. On the contrary, Husband and Wife reportedly reconcile.

Husband and Wife attend a holiday party together on December 5th.

Husband is allegedly intoxicated.

There is snow on the ground in the area where they live.

On the way home from the party, Husband’s and Wife’s car crashes into a light pole.

Husband is killed in the accident.

There are footprints leading away from their vehicle.

And Wife is nowhere to be found.

Subsequent searches, as permitted by the local weather, have turned up no leads as to Wife’s whereabouts or fate.

An unlikely and unforeseeable tragedy.

Which leaves Husband and Wife’s four young Daughters inadequately provided for or protected.

In this instance, the Daughters’ paternal aunt and uncle have reportedly filed for guardianship of Daughters. This is not necessarily a rapid or inexpensive process.

When parents don’t plan ahead and make arrangements for such unlikely and unforeseeable tragedies, their children are at risk of being taken into child protective custody and placed in foster care by child welfare agencies.

Have you planned ahead and made arrangements to protect your children from the unlikely and unforeseeable tragedy that has stricken this family?

In Florida, a straighforward will and a simple designation of a preneed guardian for your children can generally provide the care you want your children to have in such a situation … without the need for an expensive, drawn-out guardianship proceeding or child welfare agency involvement.

Why not add these items to your New Year’s resolutions – and actually follow through and do them? For your children’s sake.

Read more in:

• this Chicago WLS-TV ABC 7 news article: Records show missing mom had filed for divorce

• this Chicago CBS 2 news article: Police Hope To Resume Search For Tanya Shannon

• this Chicago Fox News article: Search for Tanya Shannon On Hold

A study of about 9,000 people over a period of several years concludes that divorcees and never-marrieds are a bit more physically fit than married couples.

According to treadmill performance testing and physical examinations, both men and women experience a decline in cardiovascular wellness during marriage.

Men who divorced during the study improved their fitness level. Women, who represented a much smaller segment of the population studied, did not exhibit the increase in fitness upon divorce. But other variables can explain that.

The study does not demonstrate causality between marital status and fitness. It is believed that social factors are the driving forces: dating singles pay greater attention to their physical fitness and settled couples tend to be more relaxed about it.

Women who were single throughout the study tended to become more fit over time. Both married and single men’s fitness diminished over time, but more so for married men.

Scientists conclude that people must be mindful of how life changes affect fitness and plan accordingly.

Read more in this Reuters article: Is marriage bad for your physical fitness?.

UK Husband and Wife divorce.

Husband, a multi-millionaire, allegedly “overlooks” some assets in his required disclosures … about 2 million pounds’ worth.

Such as three gold bars smuggled out of Austria in the 1930s, and offshore bank accounts.

Husband claims not to have the “overlooked” assets.

The divorce court doesn’t buy that.

And awards Wife 2.4 million pounds.

Husband appeals.

The appellate court dismisses Husband’s appeal of the divorce trial court’s property award to Wife.

Husband now lives in Florida …

Read more in this UK Daily Mail article: Wife wins battle of the Nazi gold: £2.4m divorce payout after husband hid assets.

A family court judge in Canada was presiding over a divorce involving a minor Child.

This divorce court judge apparently found that:

1. Wife tried to run Husband over with a van.

2. Wife’s relatives have made threats against Husband.

3. Husband is verbally abusive.

4. Wife has alienated Child from Husband.

5. Husband has no clue how to parent.

This family court judge has served on the bench for fifteen years.

And this particular case appears to have gotten to him.

So much so that he wrote a scathing thirty-one page opinion taking both Husband and Wife to task for their behavior toward each other and their Child.

On a roll, the divorce court judge even has at the Canadian family court legal system.

The lengthy vent may have improved this family court judge’s mood, but it did not conclude Husband and Wife’s case.

It would be interesting to know whether it made any impression on Husband and Wife.

Read more in this [Canadian] Globe and Mail article: In family court, a judge turns to ridicule to defuse the rage.

Michigan Husband and Wife are going through a divorce.

They have three Sons ranging in age from 5 to 9 years old.

Husband has the Sons for timesharing on Thanksgiving.

Afterward, Husband does not return Sons to Wife, variously claiming that he handed the boys over to a woman he knows through the internet or to an “organization”.

Husband reportedly tries to commit suicide the next day.

Husband insists that Sons are OK but that he is protecting them from Wife, who he asserts is sexually abusing Sons.

Husband is arrested on charges of parental kidnapping, a misdemeanor.

Read more in this Toledo WTOL CBS TV 11 news article: Father of missing Morenci boys arraigned in Michigan and this CBS TV News article: John Skelton Waives Right to Key Hearing.

Some New York children don’t get to see their fathers regularly.

It’s not because their parents have divorced, or voluntarily parted company.

It’s because their fathers are incarcerated.

For these dads and their children, the New York Department of Corrections has launched a program called “Daddy and Me”.

The program gets fathers reading children’s books, and recording the stories for their children.

At the conclusion of the program, the children will come to the jail and their fathers will present them with the CDs the dads recorded for their children.

The program’s primary, stated purpose is to promote literacy.

But it offers the implicit additional fringe benefit of fostering parent-child bonds.

Read more in this New York Times article: ‘Daddy, Read for Me’.