Ask The Barrister:
International Travel and Parental Consent

by Rachel Elovitz

Dear Barrister:Joint Custody and International Travel
A client of mine (we’ll call him Ital E. Bound) is hoping to take his two children, eight and 10 years old, to Hawaii and Italy this summer. His ex-wife has indicated that she will not sign a travel consent form.

My client’s Settlement Agreement (which was incorporated last October into a Final Judgment and Decree of Divorce) provides that he is the children’s “primary” physical custodian. His ex-wife was designated the children’s “secondary” physical custodian. They are joint legal custodians (i.e., they are required to consult in good faith when making decisions about the children’s education, medical care and treatment, religious upbringing, and extracurricular activities). My client, however, has ultimate decision-making authority on all matters of legal custody in the event of a stalemate. Given these facts, is it really necessary for him to obtain his ex-wife’s consent to take the children to Hawaii and Italy?

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The Litigator’s Playbook:
Minding Your Manners/Engaging Your Jury

Jeri Kagel continues her advice on “good manners” during voir dire from our last issue.

The purpose here is to help you achieve your goals during voir dire: to learn about your potential jurors and uncover any biases and attitudes they may have to your case and its characters, and to begin to educate jurors as to your point of view. But you will not be able to accomplish these goals effectively unless you can build a rapport with jurors so they begin trusting you and what you have to say.

So, how to achieve these goals?

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The Practice Corner:
The Cost of Jury Service to the Juror

by Daniel DeWoskin
Trial Attorney
www.atlantatrial.com

CNN recently ran a story on how the economy is having a severe impact on many of those who are called to serve as jurors (www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/03/17/jury.duty.recession/index.html?hpt=C1). In the best of economic times, even those among us who can best afford to sacrifice time at work to engage in our noble civic duties might cringe at the summonses in our mailboxes. However, what this article makes clear is that today, perhaps more so than ever before, the toll taken by this sacrifice on the jurors can be devastating.

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The Shadow Cursor: Optimism Bias

by The Shadow

Psychological studies suggest the existence of a human characteristic known as “optimism bias.”

“Optimism bias” has been defined as the tendency for people to be over-optimistic about outcomes of planned actions. This includes over-estimating the likelihood of positive events occurring and under-estimating the likelihood of occurrence of negative events. In other words, humans tend to plan their lives with the expectation that their toast will always land butter-side-up. Let’s consider some examples of optimism bias:

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On the Calendar: May Events

DBA May Luncheon Old Decatur Courthouse, 101 E. Court Square. Food service begins at 11:30 a.m. You must RSVP by noon on the Monday before the Thursday luncheon. But if your plans change after you RSVP, please let us know…

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From the President: Mentors Make Transition Smoother for Young Lawyers

by Denise Warner

Community – one of the reasons why I love DeKalb County. A couple of months ago, after a civil trial calendar call, I spoke with two seasoned attorneys regarding a case. At the end of the conversation, one of them commented that one of the attorneys at the calendar call was the grandson of another attorney with whom they practiced around 30 years ago. It warmed my heart to see two attorneys reminisce about their successful careers and take pride in another generation of DeKalb County attorneys.

We are members of a profession – an occupation requiring considerable training and specialized study. As such, we have respect for the hard work and dedication it takes to succeed. Let’s not forget that once we were young attorneys who could always benefit from a mentor.

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