UPDATES IN MICHIGAN FAMILY LAW

Balancing Rights Preventing Warrantless Searches against Needs of Children to be Safe from Abuse

Daniel Pollack, a frequent guest author on this Blog and a professor at Wurzweiler School of Social Work, has recently co-authored an article titled “The role of law enforcement in child welfare checks” with Carly Sanchez.¹ The article appears in the January issue of Los Angeles Lawyer Magazine. 

The authors conclude, after analyzing the tensions between the requirements of law enforcement and child safety, that balancing the privacy interests provided in the Fourth Amendment ² and the necessary protection of children from abuse and neglect is challenging. The Fourth Amendment provides for security and privacy within the parent(s)' dwelling--a place in which a child has no property interest. Thus, a predicament arises where a court issues an Order for a welfare check, which means that law enforcement officials routinely conduct warrantless searches with the goal of preventing child abuse.

Effective Computer Research Strategies Using Boolean Techniques

Recently, a member of the Family Law Listserv of The State Bar of Michigan asked how one should interpret a court rule that contains the word "shall" rather than "may."  I remembered using a Boolean search strategy to research that very question perhaps thirty-odd years ago to get a case citation for a brief. I remembered from my previous brief-writing that interpretation of statutes is linked to the intent of the Legislature when the statute was enacted, made clear by history of the legislative act.  I also remembered that, under Michigan law, case law held that interpretation of court rules followed the same precept as that of interpretation of statutes and also that the word "shall" dictated that "shall" should be interpreted as being mandatory. This was my Boolean search query:

Michigan AND statute AND "rules of statutory interpretation" AND mandatory AND shall

I remember getting thousands of returns to the above Boolean search. I also remember that the first case I opened and reviewed was perfect for my brief. Several years ago, I wrote a blog post titled Effective Computer Research Strategies Using Boolean Techniques   This Blog Post and a subsequent one found here  https://tinyurl.com/y8vjdnr2 will help everyone research and find relevant information to simple or complex questions. I encourage members of the Listserv and other readers of my Blog to bookmark or use these valuable tools to help find the answer to your legal questions no matter which tool (website, database) you choose.