The Lawletter Vol. 51 No. 5

 Brett R. Turner—Senior Attorney

      For every rule there is an exception, and for every exception there is a party who tries to stretch the exception far beyond its intended parameters. This principle is demonstrated by a recent California case involving the most basic discovery procedure recognized by American law: the humble deposition.

     Traditionally, depositions have been taken in person. In the age of the internet, however, it is not uncommon for a deposition to be taken online. Such an online deposition was scheduled in Agnone v. Agnone, 111 Cal. App. 5th 758, 333 Cal. Rptr. 3d 119 (2025).

     One of the most basic rules of deposition law is that the witness cannot be coached by counsel as to the best way to answer the question. The answer must come from the witness, not from counsel. See, e.g., Tucker v. Pac. Bell Mobile Servs., 186 Cal. App. 4th 1548, 115 Cal. Rptr. 3d 9 (2010).

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The Lawletter Vol. 51 No. 2

Brett Turner—Co-President

      Much attention has been paid in recent months to the misuse of artificial intelligence (“AI”) software by attorneys. But what about the use of AI software by judges?

      In Payne v. State, No. S26A0459, the Georgia Supreme Court discovered that a trial court order dated September, 12, 2005, contained serious citation errors. Three cases cited in the order did not actually exist; three cases were properly cited, but language which was expressly quoted did not appear in the opinion; and three cases were properly cited, but their holdings were clearly misstated. These sorts of errors are common when AI is used to prepare a document explaining legal reasoning without sufficient human supervision.

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The Lawletter Vol. 50 No. 3

Brett R. Turner, Senior Attorney

              As I write this note, it is mid-October, there is a crisp cool snap in the air, and the college football season is in full swing. It is a good time to remember that in the United States of America, college football and college sports in general are very big business.

            A reminder of this point in the divorce context is Waldrip v. Waldrip, 2025 Ark. App. 29, 705 S.W.3d 8. The parties in that case were members of the Razorback Foundation, which provides financial support for athletics at the University of Arkansas. The Foundation raises money, in part, by granting donors the right to purchase desirable seating at University sporting events. Those who donate to the Foundation are given priority points, and those with higher amount of points get more priority in purchasing desirable seating.

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Lawletter Vol  48 No. 3

ChatGPT, LLMs, and Legal Research

Brett R. Turner—Senior Attorney

What Is ChatGPT? What Are LLMs?

      ChatGPT is one particular brand of a large language model, or LLM. LLMs are a recent technological advance in how computers and humans communicate with one another. In one direction, LLMs parse plain-language instructions and convert them into language which a computer can understand. In the opposite direction, LLMs allow computers to translate their output into ordinary language for humans, including not only sentences but also entire written products, such as memos or briefs.

      More specifically, LLMs work by starting with certain words (the prompt) and finding other words which are associated with those words in certain training material. An algorithm is then used to convert the chosen words into a product using ordinary human language.

      ChatGPT has been analogized to the automatic chat bots found on many support websites. The software begins with a prompt, scans through a specific list of documents, and produces the content of those materials in ordinary human language.

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The Lawletter Vol. 48 No. 1

Brett Turner, Senior Attorney, National Legal Research Group, Inc.

          Mother and Father married in 1996 and had two children. Mother filed for divorce in 2019, and the divorce was granted in July of 2021. Father was ordered to pay child support.

            In October 2021, three months after the divorce, Father filed to reduce child support, alleging that he had been terminated from his job. He then failed to make his October and November child support payments and was also not in compliance with the property division terms of the decree.

            Father was in the process of selling a piece of real estate, the Carpentersville property, awarded him in the decree. In mid-November, Mother moved the court to order the proceeds from that sale be placed in escrow, with the proceeds used to satisfy Father's child support and other obligations under the decree. The trial court granted the motion to the extent of holding the sale proceeds in escrow, and Father appealed.

            Father argued that the escrow order was an impermissible prejudgment attachment of funds in which Mother had no interest. The appellate court rejected the premise that the trial court issued a prejudgment attachment at all. "Instead, the trial court was exercising its equitable power to protect the two minor children and their right to support." In re Patel, 2022 IL App (1st) 211650, ¶ 23. "Hence, the trial court may order an injunction of proceeds to prevent the dissipation of assets that may be used to satisfy court-ordered child support and maintenance." Id.

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The Lawletter Vol 45 No 3

Brett Turner—Senior Attorney, National Legal Research Group

            The ongoing COVID-19 crisis is affecting the lives of all Americans in many ways. One of those many ways is the exchange of children under custody and visitation orders.

            This is a very uncertain area of the law, with essentially no court decisions yet available, but several basic points can be noted. First, the mere existence of the crisis, if neither the children nor any parent has actually been exposed to COVID-19, is probably not alone a sufficient basis for noncompliance with any custody or visitation order. Indeed, emergency orders issued by the governor in at least three states—Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio—expressly list travel required by a custody or visitation order as essential for purposes of travel restrictions. These provisions would seem to suggest a policy that mere fear of COVID-19, without any specific evidence of a risk of exposure to the virus, is not alone a sufficient basis to modify an order or excuse noncompliance.

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The Lawletter Vol 44 No 4

Brett R. Turner—Senior Attorney, National Legal Research Group

            One of the most common formalities required for family law agreements is that they must be in writing. At common law, premarital agreements were within the statute of frauds. The Uniform Premarital Agreements Act ("UPAA") requires that premarital agreement be both written and signed by both spouses. UPAA §§ 2, 5. Many states, by case law or statute, likewise require that divorce settlement agreements be written.  Amendments to family law agreements must also often be written.

            A generation ago, a writing requirement was easy to construe—the text of the agreement had to appear on paper. But in the 21st century, the world is increasingly paperless. It seems quite likely that the world of family law agreements will join the movement away from paper.

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The Lawletter Vol 43 No 8

 

Brett Turner—Senior Attorney, National Legal Research Group

            Permanent alimony awards are still alive and well in many states, especially when the marriage is long and there is substantial income disparity between the spouses.  When the court determines the amount of alimony, what effect do the receiving spouse's assets have upon the award?

 

            A good example of a modern permanent alimony case is Sweeney v. Sweeney, 420 S.C. 69, 75, 800 S.E.2d 148, 151 (Ct. App. 2017). The marriage there lasted for 28 years from marriage to filing of the divorce action. The husband had gross income of $34,100 per month, or $409,200 per year.  The wife's gross income was very limited. Sweeney was clearly a permanent alimony case.

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The Lawletter Vol 43 No 3
Brett Turner—Senior Attorney, National Legal Research Group

     Persons who suffer from serious disabilities can apply for and receive Social Security Disability ("SSD"). When a parent receives SSD, dependency benefits are also paid to the parent's dependents.

     In the context of child support, a majority of states consider the noncustodial parent's SSD dependency benefits to be a form of child support, paid to the child from amounts previously withheld from the income of the parent. They are treated as income for purposes of child support, but the noncustodial parent then gets a dollar-for-dollar offset against child support for the amount of dependency benefits received by the child. Read More

The Lawletter Vol 42 No 1

Brett Turner, Senior Attorney, National Legal Research Group

      In Curtis v. Curtis, 887 N.W.2d 249 (Minn. 2016), the wife sought spousal support in a divorce case. But she received, as part of her share of the marital property, an Ameritrade account worth over $2 million.

     The trial court held that the income from this account constituted income for purposes of spousal support. The account was invested in growth-oriented securities and produced income of less than $3,000 per year. This income was not sufficient to meet the wife's support needs. But the husband proved that the account could be reinvested into income-oriented securities at a rate of 7% per year and earn $9,500 per month in income. On this basis, the trial court imputed $9,500 per month income to the wife, and found that she had no need for spousal support. Minnesota's intermediate appellate court affirmed, and the wife appealed to the Minnesota Supreme Court.

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