Family Law

Ask Willie D: Trying to Be a Good Stepmother; Undercover Freak

Welcome to Ask Willie D, Rocks Off's advice column where the Geto Boys MC answers reader questions about matters, in his own words, "funny, serious or unpredictable." Something on your mind? Ask Willie D! TRYING TO BE A GOOD STEPMOTHER Willie D, I wanted to know your thoughts on how I should deal ... More >>

Dear Houston: You're Idiotic

Parking rules are inane.

Michael Brown: Whoops -- I Didn't Really Mean to File for Bankruptcy After Buying That $8 Million Mansion!

As if the clusterfuck of multi-jurisdictional litigation involving wife-beater and alleged flight-attendant-choker Michael "I Did Not Give That Woman Anal Herpes" is not crazy enough, the former TV-ad icon is seeking to dismiss his bankruptcy filing in a Miami federal court. Avid Brown-watchers wi ... More >>

Denise Pratt: Family Court Judge Issues Blanket Gag Order, Because it Sucks When the Public Knows What's Going On

We've heard of judges issuing gag orders in especially sensitive cases, but until now, we've never heard of a judge issuing a blanket gag order: Harris County Family Court Judge Denise Pratt on January 23 sent a motion to attorneys in her court involved with SAPCR cases -- suits affecting parent-chi ... More >>

Stevie Wonder Divorce Heralds Impending Doom

Even though Mason Lankford said, "There will come a day when we forget the Rapture ever even happened," Rocks Off is keeping an eye out for signs of our impending Armageddon. I was wrong last time, but I'm totally right this time! Sad news in the entertainment world. Beloved pop star Stevie Wonder, ... More >>

Arrest Warrant Issued for Dr. Michael Brown

A family court judge issued an arrest warrant Tuesday for ex-hand surgeon Michael "Pass the Cocaine, Please" Brown, for failure to show up to a court hearing. Judge Sheri Dean, who's been overseeing the bitter divorce proceedings between Michael and Rachel, issued the warrant. The warrant was issue ... More >>

Out of Hand

Michael Glyn Brown was recently acquitted of assaulting his wife. But that's only the latest allegation against the violent, drug-abusing doctor, long a fixture of Houston TV commercials and society.

Foster Care in Texas: A Broken System, Without Much Hope for Improvement

​Thousands of Texas foster children are subject to "immeasurable and permanent harm and are deprived of the opportunity for a safe children," according to a class-action lawsuit filed by a New York-based advocacy group against Governor Rick Perry and state child welfare officials. Filed in Ma ... More >>

Texans Love Gay Marriage/Civil Unions, Kinda

If it's good enough for Springfield....​Texas, you are filled with homo-loving, or at least homo-live-and-let-live, people. You're supposed to hate the idea of gays period, much less giving them any sort of rights like straights have earned through their Leviticus-quoting ways. But a new poll ... More >>

Michael Brown and Wife Divide Up the Luxury

A Maserati, a Lamborghini...​Further talk of an alleged hit man in ex-hand doc Michael Brown's divorce case was averted today when lawyers for Brown and his wife signed "agreed temporary orders" divvying up the couple's bounty. And boy, is it a bounty -- especially for a dude who filed bankrup ... More >>

More Rex Ryan, the Ryan Leaf Trilogy & NFL Best Bets

Rex Ryan: Can you smell them from here is the question​Two more shopping days left. I need money. You need money. So let's get to winning. And by winning let's find a way to weave more Rex Ryan "foot fetish" talk into a handicapping discussion. Can we do this? (Can we touch them? Can we sm ... More >>

Top Five Rapper Deadbeat Dads

​Admit it, when you hear the term "deadbeat dad," you immediately think of a black rapper rocking Gucci stunna shades in a perfectly dimmed room, pants drooping to his ankles. Truth be told, hip-hop dads would be wise to step up and heed Ed OG's words: "Be a Father to Your Child." Relationsh ... More >>

HISD's Greg Meyers Divorcing HCC's Sandie Meyers

The school board president and wife split​A divorce decree is expected to be issued tomorrow morning for Greg Meyers, president of the Houston ISD school board and his wife Sandie Meyers, a Houston Community College trustee, after more than 20 years of marriage."It's an unfortunate situation," Gre ... More >>

Getting Divorced In Harris County? Good Luck

Don't worry -- it'll take a long time before that case gets heard​Texas Lawyer magazine has a good look at the docket problems in Harris County's Family Law Center, where nine courts have about 34,500 cases pending on their dockets.One lawyer notes that in his 25 years of practice, the county's po ... More >>

Evander Holyfield Loses A House And A Lawyer

It takes a lot of grills to pay a lot of child support​Today's edition of the never-ending saga of former heavyweight boxing champ Evander Holyfield 's financial woes takes the form of a lawsuit the boxer filed today against a Houston lawyer he says illegally foreclosed on Holyfield's home.Accordi ... More >>

Continental Airlines, Like Foreigner, Wants To Know What Love Is

Eminem and Kim Mathers could do it. So could Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee. Richard Burton and Liz Taylor elevated it to an art form. Of course, we're talking about revolving-door couples; putting cyanide in each other's wine one minute, dancing to "Endless Love" the next. Rinse, wash, repeat.And as ... More >>

From The Oakland A's To Texas' Biggest Deadbeat Dad -- The Pride of Brazoswood High

Troy Neel, of Brazoswood High, had one good year in the majors: as an Oakland A, he batted .290 in 1993.So he was never an All-Star. Today he earned a new title: The newly arrested Biggest Deadbeat Dad in Texas.Attorney General Greg Abbott's office announced that Neel was arrested yesterday at LA In ... More >>

Enough with This Brett Favre Business Already

Family Ties

For Argentine director Daniel Burman, life is a movie

The Prince of Perjury Palace

In court, the truth didn't matter -- he got his child anyway

Young Loves

Tom Zaratti was just a lawyer of modest means, looking out for his boy. Then the revelations began.

Buffalo Dancers

Unemployed steelworkers regain -- and display -- their manhood in The Full Monty

Electoral Gift

A magazine provides a judicial campaign

Divorce Over Easy

Collaborative divorce promises to be kinder, faster, cheaper. But does it really work?

Judge Love Strikes Again

A jurist's order restricts colleague's sleepovers with her pal

Daddy's Girl

Gregory Beard says his wife did drugs in front of their child, yet a Harris County associate judge awarded her custody. Beard spent the summer fighting to get his baby back.

Best Lobbyists

Dave and Sue Walden

Pure Spunk

Del Rio-bred Radney Foster is a cowpunk both on stage and off

End of the Line

After seven years and several lawsuits, John Shike goes to jail for tormenting his ex

Letters

Letters to the Editor

Absent a Mother

A judge says Karen Shrader can't see or talk to her children because she's a bad influence. Shrader says any “bad influence” comes from the application of her ex-husband's deep pockets to the East Texas legal system.

Conspiracy Theory

Arms dealer-turned-gadfly Al Johnson thinks everyone's out to get him. He's right

How to Divorce a Millionaire

Georgette Mosbacher offers a guide for gold diggers

Letters

No, No, Annette!

In family court, Judge Annette Galik presides over divorce and custody cases where sex, lies and videotape are part of everyday evidence and testimony. Now the face on the videotape is her own.

Courtship, River Oaks Style

High-powered attorney Earle Lilly was Linda Sarofim Lowe's divorce lawyer, then her lover. Now he's left her, and she wants her $6 million in attorney fees and her Mercedes back.

Letters

Little Girl Lost?

Brittany Ann Corcoran, age seven, went "missing" for seven months. She resurfaced with a case of head lice, holes in her socks and nothing settled about what has been and what will become of her...

The Insider

Justice Lost -- and Found

Austin police may finally file charges in the death of courts activist Donna Ringoringo

Secrets of the Sphinx?

Big money, big lawyers, bizarre allegations: it's Sarofim v. Sarofim, the divorce from hell

Deadbeat Collector

A Few Problems of His Own

In the Child's Best Interest

A legal technicality sent Donnie and DeAnne Fitts to a Houston court seeking to adopt Justin and Jacob Baker - again. Twelve jurors agreed that outcome would be the best for the children. Judge Bill Henderson didn't quite see it that way.

Ritalin on Trial

While some Houston parents fight what they charge is "a river of Ritalin" running through the schools, one father has gone to court to try to prove that, for his son, Ritalin use is Ritalin abuse.

Female Troubles

A dumb cartoon illustrates women lawyers' problems with the State Bar

Battle of the Retreads

Two soon-to-be-unemployed politicians may be headed for a City Council showdown

The Extended Courtship of Phrogge Simons

Her persistence paid off, but she's not leaving just yet

Turkeys (and Other Creatures) On the Ballot

Quick! It's almost Election Day!! Do you know who your candidates are? Check this guide to the mother of all ballots!