What is family? Whether you envision a traditional (two parents of different genders with biological offspring) or expanded (parents that include single, adoptive, step, foster, grandparents, siblings, or other kin, same-sex couples, etc.) model, the ties that bind families together are varied and complex.

Host Pat Barbarito and featured guest Matheu Nunn examine the legal definition of family and explore how that affects the rights, responsibilities, and obligations of everyone involved. 
 
Highlights include: 

• Surprising roots of the U.S. legal definition of family;
• The hierarchy of rights for parents, other family members, and interested third parties, as well as a review of the parens patriae principle, and the difference between parental rights and visitation rights;
• How the rights of biological parents are protected, even when considering the termination of those rights;
• Negotiating parental rights in blended families, at the beginning or end of a relationship/marriage;
• Why the legal relationship between parent and child must be severed before adoption can be finalized;
• When and why the court can insert itself and its guidance, including the removal of a child or termination of parental rights, into a family; and so much more

BONUS: Follow Mat’s seven-year litigation saga as it winds through various courts to help a non-traditional family be legally recognized by the U.S. legal system.

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