Not so long ago, the legal practitioners in this field were called divorce lawyers or matrimonial lawyers. This area of the law focused on the marital relationship and little else. Most domestic cases were limited to dividing the marital property, setting spousal maintenance and child support, and deciding custody.

Our view of this area of the law has changed dramatically in the last three or four decades. Now a family law practitioner must be knowledgeable about antenuptial agreements, adoption, shifting responsibility for child support, the best interests of the child, visitation rights of grandparents, the tax consequences of dividing pension rights, and a plethora of state and local statutes governing payment of child support and parental kidnapping, just to name a few. It is little wonder that practitioners in this area now call themselves “family” lawyers.