Combined Campaign for Justice Charity Tournament

The 4th Annual Golf and Tennis tournament to benefit the Combined Campaign for Justice held on July 18, 2016 at DuPont Country Club was a tremendous success!  Thanks to the more than 200 golfers, tennis players, sponsors and volunteers, over $36,000 (after expenses) was raised to benefit Delaware's three legal services organization: Community Legal Aid Society, Inc. (CLASI), Delaware Volunteer Legal Services, Inc. (DVLS), and Legal Services Corporation of Delaware, Inc. (LSCD). These organizations provide legal services to those who cannot afford to hire an attorney. They help parents and their children obtain protection from abuse orders from dangerous individuals, families facing wrongful evictions or foreclosures remain in their homes, and elderly people who have been taken advantage of by unscrupulous lenders recover their losses to name a few of their services. 

The Yeager Law Firm foursome: Christopher Talley, Paul Talley, Julie Yeager, Terry Holm (left to right).

We’re already looking forward to next year’s event which will once again be held at DuPont Country Club on Monday, July 17, 2017. If you’re interested in participating as a sponsor or team, please email me at julie.yeager@yeagerfamilylaw.com.

What Rights Do You Have as a Relative of a Child in Delaware Foster Care?

In October 2008, The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 ("Fostering Connections Act") became federal law. In relevant part, the Fostering Connections Act requires states to exercise due diligence to identify and notify adult relatives within 30 days of children entering the foster care system. State child welfare agencies who fail to do so risk losing federal funding.

There are countless compelling stories from around the country of relatives who did not know that their grandchildren, nieces, nephews, or siblings had been placed into foster care until well after they had been placed or even adopted by a non-relative. By requiring identification and notice, the Fostering Connections Act seeks to involve relatives earlier in the process and tries to keep families together.

Section 103 of the Fostering Connections Act, Notification of Relatives, requires:

…within 30 days after the removal of a child from the custody of the parent or parents of the child, the State shall exercise due diligence to identify and provide notice to all adult grandparents and other adult relatives of the child (including any other adult relatives suggested by the parents), subject to exceptions due to family or domestic violence,…

According to the policies and practices of the Delaware Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families, the Division of Family Services ("DFS") notifies relatives of their rights by letter mailed to their last known address.  

This letter, which is commonly referred to as a "Relative Notification Letter," informs grandparents and other adult relatives of the name of the child currently in foster care and identifies several options for how the relative can remain involved in the child's life.

These options include:

1. Becoming a relative placement;

2. Becoming the legal guardian;

3. Becoming a foster parent for the child; and

4. Visitation and/or contact with the child.  

Relatives may also be invited to attend a Team-Decision Making Meeting prior to a child entering DFS custody for the express purpose of trying to avoid a foster care placement.  

If you are a relative interested in becoming a relative caregiver, legal guardian or foster parent for a child in DFS's custody, you should get involved as early in the process as possible. Do not delay in contacting the assigned DFS investigative or treatment worker to express your interest.  

As an attorney who specializes in this area, I hear all the time from relatives that they thought the parent was doing what they were supposed to be doing to be reunified with their child and that is the reason they did not come forward sooner. Sadly, a delay, even for the right reasons, can have dire consequences: termination of parental rights and non-relative adoption.  

Furthermore, for most children, there is a stigma attached to being in foster care that does not exist if placed in a relative's home. Research also shows that children fare better in a relative's home than in a foster care placement. As for the parents, they may still be entitled to reunification services offered by DFS even if the child is placed in a relative's home.

If you are a grandparent or relative of a child in foster care and wish to know more about your rights, consider scheduling an initial consultation with a family law attorney who specializes in this area.

Race Results for the 2016 Delaware Charity Challenge

It may have been a chilly morning on Saturday, April 30, but that didn’t stop 19 teams, representing 18 different charities, from heading to Brandywine Creek State Park to participate in the Second Annual Delaware Charity Challenge. The challenge raised more than $24,000 in donations and was a fun event for all who participated in the 5K or Adventure Relay.

Congratulations to Yeager Law Firm team member, Malcolm Hughes, for finishing in 1st place overall! The Co-Ed team finished in 2nd place behind Faithful Friends and Men's team finished in 2nd place behind OperaDelaware.  

Our thanks to Innovincent, who put on a great event. As a reminder, you can still donate to Kind to Kids Foundation through the team fundraising page until May 31, 2016.

Congratulations to the 2016 N.C.A.A. Champions, the Villanova Wildcats!

Today is a happy day because my alma mater, Villanova University, just won the N.C.A.A National Championship in men's basketball.  

People always ask me how I ended up at Villanova University despite being from a very small town in rural Illinois (population 900 and zero stop lights). I explain that my mother is actually from New York City, we visited my grandmother in New Jersey every summer, and my older brother graduated from Georgetown University. In sum, I had ties to the East Coast long before I left for college.  

That being said, why Villanova?  

Their campus is beautiful. It is hard to resist after even a single visit. Their student-professor ratio is small. They are consistently ranked in the Top 50 schools academically. And I could not help but want to attend a college that at least had a chance to win a National Championship.

I grew up playing basketball. I spent my teenage years watching Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. In 2000, when we first started dating, I played a game of 1-on-1 on a Villanova basketball court against my now-husband that lives in infamy. (I am still trying to convince him that elbows are not fouls in women’s basketball).  

It took a little while longer than maybe my younger self may have wished, but the win was worth the wait and possibly that much sweeter for it.

Congratulations again to the Villanova men’s basketball team. We, the fans, owe you our gratitude for your hard work and perseverance. Thank you for allowing us to go along for the ride with you.    

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month

The signs of child abuse and neglect are not always as obvious as a broken bone or bruise. Being able to identify whether a child is the victim of abuse or neglect is the first step to helping to protect a child.  

Signs of abuse can include a regression in development, such as bed-wetting or thumb-sucking, fear of going home, increased absences from school, poor hygiene, wearing clothing inappropriate for the weather or that is too small or too big for them, or displaying inappropriate sexual behaviors.  

If you suspect child abuse or neglect in the State of Delaware, you must report it under Delaware law. 16 Del. C.  § 903. Every Delaware resident is a "mandatory reporter" of suspected child abuse or neglect. 

Reports must be made by calling the the Department of Children, Youth and their Families' 24-hour child abuse and neglect hotline at (800) 292-9582.  For more information about the reporting process, please visit this web page.

I am often asked what happens when I make a report?  The Department will do one of three things when a report is received:

1. Accept the report and investigate the allegations;
2. Refer the report to law enforcement for investigation; or
3. Document the report, but not investigate the allegations.

All reports to the Report Line are reviewed by a Division of Family Services' supervisor as part of the decision-making process. A case that is accepted for investigation by the Division of Family Services will be transferred to an investigation caseworker. If you are interested in what happens as part of the investigation, click here.

In addition to making a report, you have the option as a relative or non-relative of a child to file a Petition for Guardianship of a Minor in the Delaware Family Court.  Once approved by the Court, a guardian may exercise the same powers, rights and duties respecting the care, maintenance and treatment of the child as a parent typically would. The guardian takes responsibility for the health, education and welfare of the child. A parent may still be entitled to visitation and contact with the child and continues to have a responsibility to financially support the child, irrespective of any visitation schedule.  

Children who are dependent and neglected or abused by their parents may be taken into the custody of the Division of Family Services, if no one steps forward to provide the child with a safe and stable environment. The Division of Family Services has a duty to make reasonable efforts to locate a relative placement for a child taken into custody, but if none is available, the child will be placed in a foster home. A future blog post will address what rights you may have to visitation, contact or placement of a child currently in foster care.  Please check back next month. 

To learn more about filing for guardianship of a minor child, visit the Family Court website or schedule an initial consultation with a family law attorney.

Supporting Kind to Kids Through the Delaware Charity Challenge

Spring is right around the corner and that means it is time to lace up our sneakers and pound the pavement for some worthy causes in the coming months.

Our first race is the Delaware Charity Challenge. The event will take place on Saturday, April 30, 2016 at Brandywine Creek State Park. Our team is proud to run the co-ed 5K to support the Kind to Kids Foundation.  

Kind to Kids provides education services and life experiences to the 700 vulnerable children living in foster care in the State of Delaware. Kind to Kids representatives recently dropped off toys and school supplies to a six year old girl who came into Delaware’s foster care system due to physical abuse. She looked up and quietly whispered, “Thank you for caring about me.”  

This inspiring organization is unique in that it accepts donations of tickets to local events, in addition to cash donations, to offer life experiences to foster children. Your donation may offer a child his or her first opportunity to see a play at The Playhouse, watch a show at The Grand, or enjoy a professional sporting event.

As a sponsor of the Family Section for the Wilmington Blue Rocks, the Yeager Law Firm receives the benefit of free tickets to several games throughout the year. It is our pleasure to help give children in our State foster care system the opportunity to cheer on our local baseball team by donating some of our tickets to Kind to Kids.

The Yeager Law Firm raised $410 for Big Brothers Big Sisters during last year’s Delaware Charity Challenge and we would love to beat that total this year. As a bonus (and a bit of a surprise!) we also won the women's 5k race.   

The Yeager Law Firm team for the 2015 Delaware Charity Challenge.

Help us reach our goal this year! Our donation page is here: https://www.crowdrise.com/Yeager-Law-Firm and check back here for a full recap of the race in May.

Bringing Cheer to Delaware Children

The holidays are a time for family, fun, and Thanksgiving. The Yeager Law Firm is a proud participant of the Annual Toy Drive sponsored by the Young Lawyers Section of the Delaware State Bar Association in connection with the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program.  

The goal of Toys for Tots is to deliver, through toys, a message of hope to needy youngsters in our community that will motivate them to grow into responsible, productive, patriotic citizens and community leaders.

We are collecting new and unwrapped toys for newborns through age 12. The deadline for donations is 5 P.M. on Thursday, December 10, 2015.  Please feel free to drop your donations at our office or email me at julie.yeager@yeagerfamilylaw.com to arrange a pick up.

Thank you and happy holidays!

The Final Step of a Property Division Matter is the Qualified Domestic Relations Order. Do you have one?

Did you know that a Court Order is required to divide your former spouse's pension as part of a divorce? Did you also know that it is the responsibility of the non-employee spouse to submit an approved Court Order, typically called a "Qualified Domestic Relations Order" or "QDRO", to the pension plan administrator to receive pension benefits?  

Since the passing of the Retirement Equity Act in 1984, QDROs have been the approved method by which a non-employee spouse ("alternate payee") can receive a share of the employee spouse's ("plan participant") pension without violating the the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). A QDRO is drafted by the attorney for the alternate payee subsequent to a parties' divorce and after the entry of a property division order by the Family Court. The QDRO is signed by the Family Court judge and submitted to the pension plan administrator for processing and approval.  

A pension can be the most significant marital asset in a divorce, even more valuable then the former marital residence. Yet sometimes it is forgotten. Under current Delaware law, a former spouse is typically entitled to 50% of the marital portion of the other party's pension. This figure is determined by using the Cooper Formula. If each spouse has a pension, then each will receive 50% of the other spouse's pension. 

Upon request, the Family Court will typically award a pre-retirement and post-retirement surviving spouse annuity, which entitles the alternate payee to continue to receive his or her pension benefit for life. Without a surviving spouse annuity, all pension benefits may halt upon the death of the plan participant.    

While QDROs are quite commonplace in 2015, I am finding that parties who were divorced in the 1980's and 1990's, when QDROs were still relatively new, may have overlooked this requirement. I have represented many clients who were divorced 25 to 35 years ago and just recently learned there was no QDRO on file while preparing for their retirement.  

The good news is that it may not be too late. As long as the plan participant is still living and you have a property division order that entitles you to a portion of your former spouse's pension benefit, a QDRO can be drafted directing a portion of the plan participant's prospective monthly pension benefits to you. 

The bad news is that you may not be able to ever recoup some of the benefits lost due to your delay. A plan administrator will not entertain a QDRO that tries to award retroactive benefits. Accordingly, if your former spouse has been collecting pension benefits for years, you may have lost out on thousands of dollars of paid benefits. Moreover, you may have lost your right to a survivorship annuity. 

While the Family Court may be willing to entertain a request for recoupment of lost pension benefits upon the filing of a new petition and a hearing, a survivorship election, once made by the retiring plan participant, cannot be changed.  

If you are currently going through a divorce and your spouse has a pension or you were previously divorced and awarded a portion of your spouse's pension but you do not have a QDRO in your records, I strongly recommend that you seek the advice of an attorney experienced in drafting QDROs, such as The Yeager Law Firm. Contact us here.