Children First Family Law

Parents going through divorce are turning to AI at every stage, from researching their legal options to drafting parenting plans to preparing for mediation. That shift is not going away. The question is whether families are using these tools in ways that actually protect their children, or in ways that create new problems while feeling productive. What AI Does Well in Divorce Used with intention, AI can be a genuine asset. It helps parents organize their thinking before speaking with an attorney, draft questions they would not have thought to ask, and understand the basic framework of their situation before spending a dollar on professional fees. Parents can also use it to run preliminary numbers on child support scenarios, get a clearer picture of what financial disclosures require, and identify gaps in their own understanding. The key is treating AI as a starting point, not a conclusion. It performs best when given detailed, specific information. A vague prompt produces a vague an...

Alcohol use in custody cases rarely announces itself. In this episode of the Children First Family Law Podcast, Krista Nash sits down with Mike Fonesca, national sales manager at Soberlink, to talk about one of the most practical and reliable tools available to family courts today: real-time alcohol monitoring. Mike breaks down how Soberlink works, why testing frequency matters more than most parents and attorneys realize, and how the device’s facial recognition and tamper-detection technology make it far harder to game than cheaper alternatives. He also covers pricing, the financial assistance program, and how authenticated records hold up in court. The real thread running through this conversation is trust. Used correctly, real-time monitoring gives families a credible path forward, one built on documented accountability rather than accusation. In this episode, you will hear: How Soberlink works, from the breath device and facial recognition to real-time compliance report...

Most parenting plans account for holidays down to the hour, specifying who has the children on the Fourth of July, what time Christmas morning ends, and which parent handles school pickup on alternating Fridays. The transition itself, the moment a child physically moves from one home to the other, rarely appears. That gap has real consequences for children. The Transition Is a Relational Event Family law has long treated changeovers as logistics. Who picks up, where, and at what time. That framing misses what children are actually experiencing. At the moment of transition, a child often faces the highest concentration of stress in their entire post-separation life. Both parents are present, or at least emotionally proximate. Loyalty conflicts surface. Even parents who say nothing communicate volumes through body language, tone, and the emotional charge they bring to a parking lot or school pickup line. The logistics matter, but they are secondary to the relational reality a child is...

Artificial intelligence is showing up in divorce cases at every stage, and most parents have no idea how to use it well or where it can quietly steer them wrong. In this episode, Krista Nash sits down with Jamie Pima, a former Morgan Stanley and Fidelity executive turned certified divorce financial analyst and founder of SecureSplit, who brings a rare combination of high-level financial expertise and firsthand experience with a difficult personal divorce. Jamie breaks down exactly how AI can serve as a research tool and co-pilot through the financial complexities of divorce, and where it becomes a liability. He and Krista also get into how parents can use AI to draft better co-parenting communications and build more thoughtful parenting plans. The tools exist. This episode is about learning to use them wisely. In this episode, you will hear: How AI is already reshaping divorce, from financial analysis to parenting plan drafts Why prompt quality determines whether AI helps or mis...

For most divorcing parents, the handoff between homes is treated as a scheduling detail. Dr. Michael Saini, professor at the University of Toronto and one of the leading researchers in high-conflict family dynamics, has spent years studying what actually happens to children during those moments, and the findings are hard to ignore. Krista Nash welcomes Dr. Saini back to the Children First Family Law Podcast for a conversation about his latest research, which examined 20 years of court cases to understand how judges, attorneys, and families are handling what he calls “changeovers,” and where they’re falling short. Dr. Saini’s research reveals that for many children, the transition between homes ranks among the most stressful parts of the entire separation experience, yet courts rarely address it in any meaningful detail. This episode offers a clear-eyed look at what children actually need before, during, and after each changeover, and why it deserves far more a...

When a child stops wanting to see a parent, most people assume the solution is therapy. Find a good counselor, get the child into sessions, and let the healing begin. That assumption is understandable. It is also incomplete, and in the most difficult cases, acting on it without the right framework can make things worse. Complex family systems therapy is a different discipline entirely. It addresses the cases where estrangement has taken hold, conflict has calcified over months or years, and the standard therapeutic model simply does not fit what the family actually needs. Every Member of the System Has a Role The most common misconception in these cases is that the problem belongs to two people: the child and the parent they’ve pulled away from. In reality, the entire family system is involved. The favored parent, the extended family, even the attorneys in the room can contribute to the dynamic that keeps conflict alive. That means effective treatment requires participation from ev...