Elmer v. Elmer’s Empirical Analysis
1989
Citation profile
39 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 40 later decisions — most recently May 2024 · most notably Smith v. Smith (1990), Hudema v. Carpenter (1999)
39 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on 24 Cal. 3d 725 - In Re Marriage of Carney · 42 Cal. 3d 531 - Burchard v. Garay · 77 Ill. 2d 414 - In Re Custody of Harne · 67 Ill. App. 3d 760 - De Franco v. De Franco · Hogge v. Hogge
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 40 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“'an objective, impartial determination of the best interests of the child'”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage“'[tlhe best interests 'of the child should never be lost sight of, and rules on change in custody should not be so rigid that this overarching principle is not followed.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passagee.g. Day v. Barnes · R.B. v. L.B.“the res judicata aspect of the rule [favoring finality of judgments] must always be subservient to the best interests of the child”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.