Bell v. Bell’s Empirical Analysis
1990
Citation profile
17 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 17 later decisions — most recently August 2018
17 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 Merrill v. Merrill · Wanberg v. Wanberg · Lone Wolf v. Lone Wolf · Julsen v. Julsen · McClain v. McClain
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 17 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“(a) The legislature finds that it is generally desirable to assure a minor child frequent and continuing contact with both parents after the parents have separated or dissolved their marriage and that it is in the public interest to encourage parents to share the rights and responsibilities of child rearing. While actual physical custody may not be practical or appropriate in all cases, it is the intent of the legislature that both parents have the opportunity to guide and nurture their child and to meet the needs of the child on an equal footing beyond the considerations of support or actual custody.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passagee.g. Crane v. Crane · Holl v. Holl“[A]n award of joint custody gives both parents "legal custody" of the child. This means that they "share responsibility in the making of major decisions affecting the child's welfare." 17 A.L.R. 4th 1015 n. 1. Second, an award of joint custody gives both parents "physical custody" of the child. This means that "each is entitled to the companionship of the child over periodic intervals of time." Id. ... [T]he legislature [has drawn] this distinction and expressed a policy favoring the award of joint legal custody, regardless of the physical custody arrangement... . [3]”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Farrell v. Farrell“assets to which there has been mutual contribution by the parties greatly depreciate or appreciate in value.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Pfeil v. Lock
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.