As if we have not been deluged with unusual challenges in the past year, the next 12 months promises to present us with some new ones, as well as a continuation of many of the issues we have been dealing with since last March. Family lawyers live at the heart of social change in our society. Any significant social changes that affect many Americans will affect the practice of family law. In the coming year we will see some of those changes become even more pronounced.

Some family lawyers have already encountered family conflict over vaccinations. As some marriages fall apart, conflict between parents as to whether children should be vaccinated often becomes more intense, along with conflict over other aspects of medical treatment. Now we find ourselves in a situation in which the national plan is that eventually every American over age 16 will be vaccinated, and there is current research on testing vaccines for children from ages 2 to 16.