Florida Divorce * Child Custody * Domestic Violence Law Lawyer | Boca Raton

Ireland has the dubious distinction of emerging as a popular destination for parental child abductors all over.

The number of parental child abduction cases there has risen dramatically in recent years.

Despite entering the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, which requires return of children to their place of “habitual residence“, Ireland often doesn’t.

For example, last year, the Irish high court ordered return in only about half of the cases before it.

While 2,000 kids were involved in Hague Convention cases in the last 15 years, last year alone the figure was 160.

Statistics show that twice as many children are abducted into Ireland as out of Ireland.

Read more in this Irish Independent article: Ireland a haven for love-tug abductors.

Granted, taxes are not foremost in the minds of most couples going through a divorce.

But for couples with sufficient assets, income and civility, tax impact is an important consideration which may be factored into any divorce settlement.

Couples should pay particular attention to alimony, the sale of the house, income tax filing status and timing of the divorce.

An interest in real estate can be transferred from one spouse to another tax-free, but alimony payments are normally taxable income to the receiving spouse.

Capital gains treatment on sale of real estate may favor selling as a couple before the divorce, rather than as a single after the divorce.

For late-in-year divorces, it may pay to wait until early the following year.

In appropriate cases, it may be well worth consulting a tax accountant or tax attorney on the structuring of any divorce settlement.

Read more in this [New Jersey] Courier Post article: Keep your cool in a divorce to avoid tax headaches.

A guardian ad litem appointed to advocate on behalf of a 14 month old baby has recommended to the court that his mother stop breast-feeding him.

The guardian was concerned about the child ingesting medications prescribed for his mother.

The mother maintains that she researched this issue carefully and that her baby nurse and one of her son’s doctors all encouraged her to breast-feed with full knowledge of her medication regimen. The mother also sought out the input of the author of a book on medications in mother’s milk and he too approved her choice to breast-feed.

Nonetheless, the dispute over whether the mother should breast-feed will be put before a family court judge and could influence whether he will leave the mother as the baby’s primary residential custodian.

Just in case, the mother is stocking up on formula for her son.

The unusual case raises troubling issues regarding the propriety of this intrusion into the mother’s parental rights and rights to privacy.

Read more in this Atlanta Journal Constitution article: Breast-feeding debate impacts custody battle.

CBS’s Early Show has been airing a series called Reconcilable Differences. It’s focus is on helping the kids through a divorce.

The series explores settling cases amicably utilizing tools such as mediation, collaborative divorce, divorce coaching and education on parenting for divorce.

Of course, the most important rules are not to put the kids in the middle and to make sure they understand they are not to blame.

Nothing new here, except the medium and format. But this medium has a wide reach.

For those who missed the series, videos of excerpts can be viewed over the internet.

For more information, read this CBS News Early Show article: Reconcilable Differences, Part 3: Respecting And Guiding Kids Through A Divorce.

Woman adopts eleven children in New York City. Woman later moves to Florida.

Woman raises children – with no education beyond fourth grade, no medical care, without adequate food, without normal social contact, without freedom.

Why?

She adopted the children to collect payments from New York City. Over a million dollars in fact.

All of the children, now aged 15 to 27, suffer from physical and mental disabilities.

The woman, now 62, faces criminal charges of abuse and neglect in Florida.

And the Florida court can now request that the New York courts unseal the normally confidential adoption records.

The records are needed to nail down the identities of the victims, nine of whom are now disabled adults in the care of the state of Florida.

The whereabouts of two others is unknown.

The state just took the woman’s grandchildren from her biological son into protective custody as well.

Read more in this ABC ActionNews.com article: Florida prosecutors can ask judge to unseal records in abuse case and this Newsday article: NY adoption records relevant in Florida abuse case, judge says.

New York City is contemplating banning smoking in a car in which there are minor children.

If it passes, New York won’t be the first place with such a ban. Similar bans already exist in Arkansas, Louisiana, Puerto Rico, Bangor, Me., and Rockland County, N.Y.

Transgressions would subject the violator to potentially hefty fines.

But that may not be the worst penalty.

In some states, family court judges may and have considered “smoker status” as a factor in child custody determinations. See my previous post, Smoking Cigarettes Has Gotten Terribly Costly: You Just May Lose Custody of Your Child.

And certain states have banned smoking in homes with foster children. Presumably, infractions could result in foster parents being dropped from the fostering program and their foster children being removed from their home.

Read more in this New York Times article: A Call to Ban Smoking in Cars (With Children).

All parents worry about their children’s future when and if something should happen to them. In “broken families”, the custodial parent often tends to worry even more.

But for no parent is that worry greater than the parent of a special needs child.

The College Living Experience, sponsored by the Educational Services of America, is working on alleviating that worry in a unique way.

Simply put, the program facilitates special needs children attending college.

The program houses special needs college students together in apartments where they can deliver tutoring, independent living skills training, social outings and psychological support services.

The program operates in several major cities, including neighboring Fort Lauderdale.

Read more in this PR Newswire press release: Students With Special Needs Attend College This Fall.

According to recent statistics just released by the New Zealand family courts, child custody determinations there are gender-neutral, meaning that either parent may win custody without regard to that parent’s gender.

The New Zealand statistics demonstrated that roughly two-thirds of the time, whichever parents seeks custody, receives it. In New Zealand, that is still the mother more than twice as often as the father.

Gender-neutrality is also the rule under Florida statute and is becoming increasingly common throughout the US.

Read more in this Stuff.Co.NZ article: Gender ‘not a factor’ in Family Court decisions.

Recently, I posted on NJ: Mother May Relocate to Japan Against Father’s Wishes.

And further back on Japan: No Visitation Rights for American Fathers of Children Abducted to Japan.

Knowing how Japan deals with child custody and visitation cannot help but influence one’s thoughts on the NJ Supreme Court’s recent ruling – although it clearly did not influence the court.

To its credit, the Japan Times just published a long, hard look in its legal mirror. Apparently, it didn’t like what it saw there. The published piece also unequivocally criticized the NJ Supreme Court’s recent ruling – on sound legal grounds.

“Professor Colin Jones of Doshisha University testifies in a recent law journal article, ‘In the Best Interests of the Court: What American Lawyers Need to Know about Child Custody and Visitation in Japan,’ … Japanese courts often act in the ‘best interests of the court’ to protect themselves from becoming irrelevant to society due to their inability to enforce their own orders. This authoritative source ensures that future judges will understand the unique meaning of the ‘best interests of the child’ in Japan and realize that even Japanese court orders are not enforceable, so neither are foreign ones.”

New Jersey, however, sees no legal distinction between relocating to, say, Virginia or Wyoming, and Japan.

But there is a such a distinction and many other states not only see it but address it squarely in their statutes and/or case law.

And more may join them in the near future as the The Uniform Child Abduction Prevention Act (UCAPA) eventually gains adoption in more states across the US. Other legislation targeting this problem is also being lobbied vigorously.

Read more in this Japan Times article: U.S. takes tougher line on abductions to Japan.

Last year, North Dakota voters rejected a proposed legislation that would have mandated that a family court establish equal timesharing with minor children unless otherwise agreed by the parents.

This year, the proposal re-surfaces in considerably streamlined form. Any impact on child support is omitted from the language of the initiative.

If the current proposal is passed, if either parent seeks equal timesharing, the court must order equal timesharing.

There is only one means to protect children from equal timesharing:

if a parent “is found unfit or a danger to the children by clear and convincing evidence“

That is a pretty tough standard to meet – and it may place some children at unnecessary risk.

This initiative also highlights that the term “joint custody” has different meanings as used in different states.

Read more in this Bismarck KXMB CBS 12 TV article: Supporters of joint custody in divorces trying another petition… and this Bismarck Tribune article: Another go at joint custody initiative.

In some divorce and custody cases, one powerful tool in a party’s arsenal is the surveillance video.

Historically, the world of private investigators has been a male-dominated bastion.

But perhaps no longer.

One woman PI in Austin is seeing her business boom – much of it with divorce and child custody- generated video surveillance work – for men.

While not inexpensive, there is just no denying that “a picture is worth a thousand words“.

And the right picture can be worth primary residential custody or big bucks, depending on the jurisdiction.

Read more in this KEYE TV Austin 42 news article: Woman’s Investigation Business Booms.

Jewish mother divorces Christian father.

In 2005, a Belgian court awarded custody of their now eight year old son to the father.

For the past eighteen months, however it came about, the mother has been raising the boy in Israel, in the Jewish faith, in particular, in the strict Orthodox tradition.

Now, the boy’s father is seeking his return to Belgium under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

If the child is returned to the father, the father will raise him as a Christian.

The mother contends that she was denied a fair trial, for lack of a translator and exclusion of her son’s testimony.

The mother further argues that sending the boy back to his father, a strange country, a new religion and, in essence, a new culture, would be damaging to the child – and that the Hague Convention allows room to protect a child from such psychological harm and for a child to object to return.

Those defenses do exist under the Convention, if made out.

The father, on the other hand, contends that the mother abducted the child and did the same things – as well as blocking contact with him.

A lower Israeli court has already ruled that the child must be returned to Belgium under the Hague Convention.

The mother awaits the outcome of her appeal.

The underlying custody battle makes for a particularly difficult case. Because of the stark contrast in life circumstances, it is, arguably, not just a choice between parents, but a choice between the two parents’ respective life choices.

And the parents’ respective rights.

Possibly without adequate regard for the rights of the child – who arguably faces a schizophrenic-seeming future if ordered returned now, at the age of eight.

Read more in this Jerusalem Post article: Raised Jewish in Israel, or Christian in Belgium?

Widowed Mother sentenced to jail.

Mother gives temporary custody of her children to late minister-husband’s parents.

Mother’s sentence is almost discharged.

Husband’s parents move to terminate Mother’s parental rights and to adopt the children.

The reason Mother was incarcerated was her conviction for killing her minister-husband.

Now Mother appeals to stop her in-laws’ applications.

Appeals court refuses to hear the Mother’s appeal – at least at this early stage of the proceedings.

Accordingly, termination of parental rights of Mother may proceed, clearing the way for the husband’s parents to adopt the children.

Of course, the Mother may have a basis to bring an appeal later.

Read more in this WMC-TV Memphis Action News 5 article: Appeals court declines to intervene in Winkler custody case.

Fourteen year old baby sitter allegedly throws three year old charge on bed for misbehavior. Baby later dies of head injury.

This tragic situation is very disturbing, without knowing anything more.

But there is more.

This local Palm Beach County child and her two siblings (5 years old and nearly 2 years old) were actually in foster care, placed with a fellow congregant from their mother’s church.

The children were removed from their mother’s custody two different times.

The foster mother took the children out of daycare to leave them with her little brother, who was visiting from out of state.

The foster mother reportedly initially lied about being home when the incident occurred.

The sitter is currently detained on charges of aggravated child abuse, which are expected to be upgraded.

At this time, the foster mother has not been charged herself with inadequate supervision.

Ironically, the Department of Children and Families has recently been working on establishing rules as to who (age and relationship) may watch children in protective custody.

Too late, unfortunately, for this little girl.

Under Florida law, there is no established rule on baby sitters for children not in protective custody.

Read more in these Palm Beach Post articles: Tot hurt in sitter’s care dies and Foster mom didn’t have OK for sitter.

When children have special needs, the first battle is grasping what those special needs are and how to meet them.

The second battle is meeting the costs associated with them. This challenge is generally even greater in families “broken up” by divorce or separation.

Ignorance can be very costly to parents and children.

And there are many financial, educational and social benefits for special needs kids, but parents may have to ferret them out.

One important tool that is likely indispensable to a child with special needs is a special needs trust.

A parent with a special needs child needs a support network consisting of many professionals who provide services to their child – including a good financial planner and attorney familiar with special needs planning.

Read more in this Kiplinger article: Planning for Your Disabled Child.

The New Jersey Supreme Court has ruled that a mother may return to Japan with their seven year old daughter against the father’s wishes. The US Supreme Court has declined to stay the ruling.

The father still plans to take an appeal to the US Supreme Court.

Japanese law is reputed not to be protective of visitation rights by the non-custodial parent. And the father fears he will be unable to enforce his US court orders against the mother once she is there.

New Jersey law is more accommodating of requests by custodial parents to relocate with minor children than some other states, including Florida. All the mother had to show in New Jersey was that she had a “good faith reason for the move” and “that the child will not suffer from it”.

The current law in Florida governing relocation is more stringent.

Read more in this Newsday article: U.S. Supreme Court declines to intervene in custody case.

A British divorced dad has published a book that aims to prepare fathers to be full-time dads, or better non-custodial dads, as the case may be.

The book is meant to cure “Sunday Father-ism”.

Whether it’s cooking, potty training, play dates, structure or discipline, this book purports to be a complete guide to fathers who are new to fathering on their own.

According to the author, it’s the first book to tackle full-time parenting for fathers.

It may help to compensate for lack of a mentor to full-time dads.

There is no indication whether it might be a good read for new moms too.

Read more in this MarketWire press release: How To Be A Great Divorced Dad.

Illinois is sponsoring an innovative housing program with a unique social mission.

The complex puts so-called kinship families (for example, grandparents raising grandchildren) as neighbors to young people aging out of foster care.

In addition to helping these two very different but often similarly economically disadvantaged groups with affordable housing, it also provides foster kids with positive role models.

It may also provide kinship families with assistance from young adults that they would not otherwise have.

Read more in this Chicago Tribune article: Different generations get place to call home.

In yet another variation of an increasingly recurring theme …

A man with six children reportedly left his Utah wife of 28 years to pursue a live-in gay relationship in Reno, NV.

Apparently he wanted to move on without any delay – or unnecessary expense.

So he allegedly put the word out to let anyone who might be interested know that he was looking to hire a hit man to kill his wife and be done with her.

He reportedly instructed the intended killer to do the deed away from the home and to break her neck so as to avoid bloodshed.

After all, they were married for 28 years and had six children together …

Read more in this Salt Lake Tribune article: Police: Reno man sought hit man to kill Utah wife.

Domestic violence remains a stubborn problem that refuses to go away despite society’s efforts.

Unfortunately, some perceived solutions haven’t panned out.

For example, about twenty years ago, many states devised a procedure they thought couldn’t miss.

Mandatory arrest on all domestic violence calls which summoned the police.

But apparently this strategy backfired.

Today, states with mandatory arrest laws reportedly have half again as many murders by intimate partners as back then. At the same time as other states have had sharp declines in intimate partner deaths.

How come?

Fewer victims contact the police in states with mandatory arrest laws.

Because, for one reason or another, victims don’t always want their abusers arrested.

And no amount of anti-violence education is likely to change that.

Read more in this New York Times guest editorial: The Protection Battered Spouses Don’t Need.

A teenaged Brooklyn mother was caring for her own eleven month old baby as well as her boyfriend’s two year old sister.

She was alone, bathing the babies and trying to make dinner at the same time.

The dinner was burning.

So she allegedly left the babies, unsupervised, in the tub for a few minutes to tend to dinner.

And her eleven month old went down in the water, not breathing, for a time.

The baby has been on a ventilator, in a coma, for a month now.

Her prognosis is uncertain.

And the young mother has been in confinement ever since, facing charges of endangerment of a child and reckless endangerment – or worse.

The father of the baby hopes to win custody when – and if – the baby is discharged from the hospital.

The mother and her supporters insist that she should be released from jail, that she is not a criminal, that what happened was an accident, that she was learning how to be a mother without any role models.

The article illustrates one legal process for handling such circumstances: criminal charges against the mother who allegedly neglected her child.

The other legal process, juvenile dependency, is a civil process by which children are taken into protective custody and the court supervises reunification of the child with the parents, when and where appropriate. The goal is for the parents to improve their parenting skills and then be with their kids.

The two processes are not mutually exclusive.

But when should the criminal process be resorted to? That is the question here.

And, not surprisingly, that is decided on a case by case basis.

Read more in this New York Times article: A Baby Girl’s Bath Becomes a Young Couple’s Nightmare.

There was a hotly contested child custody case.

There were allegations of sexual abuse.

A custody evaluation was ordered.

The custody evaluator’s recommendation was adopted by the court and incorporated into a custody order …

Then the custody evaluator, a psychologist, was arrested for voyeurism.

Then his license was suspended.

Then he committed suicide.

Then what?

That is the question plaguing a lot of folks in Seattle, where the above reportedly befell a noted psychologist and custody evaluator.

Those involved in the family court system anticipate a greater than typical number of challenges to custody determinations as a result of the above events.

And that could mean future upheaval in the lives of many affected children.

Only time will tell whether his recommendations withstand any challenges which may be made.

Read more in this Seattle Times article: Therapist’s suicide could trigger challenges in legal cases.

A Massachusetts couple has the whole husband-wife spectrum covered.

He is a divorce attorney.

She is a minister and officiates at her fair share of weddings.

After a decade of marriage to each other, they appreciate the irony.

And they probably have accumulated a great deal of insight into which marriages fail and why.

Read more in this Cape Code Times article: Minister and divorce attorney counsel couples starting and ending marriages.

Chicago man and woman live together.

Woman adopts two children.

Man is de facto father.

When one girl is five and the other two, couple breaks up.

Woman denies man access to girls, for a year now.

Man moves for visitation.

Woman moves to dismiss motion for visitation.

How does the court rule?

An Illinois trial court refused to dismiss the motion for visitation, at least outright.

Only time will tell the ultimate outcome here.

In many respects, this case parallels where one partner in a same sex relationship adopts a child which the gay couple raises together – until they break up.

Read more in this Chicago Sun Times article: Man may get to see ex’s adopted girls.

Dad is murdered. Mother is convicted of the crime and sentenced to jail.

Mother’s sister and brother in law are appointed guardians of seven year old child.

Legal custody is shared by guardians and Dad’s parents, who live in another state.

Court orders guardians not to take child to visit Mother in jail.

Guardians later move for permission to do so.

Grandparents move to block visitation with mother.

Guardians move to change child’s last name to their own name, which is not Mother’s name or Father’s name.

Grandparents move to block name change as well.

This case takes shared parental responsibility to a whole new level, making consulting with the child’s other parent seem like a piece of cake by comparison.

Read more about this exotic co-parenting scheme in this [Raleigh, North Carolina] WRAL-TV 5 article: Kontz’s Family Seeks to Reinstate Visitation Rights.

It happens. The isolated case featured in the news where a husband allegedly kills his wife: to get custody of the kids, to avoid paying alimony, to evade paying child support, to avert parting with half of his “stuff”, etc.

But then if you review them all, it may appear that it’s not just an isolated case here and there at all. And maybe it’s not really about the kids or the money or the stuff.

Instead, a narcissistic sociopath is really just looking to keep his dirty little secrets secret.

That’s the chilling conclusion in this disturbing article in the Boston Globe: Why do men kill their wives? Could some of these murders really be no more than “divorce substitutes”?

For those interested in digging deeper into the pathos, whether for self-preservation or not, the article seems to be inspired at least in part by psychologist David Adams’ forthcoming book Why Do They Kill? Men Who Murder Their Intimate Partners.

As example after example faces trial in Boston alone, if nothing else, it should serve as a reminder that any kind of a divorce really would have been more tolerable than the possible reality of jail – or worse.