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A bitter New Hampshire divorce has an unusual sequel.

For reasons known only to her, the wife allegedly testified under oath at a divorce hearing that she was seven months pregnant with triplets.

Only she wasn’t. Didn’t even appear to be.

Her lie was reportedly compounded by a supporting sonogram she introduced.

During the divorce case, she also allegedly falsely asserted that she had had breast cancer, that her husband was a terrorist, that her husband was going to derail one of his employer’s trains, and that her husband had abused and neglected their children.

All of these allegations were reportedly false too.

More than anything else, the allegations set off alarm bells regarding the mother’s psychological state.

But, in the end, after the family case ended, the mother was tried and convicted of perjury.

Now she faces up to seven years in jail.

And, if she was designated primary residential parent in the divorce case, that will likely change soon …

Underscoring the extreme danger of lying in family court and why one should never, ever do it.

Read more in this New Hampshire Union Leader article: Final chapter in divorce case: perjury conviction.

The South Dakotan American Indian community used to find much fault with the way that state has dealt with them in regard to matters of child welfare.

For example, American Indian children have been placed long-term in foster care with non-Indian families, merely on their say-so that they were members of an American Indian tribe – when they weren’t.

The liaisons in the tribe blamed violations of the Indian Child Welfare Act on poor communications between the state and the tribe.

Over the last few years, however, things have gotten much better in South Dakota.

Communications have improved, thanks to a governor’s task force and the Collaborative Circle.

The Circle has representatives from the state, various social services experts and all the regional tribes. The Circle meets quarterly and its executive council meets monthly.

Today, American Indians have been certified to serve as foster parents and families. This has helped to keep American Indian foster children within their tribes.

Today, American Indian children’s cases are more smoothly moved to tribal courts when there are custody disputes and related issues.

Now, the tribes have set their sights on educating judges and expert witnesses, as they have educated social services workers.

South Dakota has become a model for other states that have not made comparable progress in state-tribal relations – despite similar measures.

Read more in this Indian Country Today article: Collaborative Circle aids in Indian Child Welfare Act compliance.

Divorce in childhood can have a longstanding impact on a child, including how attentive the child will be toward its aging parents in the future.

That’s the conclusion reached by a Temple University researcher, who publishes his findings in the Advances in Life Course Research journal.

In particular, it is the transitions experienced by the child in the aftermath of divorce and the child’s age at the time of those transitions that determine how the child and its long term relationships with its parents will be influenced.

The study also found that stepchildren are far less likely than biological children to closely attend to aging (step)parents.

Read more in this EurekAlert! science news article: Divorce foretells child’s future care for elderly parent.

The divorce rate is climbing … Half of all marriages will fail …

That’s what we hear in the media all the time … Until today.

A couple of professors at the respected Wharton School say it isn’t so.

According to them, the studies typically cited for the above proposition are statistically flawed. And, they report, the Census Bureau in essence admitted it.

In reality, they claim, the divorce rate is falling … Is now at its lowest point since 1970.

They grant that the marriage rate has also fallen … But those who marry today tend to stay married longer, they conclude.

Read more in this New York Times editorial: Divorced From Reality.

Why do couples divorce? Here’s a theory you may not have heard before.

Menopause.

An American psychiatrist posits that hormonal changes associated with menopause, among other things, reduce women’s tendencies to foster harmony in the home and increase moodiness and sensitivity.

Statistics reveal that divorces of couples over forty are more likely to be started by the wife. These statistics are compatible with this psychiatrist’s theory.

This theory seems to fly in the face of the proverbial male “midlife crisis” as the cause of post-40 marital breakups.

But it may be tempting to imagine that skyrocketing divorce rates may be “cured” by hormone therapy.

Read more in this Sydney Morning Herald article: Menopause may prompt divorce.

Who does custody evaluations? Well, it depends on who is being evaluated.

In some states, veterinary animal behavior specialists serve as the experts who advise which separating “pet parent” should have “custody” of the family pet.

One such pet custody evaluator explains her methodology in a process which takes about an hour and a half. Part of the evaluation is based on responses of the pet parents to questions at an interview. The remainder of the evaluation is based on observation of the pet’s interactions with the pet parents.

“Calling contests” are not considered reliable indicators.

Ultimately, the pet custody evaluator seeks to determine which pet parent the pet has a stronger bond to and preference for, and who the evaluator thinks would better care for the pet.

Equal timesharing is not usually recommended because many pets find such an arrangement emotionally challenging.

Read more in this Boston Globe article: Lawyer for the dog.

A Kentucky appellate court has reversed the termination of a teen parent’s parental rights because the ruling was based on the parent’s age and immaturity, rather than her parenting skills and capabilities.

In this case, the teen mother voluntarily placed herself and her child into foster care in 2003. She never abused or neglected her child.

At the time of the termination hearing, the mother had finished 11th grade, had a job, and had completed various parenting classes.

There was every indication that she was becoming ready to parent her child.

Termination of parental rights was premature at best.

The mother’s visitation should be reinstated with a view toward reunification.

Read more in this Lexington [KY] Herald Leader article: Court: Teen parenthood terminated too quickly.

A South Carolina man embroiled in a drawn out divorce was not very happy with how his case was going.

The court had ordered him to pay temporary alimony and attorneys’ fees to his wife.

And he didn’t want to.

So he devised a way around it – or so he thought.

He allegedly torched his wife’s lawyer’s office.

But that turned out not to be the best way to handle the situation.

In addition to his other troubles, he was charged with stalking, burglary and arson – and held in jail without bond.

This is not a recommended strategy for success in family court.

Read more in this [Columbia, SC] WIS TV News 10 article: Bond denied for man accused of setting Columbia law firm on fire.

A Pakistani court has ordered Pakistani police to locate a 7 year old French-Pakistani boy and produce him in court.

The little boy’s mother, a French national, brought a habeas corpus action in Pakistan to regain physical custody of the child.

The boy’s parents divorced in France and entered a written custody agreement there which was adopted in a French divorce decree.

The mother alleged that the father, without her permission, removed the boy from France to his native country, Pakistan, in violation of their agreement.

Pakistan is not a party to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction and, therefore, was not required to produce and return the boy to his mother in France under international law.

However, the Pakistani court’s order indicates that it was at least considering enforcing the agreement adopted in the French divorce decree.

Read more in this [Pakistan] Daily Times article: Police told to find French-Pakistani boy in 7 days.

It took until July of this year. But since that time, the Cherokee Nation has had its own child support enforcement program.

And the program has gotten off to an impressive start.

A case opened on July 31st culminated in the program’s very first child support payment, which was made within just two weeks of the opening of the case.

There aren’t many state support enforcement agencies (and custodial parents) that wouldn’t envy that quick a turnaround time.

And the Cherokee child who benefited had not previously received any support from her father.

Read more in this Tanasi [Southeast American Indian] Journal article out of Oklahoma: New Cherokee Nation Office Enforces Child Support.

Sadly, we have grown accustomed to hearing of one parent’s abduction of children from the other parent.

But recently there was a different kind of parental abduction in Ohio.

A woman allegedly abducted her own four children – together with her husband, the children’s father.

How is that abduction?

A local court reportedly awarded temporary custody rights of the children to the local children’s services agency.

The biological parents were apparently trying to block the agency from asserting its rights.

The father was reportedly recently released from prison for domestic violence.

Now both parents face charges for felony interference with custody.

Read more in this Logan [OH] Daily News article: Woman, ex-husband arrested after fleeing.

Child support enforcement has a powerful new weapon in its arsenal: the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which requires travelers returning to the US from Canada, Mexico, the Carribean, Bermuda and central and South America possess passports.

The new laws require many people who did not previously have passports to obtain passports for travel outside the US.

Only they can’t if they owe more than $2,500 in child support arrearages.

So people who really want to travel outside the country must pay up – or stay home.

Connecticut, as an example, has seen support collection rise dramatically as a result of the implementation of the new rules.

And it’s not just Connecticut.

Whatever the benefit to national security, these new passport rules surely benefit someone – children owed child support.

Read more in this Government Technology article: New Passport Rules Boost Connecticut Child Support Enforcement.

Digging for dirt is in.

I posted recently on Female Private Eye’s Businesses Booming with Divorce and Custody Surveillance Work.

But surveillance by a private investigator is only one of the options available today.

Another popular (and often less expensive) option is extracting data from a computer or mobile phone or similar device.

Amazing advances in technology make many things possible – and affordable.

Of course, what’s found isn’t always admissible. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that it isn’t useful.

From financial information to affairs, bad judgment to crimes, the information can be pertinent to the matters before the court.

Or otherwise at hand. Sometimes people just need to know the truth. Whether they can use it or not.

The one type of computer file that should be protected from disclosure is communications between attorney and client.

Read more in this New York Times article: Tell-All PCs and Phones Transforming Divorce.

A West Palm Beach father was taken to task in an Ohio court for attempted criminal nonsupport of his four children.

The man was extradited and jailed for an arrearage of approximately $61,000.

The man was convicted and sentenced to six months of confinement to be followed by 5 years of probation.

After being sentenced, the father somehow managed to come up with $25,000 toward his arrearage.

If he keeps up his payments, he will avoid more jail time.

In the words of the Ohio prosecutor assigned to the case “[h]e got the message” and began complying with the court’s orders to pay.

A most effective incentive, which struggling custodial parents all eventually come to hope for when their ex refuses to pay on an ongoing basis.

Read more in this Cleveland Plain Dealer article: Father of four coughs up past due child support.

A Washington state woman was denied unsupervised visitation with her daughter after absconding with her daughter to Los Angeles during visitation last year.

Undeterred, the woman more recently allegedly absconded with her daughter again, during a visitation supervised by her parents. This time they reportedly went to Las Vegas, where they remained for a month.

This time around the mother suffered more severe consequences for her actions.

On the criminal side, the was charged with felony custodial interference, but pleaded guilty to misdemeanor custodial interference. She will be “sentenced” to psychological treatment and probation, but no incarceration. Her daughter will be spared having to testify against her.

The mother didn’t fare as well in family court though. She is barred from any contact with her daughter (except for a written apology for her actions) without prior court approval.

Both she and her daughter would have been better off had she learned her lesson after the first custodial violation.

Read more in this Tri-City [WA] Herald article: Finley pleads guilty to taking her child to Las Vegas.

What are the odds?

According to a local news report, a Miami family court judge ran a stop sign.

And crashed into another car.

The car of a former Miami mayor.

Whose divorce case is being presided over by the judge.

If true, certainly bad luck for the judge.

Probably bad luck for the mayor/family court litigant.

But it could have been worse …

The family court litigant could have run the stop sign and crashed into “his” judge’s car.

Read more about the nightmare alleged in this CBS TV Channel 4 article: Former Miami Mayor Has A Run In With Divorce Judge.

And drive carefully if you have a family court case pending.

You just never know who’s in the other car…

A high profile psychologist who has carved out a high profile niche testifying in child custody and visitation dispute cases to mothers’ alienation of fathers from their children is now speaking out against Florida’s brand new Keeping Children Safe Act.

The legislative intent behind the Act is to protect child victims of sexual abuse from further abuse.

Dr. J. Michael Bone, anticipating numerous false allegations by alienating mothers, is critical of the lack of legal protections afforded to fathers under the Act.

Some of the provisions of the Act are actually not very different from the rest of the juvenile dependency statutes (formally, Proceedings Relating to Children).

For example, reporters of any type of child abuse, not just sexual child abuse, are protected by anonymity. The legislative intent was to encourage witnesses and those with well-founded suspicions to come forward to protect children by protecting the reporters’ anonymity.

Are there some false reports of child abuse? Undoubtedly.

Should we throw the preexisting dependency statutes out because of that? No.

Can the new statute benefit from some refinement? Absolutely.

Read more in this Mens News Daily article and the Keeping Children Safe Act.

Divorcing couples always have at least basic questions about the impact of divorce on their taxes and their tax status.

Tax status:
Everything depends on whether your divorce was final on December 31st of the tax year in question. If it was, you can file as single. If it wasn’t, you can file jointly or as married, filing separately.

Although married couples filing joint returns receive more favorable tax treatment, each joint filer will generally be responsible for the couple’s entire tax liability.

Child Dependency Exemption:
This generally goes to the custodial parent, although it can be negotiated away to the non-custodial permanently or in alternating years. A special IRS form must be signed by the custodial parent if the exemption is being bargained away.

Dependent Child Care Tax Credit and Earned Income Credit:
These go to the custodial parent and that is not negotiable.

Education Tax Credits:
These go to the parent who has the dependency tax exemption.

Read more in this [Lancaster, PA] Intelligencer Journal article: Tax issues in divorce and separation – Taxing matters.

What happens when the custodial parent moves to another school district (not another state or even city) after separation?

Well, in one Michigan case, the mother, the custodial parent, is driving her children 60 miles to keep her kids in the same school district as before the parents’ separation. The father insists that school district is superior to the one where the mother and children now reside.

So the parents will have to go back to court so that the judge can … choose the school the kids should attend.

And what about that commute for the youngsters?

Next, the court will revisit its custody determination, depending upon the court’s ruling on which school district the children should attend school in.

Taking this approach to its logical conclusion,

• why should the court be limited to the marital school district and the custodial parent’s new school district?
• what if both parents have moved?
• what if neither parent has ever lived in the best school districts in the state?
• and on and on go the possibilities.

Clearly a recipe for clogging Michigan’s family courts to the point of grinding to a halt. Not to mention turning Michigan’s kids lives upside down all over again … and again … and again.

Read more in this Detroit News article: Divorce judge to pick kids’ school.

An emerging question for a growing number of splitting couples may be the still novel question that recently faced a divorcing Texas couple:

Who gets their frozen embryos?

In that case, the Texas trial court awarded them to the Wife.

But the Husband appealed to an intermediate court and won.

Then the Texas Supreme Court ducked the case, so the Husband remains the “victor”.

But note: this couple had actually signed a form consenting to the embryos being “discarded” in the event of the couple’s divorce.

It’s impossible to say how much of a bearing that consent form played in the appellate court’s ruling, but it seems reasonable to infer it may have been significant, if not compelling.

Read more in this KLTV 7 [Texas] article: Texas Supreme Court refuses to hear custody battle.

An Illinois mother was recently arrested for custodial interference in Wisconsin.

The woman allegedly secretly fled with her child in direct violation of an Illinois court order barring her from any contact with her child during the divorce of the parents.

The father suspected where they had gone and notified authorities, who reportedly found the child at the home of a friend of her mother’s.

Sadly, this incident likely illustrates what not to do if the goal is winning unsupervised visitation and parental access to the child.

Read more in this Wisconsin Journal Times article: Illinois woman arrested after fleeing here with child.

An ex-cop is publicizing her anticipated forthcoming release of software she dubs Custody Calculations.

It is hyped as a cure for virtually everything that ails separating families and family courts nationwide.

In that respect, it sounds naive and simplistic but, of course, everyone will have to reserve judgment until the software actually materializes. Its debut appears to be running late.

More realistic is the software’s core promise of helping the courts to calculate and collect fines for contempt of family court orders and generate standardized orders on demand.

Custody Calculations contemplates tacking onto each contempt order an extra fine which would be paid to the court system for the court system, possibly to the magnitude of $50 million per state per year.

Sounds good, but that would have to be properly authorized …

Read more in this PRWeb press release: Anyone Interested In 50 Million? Custody Calculations Helping Local and State Governments Obtain New Revenue For Their Family Law Court System.

A 3 year old child, previously taken into protective custody by the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF), was released to his mother – only to die two months later.

There was a court hearing on whether to release the little boy, but neither the boy’s non-lawyer advocate nor his caseworker attended. They weren’t aware of the hearing.

And DCF failed to inform the Court (either in person or through a report or other court papers) that the mother’s boyfriend hit the child and his background check was not completed correctly until after the boy went home.

DCF only made a couple of visits after the child was sent home.

The boy’s mother and boyfriend have respectively been charged with manslaughter and murder in the child’s death.

The question remains: did DCF do enough to protect the boy?

Read more in this [Southwest Florida] News Press article: DCF admits to errors in death of Zahid Jones.

Under current law, parents who believe that their special needs student’s public school is not adequately meeting their special needs bear the burden of proving at an administrative hearing that that is the case.

That can be a time-consuming and expensive proposition.

In New York state, the governor just approved a bill that will shift to the school the burden of proving that it is meeting the special needs student’s needs.

This is an enormous victory for New York’s special needs kids and their parents.

Will other states follow suit?

Read more in this Syracuse Post-Standard article: Spitzer OKs special ed bill.