Florida Divorce * Child Custody * Domestic Violence Law Lawyer | Boynton Beach

Husband and Wife are from Utah.

Husband has been in the military, stationed in California, for some time now.

The parties divorced while Husband was stationed in California and the divorce was entered in California.

Wife returned with their child to live in Utah.

Husband seeks to have the amount of child support he must pay revisited in a Utah court, where the amount of child support would likely be lower.

But the Utah courts refuse to hear the case, holding that California has jurisdiction because Husband is still stationed there.

Husband is seeking a new hearing on the jurisdiction issue, and two branches of the service will be putting their two cents in.

It isn’t clear whether Utah would have taken jurisdiction of their divorce had it been filed there in the first place and, if so, why the divorce wasn’t filed there.

Utah’s rulling seems to run contrary to the spirit of federal law and contrary to the law in at least some US states.

And, under all the facts of this particular case, simply unfair.

Florida, for example, recognizes Floridians who are stationed elsewhere in the military as Florida residents, and will exercise jurisdiction over their divorces.

But that does not preclude the place where they are stationed from exercising jurisdiction.

Read more in this Salt Lake Tribune article: Marine from Utah can’t take divorce case home.

California Husband and Wife have a 4 year old Daughter together.

Husband and Wife divorce.

Wife is a US Navy Seabee.

Visitation exchanges are nasty.

An audio recording reveals Wife insisting that Husband’s car seat is not installed properly.

… And denying that she tried to have Husband murdered.

Wife calls the police about the car seat.

Poor Daughter can be heard asking “I am not seeing my dad?”

Wife drives away with Daughter.

Husband is murdered outside his home.

Wife tells authorities that Husband drinks and plays pool and doesn’t allow her any friends.

Wife also tells police that Husband is involved with motorcycle clubs and a criminal street gang.

Police find no evidence to support Wife’s accusations.

Wife and a fellow Seabee are charged with Husband’s murder, and are being tried together.

Another Seabee is charged in the murder as well, but will have a separate trial.

Yet another Seabee is charged with attempted murder for an earlier attempt on Husband’s life.

Read more in this Ventura County [CA] Star article: Jury in Seabee slaying case hears taped argument.

Chinese Father. Israeli Mother. Son appears to be American. And home was United States.

Until Mother takes Son to Israel. And stays there. For three years.

Mother’s version of events:
Father raped her, and Son is the product of that rape. Father authorized passport and was aware of her plan to travel to Israel with Son.

2006 Court order under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction:
Son is to be returned to Father in the US.

Court order is found on Mother. Yet Mother claims not to have known about hearing.

Ironically, Mother is “caught” during a routine check having nothing to do with Son’s “missing” status.

Mother is arrested. Son is taken into protective custody.

Read more in this Israel Haaretz article: Woman stopped in routine check, held for ‘kidnapping’ child from U.S. dad.

A couple’s finances can sometimes get pretty complicated during divorce.

Take an Indianapolis couple as an example.

Husband and Wife operate an investment company together.

Presumably anticipating Wife filing for divorce the next day, Husband and his reported girlfriend, board his private plane, bound for Florida. This is captured on airport video surveillance.

Then law enforcement enters Husband’s and Wife’s home, seizing computers and money, and freezing the married couple’s assets. Husband allegedly has defrauded customers out of millions of their dollars.

Husband returns to Indiana. Then Husband boards his private plane again, once more bound for Florida and, reportedly, his girlfriend.

But Husband signals distress and bails out of the plane before landing. It seems Husband wants authorities – and Wife – to give him up for dead.

But instead Husband is found – and is now in jail, on Federal charges – with state charges to follow.

It is unclear whether Wife ever participated in Husband’s alleged fraud.

What is the marital property? Marital debts? How shall they be divided between the Husband and Wife?

Gets pretty complicated indeed ….

Read more in this MSNBC / WTHR TV article: Video shows Schrenker preparing for flight.

Husband and Wife split up. Battle over custody of their 2 year old Daughter ensues.

Husband is awarded temporary primary residential custody of Daughter.

Husband’s 91 year old Grandmother owns a house.

Wife and Wife’s mother are in Grandmother’s house when Husband arrives to check on Grandmother.

Wife’s mother clubs Husband on the head with a baton, and Wife brandishes a gun at him.

Wife informs Husband that she is taking custody of their daughter. Wife shoots Husband with a stun gun.

Police find Grandmother’s body in a trash bin in the garage at the house.

Possibly the only one not physically injured at the house is Daughter. She is taken into child protective custody.

Wife, Wife’s mother and Wife’s mother’s husband (found in a nearby car) are all arrested on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and conspiracy.

Read more in this San Francisco Chronicle article: 3 suspects arrested in slaying of woman, 91.

South Dakota Mother and Father split up before 5 year old Son is born.

Couple fight over custody and child support.

Mother is awarded temporary primary custody of Son, and Father is ordered to pay monthly temporary child support of $150. Later the amount is upped to $363.

Father continues to pay $150 for the next two years though. Father blames it on cash-flow problems in his farming business.

At trial, the court dismisses the child support issues as irrelevant to custody, and awards primary custody of Son to Father. Further, the Father manages to clear his arrearages by the second day of the trial.

But the main reason the trial court awards primary custody to Father is that Mother is allegedly alienating Son from Father.

On appeal, however, South Dakota’s highest court appears to second-guess the trial court’s factual findings, specifically rejecting the trial court’s finding that Mother has alienated Son from Father.

The South Dakota Supreme Court goes on to conclude that it would not be in Son’s best interests for Father to have primary custody, because Father hasn’t adequately provided for Son financially when Son was living with Mother.

Two judges dissent. The dissent seems more consistent with legal trends beyond South Dakota’s borders.

Read more in this Sioux City [IA] Journal article: Supreme Court overturns child custody ruling.

In divorces, people sometimes fight over the most unexpected things.

And so it is in a New York divorce dragging on since 2005.

Husband and Wife have three children together, ranging in age from 8 to 14 years.

Husband contends that Wife is interfering with his visitation with the children.

Several years ago, before Wife filed for divorce, Husband donated one of his kidneys to Wife.

Now Husband seeks return of his kidney – or $1.5 million.

Husband’s attorney admits that he doesn’t expect to get the kidney back. A gift, after all, is a gift.

But Husband is trying to draw attention to his Wife’s denial of visitation with his children and the slow pace of the case.

He’s certainly drawn attention to the kidney …

Read more in this UPI article: Man demands $1.5M, or kidney, in divorce.

Father owes $7,500 in back child support. Bad enough.

Then he is arrested on a drug charge – again. With more than $15,000 in cash and jewelry on his person. And half that amount in illegal drugs.

Criminal court Judge is not happy with Father.

State seizes Father’s cash and jewelry.

Judge proposes that cash and proceeds of jewelry go to child support arrearages.

Except the state statute specifies what seized assets may be used for… Child support isn’t included.

But the prosecutors are researching whether the judge’s proposal can be implemented legally anyway.

Meanwhile, Judge sentences Father to two years under a plea deal, suspends his driver’s license for a year and orders him to pay a fine and court costs.

Sounds like the Judge is on to something, and the forfeiture statute should be amended to allow seized assets to be applied to support obligations.

Read more in this Cincinnati [OH] Enquirer article: A novel use for drug money.

Nebraska couple divorce. Their Daughter is now 4 years old.

Mother files motion to relocate with Daughter to another state.

Daughter’s therapist learns from Mother that there is a recording device in Daughter’s teddy bear.

The recorder was reportedly placed in the teddy bear by the Mother, or someone on her behalf.

It turns out that the device has been recording Father’s visitation for many months.

The Court bars use of the recordings in the courtroom, on the grounds that making the recordings was illegal.

Now, Father and several others who were recorded, including some court-appointees in the case, have filed a damages lawsuit against Mother, her father and Mother’s former attorneys for invasion of their privacy.

Mother’s attorneys terminated their representation upon learning of the recordings allegedly made for their client (although they argued that the recordings should be used by the Court).

Father has recently been awarded greater timesharing with Daughter, nearly equal to Mother’s.

Mother has not been charged in criminal court with making or causing the recordings to be made.

Meanwhile, Father briefly microwaves Daughter’s coats, toys and teddy bears whenever he picks her up, to disable any other recording devices.

Read more in this Omaha [NE] World-Herald article: Custody case tip: Don’t bug kid’s teddy bear.

In Pennsylvania, unemployment has been slowly rising for some time.

In fact, unemployment compensation is expected to start running out for significant numbers of non-custodial parents this spring.

The unemployed increasingly worry about their child support obligations.

Rather than waiting until they accrue arrearages, many are wisely looking to modify their obligations before they become delinquent.

In Pennsylvania, deadbeat parents fear that they face incarceration, despite the tough times.

The flip side of the unemployment problem is that custodial parents who might not otherwise have pressed for child support might have little choice now but to do so.

When asked for advice, child support enforcement authorities in Pennsylvania encourage non-custodial parents to pay what they can manage, even if they can’t pay all that is ordered.

This scenario will be playing out in many areas of the country where the local economies are especially hard hit by unemployment.

Read more in this Allentown [PA] Morning Call article: Job losses test child support.

Husband and Wife have baby Daughter.

Marriage deteriorates. Divorce is filed.

Wife is killed in car accident. Divorce stops.

Wife’s will expresses Wife’s wishes that her mother, Daughter’s grandmother, raise Daughter if something were to happen to her.

But Daughter has a father, Husband.

Husband raises Daughter in North Dakota, sometimes living with his father and sometimes with his mother. Both of his parents are very involved in caring for Daughter.

Now Husband dies in a car accident.

Husband did not leave a will.

Now all the grandparents want Daughter.

Wife’s mother, who lives in far off New England, somehow obtains temporary guardianship of Daughter.

Wife’s mother points to Husband’s father’s disability and Husband’s mother’s allowing her own youngsters to be raised by Husband’s father after their divorce. Husband’s father contends the disability limits heavy lifting and Husband’s mother explains that she only left the children with her ex for continuity.

Read more in this Worthington [MN] Daily Globe article: Grandparents fight for child custody.

Unmarried New Orleans Mother and Father separate.

Two year old Son lives with Mother.

Father chooses to have no contact with Son.

Court reportedly orders Father to pay child support arrearages of $4,000 for Son.

Father suddenly decides to exercise visitation with Son.

Father allegedly murders Son and leaves his body in a playground.

Father calls police and claims that Son has been abducted, although his story keeps changing.

Father is arrested on a charge of first degree murder.

Father confesses, saying he’s “sorry”, but that he has been under “a lot of pressure” because he doesn’t want to pay child support.

Read more in this New Orleans Times-Picayune article: Father kills 2-year-old son, dumps him in park, police say.

With 2009, a new era begins in Illinois orders of protection.

A new state statute requires counties to provide 24 x 7 surveillance of anyone subject to an order of protection anytime the court orders it.

The means: global position satellite technology.

Although not inexpensive, where used, this system should “buy” a great deal of peace of mind – and actual safety – for victims of domestic violence … and ultimate savings to the government by deterring violations by abusers.

In addition to equipment costs, extracting full value from this system requires having sufficient staff to monitor the electronic feeds. But that task may be well suited to existing police dispatchers (or increases in such staff).

Read more in this Elgin [IL] Courier News article: Counties to tighten orders of protection.

Married Chinese couple immigrate to Canada. Sort of.

Husband actually still spends most of his time in China. But Wife and Son live in Canada.

Husband is reportedly part of Chinese mob. Husband is incarcerated in China for what may be a very long time.

After about eleven years of marriage, Wife files for divorce in Canada.

Wife claims that Husband is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, although Husband claims the figure is “only” around thirty-five million. Close enough, apparently.

Wife seeks the marital residence, her car and back child and spousal support of approximately $900,000. Wife claims that her English is poor and she does not have marketable job skills.

Court apparently buys into Wife’s world view, due to what it characterizes as “exceptional” circumstances of the case.

Read more in this Vancouver Sun article: Jailed gangster was worth $400m: divorced wife.

Iowa Mother is supposed to receive child support.

Father apparently pays child support.

Iowa collects the child support from Father.

And … deposits it into the wrong mother’s account.

For four years.

Iowa also allegedly adds insult to injury in two distinct ways.

First, it blames the misrouted payments on the Mother’s request to change the bank account into which her support payments are supposed to be deposited, and her failure and her bank’s failure to catch the change error on the supposedly e-mailed confirmations of the change.

But the Mother denies that she ever requested to change deposit accounts. Still, the financial institution did change hands at some point, which could have contributed to the error.

Second, after finally paying Mother the amount of money that was misrouted to another mother, the Iowa sent Mother a letter saying that it had paid her by mistake – and that she would have to give the money she had received back. Iowa has since apologized to Mother for that latest error.

Iowa admits to two other cases besides Mother’s where child support payments were routed to the wrong parties.

Iowa has not recovered the child support payments inadvertently sent to the wrong mother.

Read more in this Des Moines [Iowa] Register article: Glitch sends support pay to wrong person.

Family court can be hard on grandparents these days.

But so can juvenile dependency court.

When a parent’s parental rights are terminated, a grandparent’s derivative grandparental rights are terminated too in many cases.

Sometimes even if the grandparents once had temporary custody of the grandchildren.

Arkansas grandparents hoping for some visitation with their grandchildren recently met with state lawmakers about their rights and desires.

State workers advised the grandparents how to file for visitation.

Read more in this [Little Rock, AR] KARK 4 News article: Grandparents Seek Visitation with Grandkids.

Florida’s Department of Children and Families (DCF) places three youngsters aged five and under with a foster family.

A sexually aggressive teenager was already placed with the same foster family.

The youngsters were allegedly sexually abused by the teenager, and still DCF reportedly took no action to remove the youngsters from the home.

The complaint on behalf of the youngsters alleges that DCF demonstrated “deliberate indifference” toward the youngsters’ well-being and intentionally placed them in harm’s way, in violation of their constitutional rights.

DCF’s employee defendants asserted immunity as a defense, on the theory that they were acting within their duties and discretion as employees on behalf of the state.

Read more in this Florida Times-Union article: Foster home molestation case can proceed and this WFLX Fox 29 TV news article: Court allows suit over alleged sex abuse.

Couple divorce.

Ex-husband adopts ex-wife’s persona on internet … 1,577 times.

Ex-husband uploads nude photos of former wife to internet.

New York Court enters order of protection ordering ex-husband to attend counseling and to cease pretending to be his former wife on the internet and to cease uploading nude photos of her on the internet.

Ex-husband is also sentenced to five years’ probation on related criminal charges.

Still, ex-husband doesn’t stop.

Ex-husband is then charged criminally with violating probation.

Ex-husband is sentenced to one to three years for that offense.

Now ex-husband is again arrested and charged with identity theft and criminal contempt.

Ex-husband pleads guilty.

Former husband faces incarceration for up to five years.

Read more in this North Country [New York State] Gazette article:Man Guilty Of Posting Nude Photos Of Ex-Wife.

Parental alienation. It’s become a hot button buzz phrase.

It’s also been widely discredited and rejected.

Yet it can influence which parent is awarded custody … at least in some states, in some judges’ courtrooms.

But what of false claims? It’s hard to prove that something didn’t happen.

And even if you can, it probably does not follow that the parent wrongly accused should be awarded custody as punishment of the false accuser.

As a result, in many, many cases, there is no redress, no remedy for those falsely accused. It’s just “too bad”.

But no longer, in New Jersey.

A New Jersey trial court has recognized a parental right to seek monetary damages for intentional infliction of emotional distress as a result of the other parent (and / or their relatives) turning their children against him or her.

The court distinguished such a claim from a claim for alienation of affections, which has been rejected in New Jersey.

It remains to be seen whether this will prove to be too fine a distinction on an appeal.

The court held that an emotional distress claim would have to be brought in family court after final judgment, and that such claims could be decided by juries.

However, companion claims against the other parent’s relatives would be relegated to civil court.

It will be interesting to see over time whether the threat of suit for damages deters parental alienation in New Jersey.

Read more in this Men’s News Daily article’s discussion of the New Jersey Law Journal article: Exes can sue over ruined ties to couple’s children.

More and more couples (although still a fairly small percentage) are agreeing to equal timesharing or near-equal timesharing following divorce or separation.

These arrangements can be more complicated for all concerned and introduce more interactions and, therefore, potential conflict, between parents.

But where parents get along and both are able to put their kids first, such schedules can work well for everyone.

Even where more traditional timesharing arrangements are generally adopted, studies show that there is somewhat more actual contact between the children and the noncustodial parent more recently than in the past under such arrangements.

In some cases, the reason for increased timesharing with the noncustodial parent is financial, having to do with monetary incentives built into more modern child support laws.

In other cases, of course, the reason is that fathers genuinely want to spend more time with their kids than more traditional timesharing schedules allow.

Are equal and near-equal timesharing arrangements likely to be court-ordered where the parties don’t agree to it?

Statistics show that courts are still much more inclined to follow older, more traditional timesharing schedules where the parties don’t agree otherwise.

Why? Equal timesharing is fraught with logistical challenges that, where parents can’t get along, virtually guarantee further litigation, parental conflict and, potentially, danger.

In those cases, of course, a more traditional timesharing schedule minimizes parental interactions and conflict and therefore works better.

Read more in this Newsweek article: Not Your Dad’s Divorce.

Teenagers. Dating. Holding hands.

Murdering the objects of their affections …

A 20 year old man was convicted of stabbing and dismembering his girlfriend’s body in Indianapolis.

In Texas, a 15 year old girl was stabbed to death at school and an 18 year old girl was shot and killed there.

And these are not just rare, isolated cases.

As a result, communities are trying to raise awareness, among kids, their parents and their teachers, of the behaviors that should raise red flags.

Texas passed a law that defines dating violence within the school safety codes.

Rhode Island passed a law that mandates teaching seventh-graders through twelfth-graders about dating abuse.

New York recently made restraining orders available for the first time to teenagers who are victims of dating violence. Before this, victims’ only remedy was to press criminal charges.

Indianapolis is training police officers in schools to recognize warning signs of dating abuse, and older kids to act as dating mentors and advisors to younger kids.

According to surveys, dating violence has risen by about 40% since just 1999, and may victimize 10% of teens.

Experts believe that cell phones and the internet have facilitated harassing behaviors. Another survey suggests that twenty-five percent of teens have been harassed by a date.

Yet another survey suggests that one-third of teens have been victims of emotional abuse by a dating partner, if not physical abuse.

Dating abuse is also believed to spur drinking, suicides, aggression and sexual activity in teenagers.

And even among teens, dating violence and abuse is about exerting power and control in the relationship.

Talk to your kids about their dating habits and …

Read more in this New York Times article: A Rise in Efforts to Spot Abuse in Youth Dating.

International child custody cases can be costly.

But there’s costly and then there’s really costly.

Where does the line get drawn?

Well, one law firm, which has a satellite office here in Palm Beach county, found out the hard way.

After prevailing in an international child custody case, the firm sought to recover attorney’s fees from the losing opposing party.

The total bill it submitted for attorney’s fees weighed in at $163,000.

For what the presiding federal judge in Pennsylvania characterized as a “garden variety” custody case, with few legal or factual disputes.

The Court refused to stick the losing party with the price of the prevailing party’s individual choice to staff the matter with a team of five different attorneys, four of whom attended a three day trial.

The modest finances of the losing party, whom the court apparently felt acted wrongly but in good faith, may have played a role in the Court’s ruling.

Of course, the Court’s decision doesn’t mean that the prevailing party or their attorneys would do anything differently if they had to make their decisions all over again …

Read more in this Philadelphia Legal Intelligencer article: Federal Judge Critical of Firm’s Fee Petition in Custody Case.

Pennsylvania couple divorce.

Mother gets custody of young girls.

Then Mother stops sending girls to school.

Mother loses custody of girls.

Girls go into foster care.

Mother abducts the girls outside of their school in mid-October.

And brings them here to South Florida.

To live on the beach in a dug-out pit of sand.

Mother contacts Father, who is estranged from the rest of the family, out of the blue, seeking money, and informs him that they are in Florida.

The older of the girls is found alone, abandoned, at a shopping mall, begging for food.

Mother and younger girl are found.

Mother is arrested and charged with kidnapping, interfering with child custody and other felony charges.

Read more in this Philadelphia Inquirer article: Abducted girls lived in Fla. sand pit; mother sought

Ohio Mother and Father have affair and conceive Baby.

Relationship apparently breaks up.

After Baby’s birth, Mother leaves Baby at a church in June without Father’s knowledge.

This abandonment does not comply with Ohio’s safe havens laws.

Mother is charged with child endangerment.

Baby, and Mother’s three other children, are all placed in foster care.

DNA test later determines paternity of Father in November.

Father and his family want Baby with them.

Court orders visitation with Baby at Father’s home.

Court adopts plan for Father to have custody of Baby before Christmas, with final hearing to take place in January.

Read more in this Mansfield [OH] News Journal article: Dad wins custody of baby left in Bellville and this WFMD News article: Mother Of Abandoned Baby Charged.