General legal information furnished as a service of Fort Lauderdale / West Palm Beach family law attorney Janet Langjahr
Turkish Man living in France seeks to marry and bring a Turkish Woman to live with him in France.
Only that particular Woman had been accepted to college and has her heart set on attending.
So the Man promises the Woman that she will be able to go to university after the marriage.
So the Woman marries the Man.
But he does not allow the Woman to go to college.
In fact, he literally locks Woman inside the house in France.
To do housework.
Woman returns to Turkey and files for divorce.
Woman alleges that Husband is violent and that his family mistreats her.
The Court grants the divorce and, concluding that this case is not that different from a case of physical violence:
Read more in this Hurriyet [Turkey] Daily News article: Man found guilty of ’social violence’.
Financial columnists recommend the less than romantic activity of reviewing each other’s credit reports before tying the knot again.
Overlooked or forgotten accounts with an ex-spouse can rear their ugly heads even after a divorce.
Times two can make for a double whammy.
Before the marriage is the time to address these issues squarely and assess what you’re getting into.
Truth be told, checking your credit report is a pretty good idea during the divorce as well.
Read more in this Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article: Family Finances: Know how credit impacts your marriage.
Husband and Wife married twenty-seven years.
Husband, former CEO of corporation, convicted of accounting fraud.
Husband ordered to pay over $3 billion as restitution.
Divorce filed. Uncontested.
In divorce settlement, Husband sells home to Wife for $10.
Prosecutors seek to intervene, contending that Husband bought assets using fraudulently procured funds and Husband should not be able to shield them through a sham divorce.
This is the latest in a veritable rash of reportedly sham divorces that authorities or private corporations have sought to intervene in to preserve access to allegedly misappropriated assets.
Read more in this American Bar Association Journal article: Feds Intervene in Exec’s Divorce, Argue It’s a Ruse to Avoid $3.3B Restitution.
Consciously or unconsciouly, one or both parents in divorce sometimes draw their children into the following roles:
Drawing children in to the divorce is damaging to them both psychologically and emotionally.
Read more in this Tampa Bay [FL] Examiner article: Divorce and the games parents play.
Haitian immigrant Mother thinks 6 year old Daughter is possessed by evil spirits.
Mother resolves to rid Daughter of them. With a voodoo ritual.
Mother allegedly pours rum on the floor in a circle surrounding Daughter and then pours some more on Daughter’s head and then … sets fire to Daughter.
When Daughter is engulfed in flames, Grandmother puts the fire out with water.
Then Mother and Grandmother simply bathe and put Daughter to bed, without any medical treatment.
Not until the next day, at a relative’s urging, does Mother take Daughter to a hospital.
Daughter has second and third degree burns over twenty-five percent of her body.
Mother is charged with assault and endangering the welfare of a child.
Mother denies her guilt and tells police the incident was an accident caused by Daughter startling her while she was boiling rice.
Mother also denies awareness of Daughter’s burns.
Mother blames Grandmother for putting Daughter to bed without medical treatment.
Grandmother is charged with reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child.
Daughter, still in the hospital in a medically induced coma, is now in child protective custody.
Daughter told her foster caregiver what happened.
Neighbors reportedly heard Mother and Grandmother yelling at Daughter to remain down on her knees for hours on end on various occasions.
It does not appear that any of the neighbors ever called the child abuse hotline or the police to intervene on Daughter’s behalf.
Wisconsin couple files for divorce.
Big Corporation seeks to intervene in, or step into, the case…
To dismiss the couple’s divorce.
The presiding trial judge has one preliminary question before the Court will listen to the Corporation’s arguments for dismissal:
does the Corporation have standing to insinuate itself into the case?
Standing is a legal term that ponders what legal interest does this Corporation have that would entitle this Corporation to butt into this couple’s divorce?
A seemingly good question.
Here’s what the Corporation reportedly relies on to support its standing.
Apparently the Husband was indicted on 20 odd counts of defrauding Corporation by inflating invoices to the Corporation from his trucking businesses.
And then a civil court granted Corporation a judgment against Husband for over $200 million.
Several days later is when Wife filed for divorce from Husband.
In the divorce, Wife asks for pretty substantial sums for child support and alimony.
Corporation essentially alleges that the couple seeks to use the divorce as a way of shielding assets from the civil court money judgment in favor of Corporation.
And maintains that the couple took trips together just before and even after the divorce began.
Read more in this Madison & St Clair [WI] Record article: S.C. Johnson standing hearing Friday in Buske divorce.
An upstate New York Man doesn’t get the message.
On one occasion, the Man was found at a Woman’s home with a knife.
Man was sentenced to 2 years’ incarceration for stalking the Woman and criminal contempt for violating a no contact order.
The Man’s incarceration was concluded at a hospital. Upon his release from the hospital the Man went … to the Woman’s home.
The Woman called the police and the Man left … only to return later the same day. At which time he was arrested again.
Resisting arrest was added to the charges against the Man this time around.
The Man and Woman met online and had gpne out a few times. The Man would not let the Woman break up with him.
The Man is obsessed. The Court let the Man off relatively easy, arguably perceiving the Man’s obsession with Woman as benign.
Read more in this Syracuse Post Standard article: Convicted stalker accused of stalking victim again.
According to a lawsuit filed by a Florida teenager’s mother, the athletic boy died of a heart attack … brought on by prescription psychiatric medications.
Allegedly, too many of them, including one to alleviate side effects of the others.
The boy’s psychiatrist reportedly prescribed sixteen different drugs for the boy over the course of a year.
The same doctor also allegedly prescribed a number of medications for a foster child … who subsequently committed suicide.
The Department of Children and Families (DCF) is investigating.
According to DCF, substantial numbers of children in the child welfare system, even those ranging in age from infants to 6 years old are on psychotropic drugs, that is, mind-altering drugs.
According to reports, one third of teens in the child welfare system are on at least one psychiatric medication.
Further, in all or nearly all of the cases of children in the child welfare system on these medications, neither the children’s parents nor a judge had consented to the treatment of the children with psychotropic pharmaceuticals - a prerequisite under the law.
In the case that is the subject of the lawsuit, it is also alleged that there was insufficient monitoring of children on these strong medications.
Food for thought … for any parent of a child from a broken - or intact - family.
Read more in this Miami Herald article: Lawsuit links psychiatric drugs to Tamarac child’s death.
As Father’s Day approaches, a pro-marriage nonprofit association encourages fathers and children alike to look beyond parental alienation or past hurts and reach out for understanding and reconciliation at this time.
They have even written some sample overtures for use between fathers and children, to facilitate the process.
They correctly remind that good fathers are sometimes separated from their own children, wrongly, either by the courts, or their children’s mothers alone.
Read more in this Christian News Wire article: This Father’s Day, Give the Gift of Reconciliation.
Israeli Husband and Wife divorce.
Husband was unfaithful to Wife.
Husband is ordered to pay Wife alimony.
Fast forward six years.
Husband returns to court.
With videotape.
Of Wife and another man having sexual relations.
Prior to entry of the divorce.
Wife challenges videotape, of course.
But police authenticate it.
And, because of Wife’s unfaithfulness, the Rabbinic Court revokes Wife’s alimony.
Read more in this Jerusalem Post article: Rabbinic judges revoke alimony after husband proves wife cheated, too.
Imagine.
Woman gets injunction for protection against domestic violence, or order of protection, against her ex-husband (Abuser).
Woman moves away to another city in the hopes of avoiding Abuser altogether.
Woman remarries and begins new life.
Abuser contacts police.
Abuser tells police that he has papers for Woman, but needs Woman’s address to get papers to her.
Police officer (Officer) locates Woman’s address in motor vehicle records …
Officer reportedly gives Woman’s address to Abuser.
Now armed with Woman’s address, Abuser allegedly sends Woman a note via a taxi to her home.
Abuser also allegedly makes threatening phone calls to Woman’s home.
All possible only because Officer gave out Woman’s address, to which Officer has access, for police business as a police officer, through motor vehicles records.
Woman and her husband sue Officer for allegedly handing Woman’s address over to Abuser.
Officer is found guilty of violating the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act.
Case is settled for $337,000, plus Woman’s attorney’s fees.
Officer is still on the police force.
But he was reprimanded for giving Woman’s address to Abuser, and possibly jeopardizing Woman’s life.
Imagine.
Read more in this [Janesville, WI] WCLO 1230AM news article: Lawsuit against Evansville police officer settled for $337,500.
A bakery in neighboring Broward County, Florida recently added a new treat to its menu: divorce cakes.
Divorce cakes help to “celebrate” - what else? - divorce.
Ironically, divorce cakes taste the same as wedding cakes.
But they look a little different.
The happy bride and groom atop the cake are substituted with the customer’s choice of:
Some folks actually believe that eating a divorce cake provides more closure than a divorce trial or uncontested final divorce hearing.
Read more in this Orlando [FL] Sentinel article by way of [Hilton Head SC] Island Packet: Divorce cakes help sweeten bakery’s business.
Sometimes people become foster parents when they are in search of children to adopt.
But, sometimes, they just want to help other families get through a difficult time and then reunite.
One Utah couple is in the latter category.
They actually mentor the parents whose children are in their foster care.
Some of their former foster kids, and their parents, visit them years later.
This couple has fostered thirty-two children over ten years.
In the part of Utah they live in, there are 356 foster families … for 630 children in foster care.
More than half of foster children are eventually reunited with their parents or placed with extended family members.
May is National Foster Care Month.
Read more in this Utah Standard-Examiner article: Layton couple’s goal as foster parents: Get parents and children back together.
In British Columbia, Canada, divorce and custody litigation - or, for that matter, any litigation - can be really expensive.
It’s not the legal fees, as some might leap to conclude.
It’s the court clerk fees, which are substantially higher than elsewhere in Canada.
A litigant must rent the courtroom.
That might run $15,000, payable in advance.
And then there is the cost of the jury.
That might run $25,000, also payable in advance.
And then there might be the cost of witnesses.
That might run another $15,000, also payable in advance.
Giving new meaning to the cliche, “justice isn’t cheap”…
Husband and Wife are from England, but have been living with Child in British Columbia, Canada.
When the marriage breaks down, Wife wants to take Child to live in Europe.
The Court rules that the Child should remain in British Columbia.
Wife is awarded transitional alimony.
At the ten day trial, both parties represent themselves.
At the end of it, Wife asks the Court to waive a court fee … of $3,600.
Chaos in the courtroom.
Wife was supposed to pay in advance.
Court will now consider whether British Columbian court fees are unconstitutional as impeding access to the courts.
There is some Canadian authority to support that conclusion.
Wife is unemployed, but not indigent.
Court wishes to hear from the Attorney General and stays payment of the fee until it does so.
Read more in this Vancouver Sun article: Do B.C.’s court costs impede justice?.
Florida does not allow adoptions by a homosexual couple.
Washington state does.
A lesbian couple living in Washington state each give birth to a child.
And each partner adopts the other’s biological child as permitted under Washington law.
Lesbian couple relocates to Florida.
And eventually breaks up.
At first, they agree to share legal and physical custody of both children, so that the children can spend most of their time together.
The next year, however, one of the couple “goes straight” and becomes engaged to marry a man.
Who wants to adopt his fiance’s biological child.
At that point, when the child is about 9 years old, her mother denies any timesharing to her former partner.
The frustrated partner brings suit to determine parental responsibility and timesharing.
At trial, the court denies the frustrated partner any parental responsibility or timesharing with the denying partner’s biological child.
On appeal to an intermediate level appellate court, that ruling is reversed.
The Florida appellate court holds that Florida has to give full faith and credit to the Washington state adoption and the rights and obligations flowing from it.
Without regard to Florida’s law and policy against gay adoption.
The birth mother intends to appeal to the Florida Supreme Court.
Read more in this Courthouse News Service article: Fla. Must Recognize Gay Adoptions, Court Rules and this Sarasota Herald Tribune article: Adoption by Sarasota lesbian is upheld on appeal.
It is almost cliche that divorce is one of the most stressful events in a person’s life.
It certainly was for a California veterinarian.
She channeled her stress productively though.
She fantasized about a haven where she could break things.
And, born of her fantasy came … Sarah’s Smash Shack.
A place where angry or stressed folks - or anyone else - can go to smash plates, vases and other stuff, against walls.
Safely.
To the accompaniment of their favorite music.
And they actually pay for the pleasure of doing this damage to someone else’s stuff.
Read more in this San Diego News Network article: Downtown business wants you to break its stuff.
Mother, Grandparents and 3 year old Child go to mall.
Mother and Child become separated from Grandparents.
Mother and Child leave mall.
Amber Alert goes out.
Grandparents have legal custody of Child.
Mother is only allowed supervised visitation with Child.
Warrants for Mother’s arrest for kidnapping are issued.
Mother is suspected to have abducted Child to Georgia.
Child is not believed to be in danger of violence from Mother.
But Child is still missing.
Read more in this Mooresville [NC] Tribune article: Warrants issued for mother of missing 3-year-old.
Seventy year old New Mexico Father is behind on child support, to the tune of $13,500.
Father is held in contempt of court.
As punishment for his contempt, Father is sentenced to up to three months of incarceration.
Who is the insolent Father who appears to have no respect for the Court’s child support order or the law?
None other than a former municipal court judge.
Who was reportedly also previously accused of sexual harassment by three court clerks.
Read more in this [Midland, TX] KWES NewsWest 9 TV news article: Former Santa Fe judge jailed over child support.
Will a spouse’s marriage last, or end in divorce?
Research psychologists from DePauw University think they can predict with some degree of accuracy.
It all depends on the spouse’s smile … when he or she was a child.
Specifically, the frequency and intensity of the smile in youth.
That’s right.
Smilers and, especially, big smilers, were considerably less likely to get divorced.
In the study, no participants in the top ten percent of smilers divorced.
In contrast, twenty-five percent of the least smiley had an unsuccessful marriage.
Statistically, the biggest smilers have only an eleven percent likelihood of divorcing.
The least smiley have a thirty-one percent chance of divorcing.
Why?
It’s not clear.
Smilers may simply be happier and attract happier people into their lives.
Or they accept bumps in the road more happily.
Or they have a larger support network to help them get through tough times.
Or there may be some other reason entirely.
Read more in this Money Times article: Childhood smile could predict your risk of divorce.
Husband and Wife divorce.
Twenty-five years later, Wife approaches retirement.
Far-off-in-the-future social security benefits are not typically addressed in divorces, and many people are confused about or ignorant of their eventual entitlement.
Wife lets it be known that she is contemplating seeking to collect social security benefits by claiming through Husband.
Husband opposes.
But Wife can do this, even all these years later, even though this was not spelled out in Wife’s and Husband’s divorce.
Under federal law, a spouse who was married for at least ten years to someone who earned social security benefits, may claim social security benefits based on their former spouse’s rights - provided the claiming spouse did not remarry.
The claiming spouse’s benefits do not diminish the benefits that will be paid to the earning spouse.
Read more in this Philadelphia Daily News finance column: Harry Gross: His ex-wife can benefit from his SS.
Canadian Mother allegedly alienates Children from Father, her ex-husband.
Ontario Superior Court then enters a “series” of orders intended to repair the relationship between Father and Children.
Mother does not comply with Court’s orders.
Court holds Mother in contempt and concludes that Mother’s conduct constitutes “emotional abuse” of Children.
The Court modifies custody of Children so that Father has sole custody of Children … and Mother is prohibited from having any contact with Children.
Court orders intensive therapy for Children to combat parental alienation syndrome.
Court imposes fine on Mother of $35,000.
Father’s attorney commends the punishment as clarifying that court orders must be “taken seriously” or violators will suffer the consequences of their actions.
Read more in this Guelph [Ontario, Canada] Mercury article: Toronto mother, 42, fined more than $35,000 in messy domestic dispute.
Husband and Wife divorce.
Husband and Wife have six, count ‘em, six dogs.
Husband and Wife cannot bear to split dogs up.
Each is more attached to the dogs than to each other.
Husband and Wife - and, of course, the dogs - continue to share a New York City apartment … and a bed.
For eight years.
Then Wife finally can’t stand it and tells Husband he must leave.
Not without three of the dogs, he says.
And off he, and three of the dogs, go.
Strange as this situation sounds, there are other people who continue to co-exist in the same residence, months and even years after their divorce.
For less reason than shared unwillingness to separate pets.
Until one of them just can’t stand it anymore.
And then it’s back to court to force the other person out of the residence.
Read more in this New York Post editorial: I LIVED WITH EX FOR SAKE OF OUR PETS.
Florida birth Mother gives her twin babies (Twins) up for adoption.
Mother maintains she signed adoption papers under duress resulting from sleep deprivation.
Twins are adopted by North Carolina couple.
Adoption is open, according to contract, with Mother being involved with the Twins after the adoption.
Then Mother allegedly takes off to Canada with the Twins.
Mother is charged with kidnapping the Twins.
Mother’s parental rights to Twins are terminated.
Now Mother is seeking visitation with the Twins from a North Carolina court.
The trial court ruling apparently turned quickly on the fact that Mother’s parental rights had been terminated.
Mother is pressing to have a full hearing despite that.
Mother characterizes the case as a custody dispute.
The adoptive North Carolina couple characterize it as a contract dispute.
The North Carolina appellate court has yet to rule.
Read more in:
Illinois Father and Mother split up.
They have two children together.
Mother wins sole custody, having accused Father of abusing her and the children and having obtained short-lived protective orders against Father during their divorce case.
But Father later wrested custody away from Mother, because Mother allegedly moved the children to a house without heat, electricity or running water, which was infested with bugs, and their children allegedly went unbathed for days on end.
Father’s current wife wrote of the stormy relationship between Mother and Father on a social networking website.
Father and his current wife were recently found by Mother, murdered in their home. Their baby was unharmed.
At the time of Father’s death, he was scheduled to square off against Mother in Court on their custody case soon.
Given the allegations made by Father before his death, it is unknown and unclear whether Mother will regain custody of their children or whether the children will go into protective custotdy.
Read more in this Chicago Herald News article: Slain couple was in custody dispute.
An 18 year New Zealand relationship has come to an end.
Leaving in its wake four frozen embryos produced as a result of fertility treatments.
The Woman wants the embryos to be born, either to her or to another woman.
The Man is apparently opposed.
Although no further legal action regarding the embryos is planned, the Woman is attempting to try the dispute over the embryos in the media.
Read more in this New Zealand TVNZ article: Child custody battle involving embryos and this New Zealand Herald article: Separated couple row over frozen embryos.
North Carolina Husband and Wife have three preteen Children.
In 2005, Wife begins homeschooling Children.
Children reportedly enjoy homeschooling and perform two years above their respective grades in standardized tests.
If it ain’t broke … ?
Well, Husband and Wife are in the midst of a divorce.
Husband does not not dispute that Children are “thriving” with homeschooling.
And there is no suggestion that Husband is motivated by alimony avoidance.
Instead, Husband contends that Wife belongs to a “cult” that encourages homeschooling, with a religious slant to the curriculum, including science.
Wife does not dispute the religious component of her curriculum, but insists that the Children are doing very well, better than they did in public school.
She also suggests that she is being persecuted for her religious beliefs.
The North Carolina Court has ordered the Children back to public school on a temporary basis.
The Court justifies its ruling by indicating that the Husband is entitled to influence the Children’s education and religious training as well as the Wife.
There is also an indication that the Court cites as a benefit of public school that the Children will be exposed to other beliefs and have the beliefs Wife taught them “challenged” by others in public school.
Four percent of North Carolina’s school children through 16 years of age are homeschooled.
The case illustrates the complex issues presented when parents’ religious beliefs and educational values differ dramatically.
Read more in
A bill pending in the Texas legislature would, if passed, mandate that divorcing couples with children, who are pursuing a “no fault divorce”, take a 10 hour class in the nature of marriage counseling.
The class might cost as much as $200 per hour.
That’s $2,000 just to take the divorce class.
The legislative intent behind the bill is to “save a few marriages”.
The pending Texas legislation exempts victims of abuse documented by an order of protection or a police report.
But everyone else would have to take the class in order to obtain a divorce if the bill passes.
Sort of like giving no fault divorce with one hand, and taking it away from those who can’t afford the divorce class with the other hand …
But pretty profitable for government-approved providers.
Read more in this [Dallas/Ft. Worth] WFAA TV 8 news article: Bill proposes ‘divorce classes’.
Portland, Oregon is the “unhappiest city in America”. In case you are wondering.
So opines BusinessWeek magazine. Based on numerous statistics.
For example, of the fifty largest metropolitan areas in the nation, Portland ranks fourth in divorces.
Portland also ranks first in depression and twelfth in suicides.
Portand’s crisis prevention hotline reports that calls are up 71% from about a year ago.
The weak economy is likely a factor. But 222 cloudy days in a year probably doesn’t help.
Louisville ranks first in divorces, but it doesn’t score in the top ten most unhappy cities anyway.
So how much of a factor in “city happiness” is number of divorces?
Hard to say.
The second unhappiest city, St. Louis, MO ranks 18th in divorces.
And the third unhappiest city, New Orleans, ranks 26th in divorces.
Not much of a correlation at all …
Now, what about the “happiness statistics” on victims of domestic violence and couples who stay together, miserably?
Read more in this [Seattle] KIRO TV 7 article: Portland Named Unhappiest City In America.
Mother and Father have two young children, the oldest autistic with special needs.
After the parents separate, the Father fails to return the children from a weekend visit.
Eight months ago. The divorce isn’t even final yet.
Father keeps changing attorneys or missing court, so Mother is unable to communicate amicably about their children.
Law enforcement authorities view the disappearance of the children as a family matter, for family court and, apparently, do little.
Until Father tries to cross the border to Canada with their kids. Twice. Unsuccessfully.
The first time Father doesn’t have required papers. The second time the customs agent follows a hunch.
At that point, a felony warrant is finally issued.
A good samaritan reports a man and two children walking in 20 degree weather in Pennsylvania … with no coats or jackets on.
That leads to Father’s arrest and the children are taken into protective custody.
Read more in this Salt Lake City Deseret News article: Mother’s 8-month ordeal ends with father’s arrest.
The issue of parents in the military suffering adverse rulings in family courts at home while they are away on deployment just doesn’t quit.
The latest state to enter the fray is South Carolina, with its pending Military Parent Equal Protection Act.
The proposed legislation is intended to stop permanent changes to custody orders or entry of permanent custody orders while or because a parent is deployed in the military.
The bill also requires the parent with physical custody to allow visitation during the military parent’s leaves from active duty.
Another change in the pending act is a prohibition of permanent changes to child support orders based on military pay.
The main theme is keeping any changes made to accommodate or otherwise because of military service by one parent as temporary changes.
Unfortunately, if passed, the legislation would likely make more work for family court judges and tend to clog their dockets.
Read more in this Beaufort [SC] Gazette article: Legislators: Military members on active duty shouldn’t have to fight custody battles.
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