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

Every state makes its own laws regarding child custody and parental responsibility, and child visitation and timesharing. Beyond the precise language set forth in the statute books, every state’s divorce courts and family courts impose their own unique judicial interpretation of those laws and implement enforcement based, to a large extent, on that interpretation. For those reasons, among others, rulings and judgments in each state’s divorce courts and family courts can vary dramatically, perhaps even more than the wording of their respective state laws might suggest.

A Michigan father contends that many Michigan fathers divorced or separated from their children’s mothers are largely excluded from their children’s day to day lives. And he reports that a whopping forty percent of kids across the US do not have their biological father living in their home.

Despite the evolution of the law governing child custody and parental responsibility, this father indicates that Michigan fathers are ten times more likely to “lose custody” of their children in a custody battle with the children’s mothers. In Michigan cases where the family court awards sole custody to one of the children’s parents, it is awarded to the mothers a staggering ninety-two percent of the time.

Perhaps even more shocking in this day and age, Michigan fathers are reportedly awarded joint custody of their children in only thirteen percent of custody disputes.

And, it is said that the typical Michigan visitation and timesharing schedule grants the noncustodial parents a meager four overnight visits per month.

All combining to effectively isolate many Michigan fathers from their children’s everyday lives of school, extracurricular activities and friendships.

This Michigan father advocates for equal timesharing for fit fathers in Michigan. Both for the fathers’ sakes and for the children’s sakes.

All of the above may seem to be a sad commentary on the state of divorce and child custody laws and visitation and timesharing law as applied in Michigan and, likely, other states as well.

Florida’s child custody and parental responsibility laws and timesharing and visitation laws are drafted so as to be more sensitive to the best interests of children whose parents are no longer together. And the policy of Florida divorce courts and family courts is to be more sensitive to the best interests of children whose families are no longer intact.

Of course, each Florida county and each Florida family court room within each county is somewhat unique.

Any father who identifies with what this Michigan father has to say and who has a child subject to the jurisdiction of the Florida family courts should consult with an experienced Florida child custody attorney. Whatever the law and practice in Michigan, a fit father should be able to look forward to a much better outcome in a child custody dispute in a Florida family court.

Read more in this Muskegon [MI] Chronicle letter to the editor: Legal system forces divorced dads out of kids’ lives

Tennessee Husband and Wife have a Son together.

Husband and Wife divorce.

Son now lives primarily with Husband.

Husband learns that Son is not Husband’s biological offspring, but rather the product of an affair by Wife.

Husband sues Wife to recover child support and for damages due to emotional distress caused by Wife’s fraud.

At trial, the family court awards Husband $26,000 in child support and $100,000 in emotional distress damages.

Wife appeals. And the intermediate level appellate court strikes the financial awards to Husband.

Husband appeals. And the state Supreme Court will address for the first time whether a defrauded father may sue for child support and/or damages due to paternity fraud.

This is an issue that will not go away. After years of lobbying by men’s rights groups, numbers of states, including Florida, passed legislation permitting legal fathers to disprove that they are the biological fathers of their legal children and avoid future child support payments.

The catch is that the legal father must mount his legal challenge pretty quickly. And that is believed to be true in the other states as well as Florida.

Further, the sole remedy to date is believed to be termination of child support, but not recovery of previously paid support – or damages. That would represent a significant departure and a new page in our law books.

Not to mention the impact it would have on the innocent children who are the subjects of these disputes.

Read more in this WREG TV News 3 article: Tennessee Supreme Court could determine whether paternity fraud is grounds to sue and this Insurance Journal article: Father’s Day: Tennessee Court Considers Paternity Fraud, Damages.

Kentucky Wife cheats on her husband. Wife gets pregnant and has Baby.

Wife’s Boyfriend seeks parental rights and responsibilities, including timesharing and visitation with Baby.

Under long-settled legal precedents, where a mother’s marriage is intact, in the eyes of the law, the mother’s husband is (conclusively) presumed to be the father of the mother’s child.

The Kentucky Supreme Court overturns that precedent in favor of a more scientific and pragmatic approach looking to DNA testing rather than blind rules of law.

Read more in this Wall Street Journal piece: Kentucky Supreme Court Wades into Extramarital Affairs and this Courier-Journal article: Kentucky court says fathers of children conceived during affairs have parental rights.

As recently as the 1970s, rural Iowa boasted a divorce rate out of 1910s America at large.

And there were hardly any paternity cases for child support and/or child custody, between parents who were not married.

Rural Iowans went to church regularly, mothers stayed at home with children and, well, people in their world did not divorce.

But forty years later, things have changed … in a big way.

Except for the fact that most rural Iowans still belong to a church and attend regularly, now, rural Iowa pretty much mirrors the rest of America.

Rural Iowa women today are more likely to be college-educated than in the past … and more likely to be college-educated than rural men.

They are out in the workforce.

Being divorced no longer carries much of a stigma in rural Iowa.

And divorce has multiplied there by a magnitude of seven times.

And rural Iowa now has its share of paternity cases for child support and custody disputes between unmarried parents.

Read more in this New York Times article: Once Rare in Rural America, Divorce Is Changing the Face of Its Families.

Budget cuts have been impacting the courts, including family courts, for years now – with no end in sight.

Leaving more cases, with fewer personnel and resources to process them.

Coaxing out every efficiency imaginable.

Encouraging introduction of electronic filing and eventual phasing out of paper filing.

All the while relentlessly inching ever-closer to testing the very limits of justice.

The above is from and about the courts of Oregon.

But it would seem to apply equally as well to Florida’s courts, including Florida’s divorce courts, in recent years.

Read more in this Yamhill Valley [OR] News Register article: Judge worries about court cuts.

Father lives in South Korea.

Father has four children in South Korea.

Father dies … leaving behind a multi-million dollar estate.

Four people in North Korea believe that they are Father’s children as well, from a previous marriage when Father lived in North Korea.

The North Koreans file a paternity lawsuit in South Korea against Father in order to assert a claim directly against Father’s estate and/or indirectly against Father’s beneficiaries in South Korea.

DNA tests confirm that the four North Koreans are indeed Father’s biological children.

This litigation is reported to be the of its kind in South Korea.

The disposition of the case is anticipated to be followed closely by North Koreans and South Koreans.

Read more in this Korean Chosun Ilbo news article: N.Koreans Win Paternity Suit in Inheritance Battle with S.Korean Siblings and this Korea Joongang Daily article: Children in North win paternity suit in South.

Father has a five month old Son.

Father seeks visitation and timesharing with Son.

One problem.

Father is a convicted sex offender.

Another problem.

Father is about to be arrested on new charges, of exposing himself to two children.

Although the new charges are misdemeanors, normally punishable by confinement for no longer than a year, the prosecution is seeking an enhancement that could subject Father to incarceration for life.

Father’s parental rights to two other children of his have previously been terminated.

The family court denies Father visitation with Son.

But sets another hearing regarding psychological counseling Father will be required to undergo before timesharing with Son can be considered.

Mother has supervised visitation with Son.

Read more in this Huron [MI] Daily Tribune article: Welshans jailed on charges.

Mother has a Son.

Mother is unable to parent Son adequately.

The two most likely biological fathers undergo DNA paternity testing.

Mother’s parents, Grandparents, obtain sole custody of Son from his birth, reportedly by repeatedly testifying in Court that Son’s father is “unknown”.

But the testing shows that Father is Son’s father.

The California family court later rules that Father should have custody of Son.

But, three years have gone by and Son is still with Grandparents as a result of Grandparents’ initial alleged fraud.

Grandparents deny knowledge of Father’s paternity at that time, even though the test results were available online (by identification code rather than name). Their attorney maintains that they saw only the other possible father’s negative test results.

Read more in this [Bakersfield, CA] KGET TV 17 news article: Couple retains child custody after court ruled they obtained custody by fraud.

Australian Mother and Father conceive a child.

Their relationship is short-lived.

Father leaves the area.

Mother repeatedly attempts to contact Father, both through letters to his parents and letters to his new girlfriend.

Father, inferring that Mother is seeking child support, makes no response.

Mother is left with no option but to sue Father for child support.

But how can Mother serve Father if she can’t find Father (in the flesh)?

Well, in this particular instance, Father is active on the social networking site Facebook.

Under the circumstances, the Australian Court enters an order permitting Mother to have the elusive Father served with legal process via Facebook. The Court supports its ruling by simply acknowledging current technology in widespread use, and used in actuality by the intended recipient of service.

Shortly after Mother’s attorney forwards the legal documents to Father via Facebook, Father closes his Facebook account and also takes down his MySpace website.

Certainly sounds like Father has received Mother’s legal papers.

This case from Down Under should not be interpreted as approving electronic service of process in all US states or in all cases.

But it does go to show that, under the proper circumstances, in specific cases, courts are more and more likely to authorize service of process via e-mail and/or via social networking websites.

Read more in this Times of India news article: Legal notice can be sent via Facebook too and this University of Richmond Law School Law Review article: Superpoked and Served: Service of Process via Social Networking Sites.

Mother and Father have Baby.

Mother and Father split up when Baby is less than one year old.

Custody battle begins.

Father is awarded timesharing or visitation with Baby.

Mother allegedly absconds with Baby last December.

Mother reportedly tells Father that she killed Baby. Then recants.

And then says she gave Baby away to a couple.

Mother is arrested for child abuse, kidnapping, custodial interference and conspiracy to commit custodial interference.

Family court now awards custody of Baby to Father in the event that Baby turns up.

Mother now refuses to provide any information about Baby to Family court or Father, apparently due to criminal charges pending against her.

Father seeks to hold Mother in contempt. A hearing on the contempt allegation will take place later this month.

Read more in this Arizona Republic article: Father awarded custody of missing baby Gabriel

California lesbian couple have Twins.

Both partners are listed on Twins’ birth certificates and Twins’ have both partners’ names in their hyphenated surnames.

Shortly after Twins’ births, couple breaks up.

Biological Mother (Bio Mom) then takes up with sperm donor-Biogical Father (Bio Dad).

Lesbian couple had made no formal legal arrangements between themselves or, for that matter, with Bio Dad regarding Twins.

Bio Mom’s former lesbian partner (Other Mom) files paternity suit to get visitation with Twins.

California trial court orders shared legal custody of Twins between Bio Mom and Other Mom on a temporary basis.

Bio Mom, Other Mom and Bio Dad settle case, continuing same terms on permanent basis. Bio Dad’s rights, if any, are not known.

Bio Mom reportedly settled the case to avoid costly and drawn out litigation.

Read more in this Santa Cruz [CA] Sentinel article: Former Santa Cruz lesbian partners settle paternity suit.

Times are tough. Especially for those wishfully contemplating divorce.

Even more especially for those who are upside down in their homes and possibly facing foreclosure and/or overburdened by credit card debt.

For some, bankruptcy may be the best or only way not only to escape a bad marriage, but also to get their love lives and financial lives back on track, according to a bankruptcy attorney.

This strategy may work best where both spouses are on board with it and go through bankruptcy prior to final judgment in their divorce.

It is important to realize that bankruptcy cannot discharge alimony or child support obligations, past, present or future.

Also, the law has changed over the last several years, and debt may not be as freely dischargeable and marital property settlements may not be as easy to circumvent as in the past.

Still, consulting with a bankruptcy attorney knowledgeable of bankruptcy law as it applies to divorce and paternity-related issues just may make all the difference to those wishfully contemplating divorce but saddled with overwhelming debt.

Read more in this Bankrate website article: 5 money jams bankruptcy can fix.

Boyfriend lives in New York.

Girlfriend lives in New Hampshire.

Boyfriend and Girlfriend “meet” on the internet.

Couple has two Daughters.

Relationship sours.

Custody battle in New Hampshire begins.

Girlfriend accuses Boyfriend of sexually abusing Daughters and of “mental delusions”.

Boyfriend accuses Girlfriend of sexually abusing Daughters and of “mental delusions”.

Neither police nor child protection agencies in either of their states have taken any action against Boyfriend (or, apparently, Girlfriend).

Boyfriend [erroneously] contends that this proves that Girfriend abused him with false accusations … alienating their Daughters from him and manipulating the legal system.

Court concludes that couple cannot “co-parent”.

Therefore, court awards Girlfriend primary custody and majority timesharing.

Court also awards Boyfriend “liberal” visitation.

Seeking primary custody himself, Boyfriend files appeal … and learns that New Hampshire law denies unmarried parents in child custody cases, among other folks in family cases, an automatic right of appeal.

So, Boyfriend seeks a discretionary appeal. And loses.

Now, regrouping, Boyfriend asks the trial court to reconsider its ruling, a little late in the game. He is now asserting that different appellate rules based on marital status of parents is discriminatory and, therefore, unconstitutional.

Whatever else, New Hampshire’s unusual appellate rules do at least have the virtue of trimming the appellate dockets considerably.

Read more in this Concord [NH] Monitor article: Unmarried couple’s custody case hits snag – No automatic appeal in fight.

Unmarried Utah Mother gets pregnant by Father.

When Son is born, Father’s name is listed on birth certificate as Father.

But Father is in jail when Son is born, so Father doesn’t sign birth certificate.

So Father’s name is removed from Son’s birth certificate.

After about six months in Mother’s care, Son is taken into protective custody by child welfare agency.

Son eventually is placed with a foster family, with whom Son has remained for a couple of years.

Child welfare agency takes steps to terminate Mother’s parental rights.

Father files motion to intervene in that case.

Father fails to undergo a DNA test to prove that he is Son’s biological father before the scheduled trial over termination of Mother’s parental rights.

Then Mother agrees to give up her parental rights to Son.

Son is freed up for adoption under Utah law.

And Utah court concludes that Father lacks legal standing to assert parental rights to Son any longer.

Father maintains that no one ever advised him of the importance of signing Son’s birth certificate or proving his biological relationship to Son via DNA testing shortly after Son’s birth.

Father appeals trial court’s dismissal of his motion to intervene in the case against Mother over custody of Son.

Breaking new legal ground in Utah, the appellate court reverses, and grants Father a hearing to prove that he is Son’s biological father.

All Father wants is the right to obtain pictures of Son and e-mails about his development, which Son’s foster parents were apparently unwilling to agree to.

Read more in this [Salt Lake City] Deseret News article: Ruling offers new hope to unwed dads in Utah.

A New York appellate case illustrates that courts, especially appellate courts, often do not think like ordinary people or, more particularly, share their sensibilities.

In that case, Father doesn’t pay his court-ordered child support (of $50 per month) for Baby, and Father argues and tussles with Mother at her home.

The trial court rules that Father’s behavior constitutes child neglect.

Many ordinary people would agree wholeheartedly.

But, on appeal to the intermediate level appellate court, the higher court reverses.

The appellate court explains that there is no evidence that Baby was harmed by Father’s failure to pay support, and no evidence that the disputes between Father and Mother harmed Baby in any way.

The appellate court does not condone Father’s conduct, of course, but it can’t say Father’s conduct amounted to neglect.

Don’t misunderstand, the Mother and/or Guardian and the child welfare agency do have other legal remedies against Father that they can pursue in court. But an action for neglect is not one of them.

Read more in this West Palm Beach Examiner article: NY state court rules that dad did not neglect child by failing to pay support & by fighting with mom.

Many states offer or even require divorcing or separating parents to take a parenting class. Florida is one of those states, mandating a four hour class on co-parenting after separation.

Now, researchers at the University of Missouri’s Human Development and Family Studies program have developed an online program, called Focus on Kids Online, to comply with Missouri’s legal requirement. (Florida’s four hour class is also available online.)

Parents who have completed the Missouri program actually self-report better relationships and heightened awareness of problems – and solutions for those problems.

That is what may truly distinguish the University of Missouri program from its counterparts in Florida and other states.

Enthusiastic about the response, the University plans to offer the online program to other states in the future.

One suggestion in the program is that parents provide consistent routines and chores in each parent’s home. A great concept, but difficult to implement in practice.

Read more in this Science Daily article: Digital Solutions Developed to Support Divorced Families.

Wisconsin Mother and Texas Father have been involved in lengthy child custody case over 4 year old Son.

Along the way, Father is held in contempt of court, with potential for jail time.

Custody evaluations by Wisconsin and Texas social workers are very close to being filed with the court. Father reportedly knows the recommendation of the Texas social worker.

Mother is stabbed to death at home. Son is at the home at the time.

Father is a suspect in the murder.

Son is with relatives in Wisconsin.

Read more in this Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel article: Stabbing victim was involved in custody fight.

Unmarried British Mother and Spanish Father have Daughter together.

Daughter is born in UK.

The family lives in Tenerife Island, Spain for over a year.

Daughter has serious heart condition.

Mother and Daughter return to the UK.

According to Mother, Father encouraged them to return to the UK for family support.

Both Spain and the UK are parties to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. Further, Tenerife law, apparently requires formal government permission to remove a child who has lived there for more than a year and who is the biological child of a Spaniard.

Father concedes that he does not take advantage of easy opportunities to visit Daughter and, according to Mother, Father never calls to find out about Daughter.

Nonetheless, some eight months of silence after Mother’s and Daughter’s return to the UK, police appear at Mother’s home and seize her passport.

Mother learns that she is required to return with ill Daughter to Tenerife, to appear in court there for the purpose of determining custody of Daughter.

Father reportedly now wishes to seek custody of Daughter.

Father comments that he does not want to go to court in England … because “it’s not my country”.

So much better to drag his sick child back to court in Tenerife.

Read more in this UK Daily Mail article: Tug of love mother must fly to court in Tenerife to fight for daughter, 5, after being accused of abducting her.

They’ve been around for a while. But they weren’t universally or wholeheartedly embraced. Parenting coordinators.

But that will likely be changing next month. Due to a new statute.

And the recently imposed requirement that a parenting plan be made in Florida divorces involving children and Florida paternity cases involving children of separating parents who were never married.

A Florida parenting plan is a detailed statement of how parenting responsibilities (decisionmaking, timesharing and support) will be allocated between the parents. More detailed than marital settlement agreements and paternity settlement agreements have commonly been in the past.

Many parents find it difficult to agree on all of the provisions in a complete Florida parenting plan … Leaving it to the court to work out the details of the parenting plan.

Enter the parenting coordinator.

After the parenting plan is entered by the court, many parents find it difficult to live by the plan. Conflict erupts at exchanges.

Again, enter the parenting coordinator.

A parenting coordinator works with parents outside the courtroom to amicably develop or implement a parenting plan without litigation, to arrive at a Florida uncontested divorce or uncontested paternity case.

Depending on the wording of the order of referral to parenting coordination, the parenting coordinator may make recommendations to the court, or may actually have limited authority to rule on and decide certain disputes between the parents.

But parenting coordinators’ primary focus is to help the parents work together to resolve parenting disputes on their own without conflict.

Read more in this press release: National Cooperative Parenting Center Responds to New Florida Legislation.

New Jersey Mother and Father have Daughter.

Mother is deployed to Iraq for nearly a year.

Daughter is in Father’s care during Mother’s deployment.

Before Mother departs for Iraq, with the assistance of the military, Mother and Father devise a parenting plan for her return. Nothing goes through the courts though.

Mother returns.

Father denies Mother access to Daughter except for a few, short visits.

Father maintains that Daughter doesn’t really know Mother.

The military does nothing to enforce the parenting plan agreed to.

Now Mother and Father are going through the courts.

Each parents seeks sole custody of Daughter.

It has become commonplace for returning soldiers to find their custody or visitation whittled down. Returning mothers are experiencing this to an even greater degree than returning fathers.

Although there has been much lobbying for changes in law to prevent this from happening, remedial legislation has not gone as far as may be needed. The military has not pressed for more, not even enforcement authority for parenting plans.

Special statutes notwithstanding, deployment away from a one year old for an extended period of time poses challenges in protecting children’s interests and well-being that a family court judge cannot ignore.

Daughter cried upon Mother’s return.

A family court judge has given Father temporary residential custody of Daughter with provision for daily visits and weekly overnight visits to Mother.

Mother reports that she would oppose any threatened redeployment.

Read more in this New York Times article: Soldier’s Service Leads to a Custody Battle at Home and this New York Times article: After Iraq, the Battle at Home.

England is one-upping the increasingly common unified family court system.

In unified family courts, such as in Florida, the goal is for all cases involving a single family to ultimately be assigned to the same judge, be the case criminal, juvenile dependency, divorce or paternity, or criminal. That is the goal.

In England, victims of domestic violence can now come forward in a new dedicated domestic violence court and start the ball rolling in that one courtroom to obtain a divorce, child custody, an order of protection or injunction for protection against domestic violence, and a criminal charge against their abuser.

The judge will specialize in all these related issues and have power to implement all the above measures.

The courtroom will also have domestic violence victim advocates on hand.

In England, two women are killed each week by a current or former partner. Police there are summoned to an alleged incident of abuse every single minute.

Read more in this London Sun article: Special courts for women who are victims of domestic abuse.

As part of a series of articles about divorce, the Tampa Bay Examiner takes the opportunity to reprint one version of the Children’s Bill of Rights. There are many versions, that express similar sentiments in somewhat different ways.

Any version is worth every separating parent’s review:

1. The right to be treated as important human beings, with unique feelings, ideas and desires, and not as a source of argument between parents.
2. The right to a continuing relationship with both parents and the freedom to receive love from and express love for both.
3. The right to express love and affection for each parent without having to stifle that love because of fear of disapproval by the other parent.
4. The right to know that their parents’ decision to divorce is not their responsibility and that they will live with one parent and visit the other.
5. The right to continuing care and guidance from both parents.
6. The right to honest answers to questions about the changing family relationships.
7. The right to know and appreciate what is good in each parent without one parent degrading the other.
8. The right to have a relaxed, secure relationshp with both parents without being placed in a position to manipulate one parent against the other.
9. The right to have the custodial parent not undermine visitation by suggesting tempting alternatives or by threatening to withhold visitation as a punishment for the children’s wrongdoing.
10. The right to be able to experience regular and consistent visitation and the right to know the reason for cancelled visits.

Read more in this Tampa Bay [FL] Examiner article: Divorce and the children’s bill of rights.

In one North Carolina county, the number of children in foster care has gone down, pretty dramatically, over the last several years.

How did they accomplish it?

The child welfare agency there has been experimenting with several preventative, early intervention programs, using government and charitable funds grants.

Each program or service has a different focus, such as:

1. maintaining the involvement of fathers in their children’s lives
2. assigning a nurse to each new mother during her baby’s first two years
3. promoting relationships between parents and extended family members
4. offering therapeutic foster care services, to train and support parents of children with special needs
5. placing removed children with extended family members rather than in foster care with strangers

Between 2002 and 2009, the number of children in foster care in this North Carolina county shrank from 573 to 396.

Read more in this [Greensboro, NC] News & Record article: Editorial: Keeping families whole.

Mother and Father have Baby.

Mother lives in North Carolina with Baby.

Father, a member of the armed forces, removes Baby and brings Baby to live with him on base in California.

Implication is that Baby may be at risk with Mother.

There is no information as to whether a court ever determined custody or whether Mother ever sought Baby’s return.

Some time later, seven month old Baby dies while in Father’s care.

Of blunt force trauma to head and abdomen.

Father arrested for child abuse causing death.

Father faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Read more in this [Barstow, CA] Desert Dispatch article:Former soldier charged in fatal child abuse case goes to trial.

Woman alleges that North Carolina Man is father of her child and should pay child support.

Man is certain he is not the father and willingly submits to DNA paternity test.

Test results arrive in Man’s mail.

Cover letter concludes that Man is the father.

Man reads on …

Actual report of test results states that Man is not the father.

Man reports inconsistency to testing company.

Company maintains that this is an unusual clerical mistake, which would have been caught even if Man didn’t catch the error.

In any event, Woman’s case is dismissed and Man can go on with his life, free of years of child support obligations.

Moral: When it comes to legal proceedings, read everything … all the way through.

Read more in this Charlotte [NC] Observer article: Office error could have cost Garner man thousands in child support payments..

Many states require separating parents to take a class on co-parenting after separation.

But some locales, recognizing an unmet need, are offering, even requiring, that children attend a class to help them deal with their parents’ separation.

Many children have difficulty talking to anyone, even their parents, about how they feel about the separation and the changes taking place in their lives.

Marion County, Ohio is tackling this problem with programs for kids in grades two to six and seven to twelve. The program utilizes books, workbooks and coloring books, depending on the ages of the children involved.

Feedback from the children is very good, suggesting that the children feel less isolated after the class.

The books also provide roadmaps to aid parents in try to get their kids to open up with them.

Interestingly, Marion County has what is known in Florida as unified family court. Meaning that one judge will guide each family through any probate, family and juvenile court issues.

Which may be the source of the county’s heightened sensitivity to kids’ difficulties with separation.

The various books use in the programs appear to be for sale to interested parties, wherever they may live.

Read more in this Marion [OH] Star article:Grant allows county court to help children.

Virginia Mother and Father conceive a Child.

Mother and Father split up before Father learns of pregnancy.

Years pass.

Mother introduces Child to Father.

Father is now married to another woman.

Father seeks visitation.

Mother and Father engage in bitter court battle.

And then the Court reportedly awards Father sole custody.

Mother starts Children Without a Voice, an advocacy group for women who have lost custody to their children’s father.

Mother allegedly decides to hire a hit man to murder Father and get him out of the picture.

Except the hit man Mother pays is an undercover law enforcement officer.

Mother is arrested for solicitation to commit murder … and attempted murder.

Mother pleads guilty to attempted murder, and the remaining charges are dropped.

Mother faces two terms of incarceration for life, plus a $200,000 fine.

Of course, Mother still won’t have custody of Child.

And Mother’s visitation, if any, will be less than optimal.

Read more in this Culpeper [VA] Star-Exponent article: Woman guilty of plotting murder.

It’s very common for divorcing parents to be ordered to attend a parenting class for divorcing parents.

Never-married parents may be required to attend the same class, but they frequently feel that it “doesn’t apply to them”.

Ohio’s Stark County is attempting to address that program flaw by instituting a separate class for never-married parents.

The course emphasizes communications skills and appreciating the importance of both parents to a child.

The new program provides mediators and a psychologist to educate parents on “psychological wellness for kids”.

It is hoped that the new program will benefit the growing numbers of children of unmarried parents as well as the unmarried parents themselves.

In future years, the new course will be funded through court fees.

Read more in this Stark County [OH] Press-News article: New parenting program offered to never married parents who are separating.

Mother and Father have two year old baby Daughter.

Father allegedly takes Daughter out for a walk.

And disappears.

Again.

Father is reportedly caught … in Mexico, thanks to a phone call.

Daughter is back with Mother and her fiance in Kentucky.

Father will be extradited there on charges of interference with child custody.

Mother plans to seek sole custody of Daughter, with supervision of Father’s visitation.

Mother acknowledges Father’s importance to Daughter, but hopes he seeks psychological help.

Read more in this [Laredo, TX] KGNS Pro 8 TV News article: Pro 8 News Exclusive: Mother of kidnapped girl speaks out to our Joey Horta.

Mother lives in Florida and Father lives in Ohio. Daughter is with Mother at time of events in question.

Father flies to Florida and allegedly physically collects Daughter and forces her into his car.

Father has a change of car waiting and uses second car to take Daughter to airport.

Father tries to board plane with Daughter when he is captured.

Father claims to have custody of Daughter, awarded to him by an Ohio court.

But Mother has an Order from a Florida court awarding her custody and staying the Ohio court’s order.

Conflicting custody orders from different states are typically avoided these days thanks to the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act, a body of laws widely adopted across the US to resolve which state has proper jurisdiction to decide custody of any particular child and mandating that other states remain hands-off.

Father is under arrest for interference with child custody.

Read more in this MS NBC article: Deputies: Ohio Dad Forces Daughter From Mom’s Tampa Home.