Florida Father imprisoned for one year for nonpayment of almost $30,000 of child support.

After being sentenced, Father agreed to pay $5,000 and his employer agreed to pay the balance of his back support, to get Father back on the job.

The child’s mother had no objection. The prosecutor had no objection.

But the judge wouldn’t go along with it. He didn’t think someone convicted of a crime should be able to buy a sentence reduction. He felt it was “unseemly”.

The judge wanted parents who are obligated to pay child support to understand that nonpayment is a serious offense, which could land them in jail.

Unfortunately, the child in question, who is ill, will have to go without any support to speak of while Father serves his time.

And the child needs medications and regular care.

Sort of a hollow victory.

Read more in this Tampa Tribune article: Judge Firm On Prison Term For Shirking Child Support.

When there’s a custody dispute, usually it’s between the parents of the child.

But not always. Sometimes its the grandparents who are battling with one of the parents.

And there are still more possibilities – in fact. Probably very long shots under the law.

A California stepfather grasped at one of those possibilities as his marriage was breaking up.

The man picked his stepson up from school.

The man’s car was spotted almost immediately by a retired Department of Justice officer.

With the California Highway Patrol in pursuit, the man stopped his flight.

The man was arrested on kidnapping charges for taking off with his stepson.

Read more in this Modesto Bee article: Stockton kidnap suspect arrested in Modesto.

Some Cambodians are dissatisfied with their divorce courts – even more so than people in this country are with ours.

A Cambodian Husband decided to divorce his Wife, because he didn’t feel that she tended to his care during an illness.

They decided to try to circumvent the courts as much as possible in their separation.

Husband was willing to leave the kids with Wife, without any wrangling.

As to property, under Cambodian law, it is divided equally.

And so it was.

Husband sawed the couple’s house in half, right down the middle.

A quick, inexpensive resolution, if not entirely satisfactory.

Read more in this Earth Times article: Cambodian husband takes half the house in divorce – literally.

Canadian Husband and Wife separate. But it doesn’t go smoothly.

Husband gets idea that Wife wants to relocate with couple’s Son. Wife insists she promised to remain in the same area.

According to friends of Husband, he is a “nice guy”. Even though he warns Wife that any relocation will be “over [my] dead body”.

Unfortunately, it appears that Husband isn’t exaggerating or speaking figuratively.

While Husband has Son with him for visitation, Husband allegedly kills Son and himself, by carbon monoxide poisoning.

To block a relocation that probably would not have happened anyway.

Son was just three years old at the time of his death.

No indication whether there was a prior history of violence or more pointed recent threats.

Read more of this sad story in this Calgary Herald article: Custody battle blamed for killing.

Older Canadian couple married ten years. Husband is two decades older than Wife.

Husband buys lottery ticket. Winning ticket will pay out $3.5 million Canadian.

Husband alleges Wife stole his winning ticket, gave it to her daughter and received a substantial gift from her daughter from the winnings. Husband also alleges that Wife manipulated his medications to facilitate taking advantage of him.

Then Wife files for divorce.

Then Husband brings a civil lawsuit against Wife, her daughters and their husbands and Wife’s grandson and his wife.

Then police arrest Wife and one of her daughters on fraud, forgery and possession of stolen property.

Civil suit judge freezes the assets of the whole lot of them – and orders them to prepare inventories of all purchases with the lottery winnings.

Wife’s defense in the civil suit appears to be that she spent some of the “gift from her daughter” on Husband.

Wife admits only that she did not tell Husband that his ticket won until that piece of news was published in the papers.

Read more in this Canadian Press article: Windsor, Ont., man claims wife stole winning lottery ticket before divorce filed and this Windsor Star article: $3.5M lottery lawsuit leads to family’s arrest.

Two men took a stand on a crane on Ohio State University’s campus in support of fathers’ rights in child custody disputes.

Dressed as superheroes, they called on Ohio’s and California’s governors to start investigations into their states’ respective family court systems.

They claim that the courts are corrupt because perjury consisting of false allegations is not prosecuted.

The men described their actions as “civil disobedience” which is necessary to draw the public’s attention to the fact that the deck is unfairly stacked against fathers in family court.

The University declined to comment on the men’s actions and Ohio’s governor is declining to act on the men’s calls to investigate the state’s family courts.

Probably not the most effective lobbying technique but …

Read more in this [Columbus, OH] WCMH NBC 4 article: Day 3 For 2 Dads On A Crane.

Quebec couple married for twelve years, after living together for seven years. Husband is more than 20 years older than Wife.

Husband is a judge. Wife is a perpetual student, working temporary and/or part-time jobs from time to time during the marriage.

Husband has accumulated nearly one million dollars in retirement savings, most of it during the marriage.

Quebec apparently has a property division framework similar to the equitable distribution principles in effect in Florida and many other US states, with marital property generally being divided equally unless there are special circumstances.

Husband contended that this was such a case and that it would be unjust to divide his pension evenly because Wife hadn’t contributed financially to the marriage and he had borne most of the financial responsibilities in the marriage. Sort of an attempted revival of a bygone legal standard for property division.

At trial, the Court rejected Husband’s argument and gave the Wife half of the portion of Husband’s pension that was marital.

On appeal, the intermediate level appellate court reversed.

On the second tier appeal, the Supreme Court reversed again, holding that equal division of the marital portion of Husband’s pension was not so inequitable as to warrant setting aside the trial court’s ruling. The court looked to the fact that it was a joint decision of the marital partnership that Wife go to school and only work part-time or sporadically.

Read more in this Montreal Gazette article: Judge’s ex entitled to half his pension.

Once the divorce is out in the open, sometimes activity on the credit cards of one or both spouses suddenly escalates.

This can happen due to one spouse’s lack of cash to live on. It can also happen due to the malice of a spouse. Or any number of other reasons…

Both spouses’ credit ratings can potentially experience dramatic impacts in a very short timeframe.

A mortgage broker offers advice on protecting your credit.

It may be prudent to order a credit report early in the game, to gather all the pertinent debt information.

What is the current outstanding balance of each debt?

Is each debt secured or unsecured?

Who is legally responsible to the creditor on each debt?

(Which may have nothing to do with who family court assigns payment of the debt to.)

Does the current value of any security exceed the amount of the outstanding balance?

Can the security be sold to pay the debt?

Of course, while protecting your credit rating is important, sometimes there are other considerations as well.

Like short-term survival until court-ordered temporary support.

Sometimes the steps you should take to protect your credit rating will also deny you much-needed short-term access to credit to cover living expenses.

Read more in this American Chronicle article: Protecting Your Credit During Divorce.

An elderly Singaporean Husband wants a divorce from his Wife – after more than twenty-five years of marriage.

Husband alleges that his Wife has engaged in “unreasonable behaviour, distrust and irresponsibility”, mostly pertaining to money.

The Wife denies the allegations and further alleges that the Husband is guilty of bigamy and harassment.

The Wife is Husband’s third wife.

Husband’s second wife, of twenty-four years, died, but the first wife cheated on him with his own brother.

A veteran of two long-term marriages, Husband is 96 years old.

Read more in this Australian article: 96-year-old seeking divorce.