Indian Mother and Father live in UK with their four and six year old Children.

Children go back to India to live with Father’s parents, Grandparents.

Mother says Father sent them there. Grandparents say Mother brought them there.

Mother files in both India and UK to get the Children back with her. She maintains she has “full rights over them”.

Nonetheless, Children reportedly want to stay in India with Grandparents.

India is not currently a party to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. But lawyers in India are starting to press for adopting the Convention.

Of course in this case, depending how long the Children have been with the Grandparents and the circumstances of their return to India, the Convention might require that custody be determined in the UK. It appears that, at least as far as habitual residence is concerned, the Children are NRI, nonresident Indian children.

Read more in this IBN article: Punjab’s NRI British kids caught in custody battle.

Georgia couple split up.

Older Son goes to live with Husband. Younger Daughter goes to live with Wife.

Couple agrees on child support amount of about $275 per month. Husband pays.

Husband loses job of twelve years when employer downsizes.

Husband vigorously seeks new job. Husband has difficulty finding new job.

Husband struggles to pay agreed support on unemployment compensation.

At a hearing on child support, court establishes support amount at about $660 – based on Husband’s previous salary.

(In Florida, that’s called imputing income to Husband. Income is imputed to the spouse required to pay when that spouse voluntarily becomes unemployed or underemployed.)

The Georgia Child Support Office reports that a Georgia judge can order any amount of support that he or she wants.

Husband has sold most of his furniture and appliances. He hopes he can stay out of jail.

Forty-two percent of parents required to pay child support are delinquent in their payments.

Read more in this WMAZ 13 TV article: GET ANSWERS: The Economy and Child Support.

Couples who go through in vitro fertilization typically have unused embryos left after achieving a successful pregnancy.

Unused embryos may be frozen, destroyed, donated for research or … “put up for adoption”.

Meaning, they can be donated to other couples who are infertile, thawed out and implanted in a would-be mother’s womb.

Purists are quick to point out that it is not truly “adoption”, because the embryos are not the same as a living, breathing baby.

But they do offer another option for infertile couples who want to have a child.

Read more in this Seattle Times article: “Embryo adoption” gives new life to some couples’ hopes for a child.

Husband and Wife decide to marry.

Husband insists on prenup – or else.

Confusing prenup is quickly patched together with three different lawyers.

Under prenup, Wife waives everything. No property division in event of divorce. No alimony in event of divorce. No nothing in event of divorce.

Wife requests a valuation of Husband’s assets. Husband refuses – on the basis that it would be too expensive to obtain one.

Couple marry.

Turns out Husband is a multimillionaire.

Seven years later, couple splits up.

Wife asks for property division and alimony.

Trial court awards it, voiding prenup over Husband’s failure to disclose the value of his assets.

Canada’s Supreme Court refuses to hear Husband’s appeal, leaving the holding stand.

Some commentators vigorously condemn the trial court’s ruling. They criticize the court for requiring expensive asset valuations to validate prenups.

This attitude may be premature overreaction.

Several US states require asset disclosures in prenups. A precise formal valuation is not typically required though.

Just a disclosure of the rough nature and approximate value of the assets. Closer to $1 million or $10 million? $8 million or $12 million?

Is an “expensive, formal valuation” really required to give “fair notice” of the approximate value of what the spouse would be waiving?

Read more in this Canadian National Post article: Karen Selick: Court ruling means marrying for love is not an option.

Florida Husband marries his first wife in 1960.

In the 1980s, Husband marries his second wife.

In 2000, Husband divorces his second wife.

And marries his third wife, the lawyer who represented him in his divorce from his second wife.

Husband pleads guilty to federal bank fraud charges and is sentenced to twenty-seven months’ incarceration.

Then it is learned that Husband never divorced his first wife.

Husband pleads no contest to bigamy charges.

Husband’s sentence for the bigamy charges?

In a sense, nothing.

His sentence for bigamy will run concurrently with his bank fraud sentence.

One principle of our legal system is that the punishment should fit the crime …

Read more in this Times of the Internet article: Con man pleads no contest to bigamy.

Mother and Father live in Ireland with Son.

Mother and Father break up.

Mother allegedly abducts Son to Britain.

Father brings an application for Son’s return to Ireland under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

Father seeks guardianship of Son in an Irish Court.

A British Court orders that Mother’s and Son’s passports be deposited into Court pending further order of the Court at a hearing next month.

A spokesman for the Irish Family Breakdown Support Services notes that Ireland is in need of new laws to strengthen the legal rights of unmarried fathers in Ireland.

In the last year, Ireland has seen a twenty-five percent uptake in parental abduction cases.

Read more in this Irish Independent article: Father fights for return of son (5).

How do massive child welfare agencies make decisions in children’s best interests – and keep track of them?

Like so many other people and entities, they use software to assist them.

A California “social enterprise management software” company and the California-based Children’s Research Center, a nonprofit social research organization, have announced a “partnership” with the goal of implementing the Children’s Research Center’s operating process into the software company’s software package.

It is anticipated that the software will facilitate better caseworker decision-making and lead to better outcomes for kids.

Read more in this Wall Street Journal MarketWatch press release: Partnership Integrates Evidence-based Assessment Tools with Leading COTS Child Welfare Solution to Improve Outcomes for Children and Families.

An Illinois police force reports being summoned to people’s homes on domestic disputes twice as frequently this year as last.

The prosecutor’s office there similarly reports prosecuting twice as many misdemeanor domestic violence cases (less serious assaults and violations of orders of protection) now as in the past.

The reason?

The weak economy. Loss of jobs. More time at home. More stress. Less money.

Twenty-four percent more people have been availing themselves of services from shelters, and shelters have been full every night.

Law enforcement suggests that many of the incidents occur on a Friday, because that is a common payday, the beginning of the weekend and people drink over the weeked.

Police officers try to defuse tensions, often suggesting that one of the disputants leave for the night.

Read more in this Elburn [IL] Herald article: Domestic dispute reports on the rise.

Sons live primarily with Australian Father.

Swedish Mother has two court-ordered visits with Sons per year in accordance with the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

Sons advise Father that Mother does not intend to return Sons to Father in Australia.

Sons go to Sweden for their most recent visitation.

Sons do not return on schedule.

Now the Australian Family Court has prohibited any further contact between Sons and Mother.

Unfortunately, that is not very helpful at this point.

Australia issues an arrest warrant for Mother and alerts Interpol of the incident.

From January to October, 121 Australian children were abducted from Australia.

Read more in this [Australian] Age article: Missing in Sweden: Melbourne father’s dash to find sons and this [Australian] Age article: Man looks for missing sons in Sweden.

Child abuse researchers urge more study to improve diagnostic success.

Child abuse can be difficult to detect. The cost of missing it is high to the unaided child victim.

But the cost of mistaken-diagnoses is also high to those wrongly accused or jailed, and those wrongly ostracized.

Diagnostic tools for child abuse include:

1. A physical examination
2. A radiological survey
3. Caregiver’s report of the accident
4. Reports of the scene from those present soon after the injury occurred
5. History from other observers

Additional indicators of child abuse include:

• caregivers’ changing stories
• injuries appear unrelated to explanations for them
• confessions
• court cases finding child abuse
• case meetings acknowledging child abuse

Read more in this BrainBlogger article: Diagnosing Child Abuse.