In the Bronx, young single fathers (16 -24) who want to bone up on their parenting skills can participate in the Bronx Fatherhood Program.

The program runs the gamut from teaching dads how to properly feed and bathe their children to teaching them how to interact with their kids’ mothers, so they aren’t denied access.

Most students probably didn’t have good family role models growing up.

Despite this, one alumnus of the program spends several hours every day after work with his toddler daughter.

For him, every day is Father’s Day. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that, according to recent studies, dads are now struggling as much as moms with juggling family responsibilities and work.

This is attributed to a combination of the lengthening work day and dads shouldering more domestic responsibilities.

Read more in this New York Times article: For a Young Parent, Lessons in Fatherhood and this New York Times article: Now, Dad Feels as Stressed as Mom.

Tomorrow is Father’s Day.

And many, many children don’t live with their fathers.

The typical timesharing schedule allows fathers to have their children on Father’s Day.

But that’s one day out of the year.

What about the rest of the year?

Some of the dads who don’t live with their children are divorced. But many were never married to their mothers, maybe only saw them briefly.

As between ex-husbands and boyfriends, studies show that, in general, divorced fathers tend to be more involved as fathers than ex-boyfriends.

Regardless, more fathers who don’t live with their children tend to spend time, and more time, with their children today than in decades past.

Studies tend to show that children have higher self-esteem, are less likely to be delinquent and less likely to suffer from depression when their fathers are actively engaged in their lives.

Newr technologies, ranging from cell phones to web-cameras, make it easier for fathers to stay in touch and involved.

But dads who don’t see their kids much, tend not to use these other means of contact either.

Still, when all is said and done, the degree of contact fathers have with their children reportedly usually correlates strongly with with the character of the relationship between the parents and their ability to co-parent.

So, will your child be timesharing with dad on Father’s Day?

Read more in this USA Today article: Dads who don’t live with their kids find ways to be involved.

Real estate magnate Husband and Wife are in the middle of a contentious divorce.

Wife confirms that she is the only beneficiary of Husband’s life insurance.

Husband is shot to death outside of his girlfriend’s apartment.

Divorce doesn’t go through.

Wife collects more than $4 million from life insurance.

Wife maintains innocence of any involvement in Husband’s murder.

And goes about her business as though nothing has happened.

Twenty years go by.

Along the way, Wife files for bankruptcy.

Wife is diagnosed with bipolar disorder. She is hospitalized for it several times in the last several years.

Police wiretaps capture Wife making incriminating remarks to a friend on the phone.

Wife, now elderly, pleads guilty to hiring someone to kill Husband.

Wife is sentenced to from twelve to thirty-six years in prison.

An attorney acquaintance, who reportedly was Wife’s accomplice, was convicted of murder before Wife and incarcerated for twenty-five years to life.

Read more in this San Jose [CA] Mercury News article: NYC widow gets prison for 1990 contract killing

Ohio residents don’t have to go any further than their own home computers to learn about child support enforcement in general and their own cases in particular.

Not by painstaking independent research either.

Ohio’s child support enforcement agency holds online chat sessions where general information is disseminated, including answers to participants’ general questions.

Adding to the convenience factor, any child support customer can chat online privately with agency support personnel about their individual cases at other specified times.

The agency also keeps in touch with customers on social networking websites.

Compare that to navigating a voice mail menu only to eventually have a computer-synthesized voice count down your long wait to speak to someone who can help you …

Read more in this Cinncinnati Enquirer article: Online chat for public to learn more about child support.

New York is the last bastion of fault. In divorce law, that is.

New York is the lone US state that has yet to adopt “no fault” divorce, such as we have here in Florida.

But New York’s law may finally be poised on the cusp of change.

One chamber of the state legislature has passed a “no fault” bill.

All that remains is for the other chamber to follow through with it.

Current law in New York dooms divorce to be nasty or drawn out – and sometimes both. Impatient couples are pushed into perjury.

Now there is relatively widespread anticipation that “no fault divorce” will finally take in New York.

Concurrently with the proposed no fault legislation, other bills are being introduced to pave the way for less financially able spouses to receive court-ordered awards of attorney’s fees earlier in the case as well as temporary support awards, which will be calculated based on a newly established formula.

Both companion bills would help needy spouses both before and after filing of divorce cases.

Read more in this New York Times article: N.Y. Moves Closer to No-Fault Divorce.

Some divorces can start to get kind of expensive.

Take Husband’s.

He apparently owed his divorce attorneys roughly $500,000.

On top of that, he was also behind on his credit cards … and the mortgage on his multi-million dollar house in the Hamptons.

It’s also possible that he was going to have to pay some money to Wife.

He was likely feeling overextended, even overwhelmed by his obligations.

Now, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is reportedly charging him with duping investors with a false claim of ties to royalty, and then diverting over $6 million of their funds to pay his personal legal bills, credit cards and mortgage.

The SEC has also secured a court order freezing Husband’s assets.

If it succeeds, the SEC is looking to impose fines on, and extract restitution from Husband.

Husband has closed up shop now.

He reportedly has not retained counsel in the SEC case, at least not yet.

Read more in this Canadian Business article: SEC accuses money manager of fraud in investments claimed linked to royal family of Belgium and this New York Daily News article: Guy Albert de Chimay makes off with $6M, made bogus claim to be Belgian royalty: Feds.

Central Florida attorney (Stepfather) marries pregnant Mother and raises Son as though Son is his own child from time of Son’s birth here in Florida.

Mother, Son and Stepfather live in Florida.

Mother and Son visit Costa Rica once annually.

In 2004, Mother and Stepfather divorce.

In 2008, Son’s biological father (Father) files a legal case to keep Son in Costa Rica.

The Costa Rican court awards Father temporary custody of Son and orders that Son remain in Costa Rica.

This temporary ruling is upheld in higher Costa Rican courts.

Stepfather files a return application under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, asserting that Son was wrongfully retained in Costa Rica.

Frustrated by the slow progress of that case, Stepfather gets Son back to Florida using private third parties with military backgrounds.

Shortly before the final hearing is supposed to take place in Costa Rica, Stepfather and Mother secure Son’s return to Florida.

Mother and Stepfather are reportedly branded criminals in certain circles.

Father files in a Florida court for Son’s return to Costa Rica under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

Father’s Florida case is not about custody of Son, but about the place of Son’s habitual residence prior to Mother’s and Father’s removal of Son from Costa Rica and the proper jurisdiction to determine custody of Son.

Stepfather is litigating this case vigorously, having thus far lost his gambit to have it dismissed entirely.

Stepfather maintains that his legal paternity of Son was legally established in his divorce from Mother (not a Florida stepparent adoption proceeding). Based on that position, in the eyes of the law, Stepfather was already legally determined to be Son’s legal father here in Florida long prior to Father’s filing of any legal case asserting rights to Son.

But, regardless of the legislative intent behind the Hague Convention, it affords a legal remedy to persons with “rights of custody”, and is not strictly limited to biological or legal parents.

Further, Father counterargues that Stepfather and Mother fraudulently amended their divorce paperwork regarding Son after proceedings in Costa Rica were filed … and that Father had no notice of same.

Stepfather counters back that Father more or less abandoned Son for nine years, before filing in Costa Rica.

A sad and complex case …

Read more in this Ocala [FL] Star-Banner article: Battle for boy back in Ocala.

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.

Everyone knows someone (if not lots of someones) who can’t collect child support due them.

But there are people who don’t receive their child support because they simply fail to notify the child support agency in their community of a change in their address.

In one Texas county, payments to some one hundred fifty support recipients have been returned to sender.

The county has been able to whittle that number down to almost nothing now, but it took time and effort.

The remaining support monies that could not be delivered will soon be turned over to the state as unclaimed property.

Read more in this [Corpus Christi, TX] Caller-Times article: Child support sits unclaimed.

Ex is ordered to pay child support in divorce. But Ex isn’t paying.

You’ve tried wage garnishment. Driver’s license suspension. Liens on assets. Etc.

But Ex is still way behind.

What’s next?

Maybe it’s time for a different sort of enforcement mechanism.

Most Wanted Deadbeat Parents … a sort of Deadbeat TV.

The latest in a rash of reality TV shows.

Featuring parents who are not paying their court-ordered support.

Imposing what is arguably the harshest punishment for nonpayment: publicity.

At least that’s what the new television show’s producers hope.

Time will tell how this new enforcement remedy stacks up against more traditional statutory measures.

Read more in this [Moosic, PA] WNEP-TV 16 news article: New TV Show Targets Deadbeat Parents.