Noncustodial parent and/or former spouse behind in child support or alimony payments?

Well, Pennsylvania has come up with a proven, working solution.

A county support enforcement agency cooperates with the state’s job-finding and job-training agency.

The state and county each invest some funds into the program.

But the payoff is tens and tens of thousands of dollars and more in collected support payments that would not have been made but for the resulting job placements of noncustodial parents and former spouses.

The pilot program has been around for a few years, but has had wider participation due to the economy.

Read more in this Erie [PA] Times News article: Crawford OKs continuation of jobs program for those who owe support payments.

Mother gives Daughter up for adoption upon Daughter’s birth.

Daughter has been in the custody of state child welfare agency for all of her two years.

Father seeks custody of Daughter. Father is an American Indian.

Father seeks to invoke the Federal Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), which applies to children of American Indian heritage.

In the first trial over custody of Daughter, Father’s tribe sends a representative to testify in state family court that Daughter is not formally enrolled as a member of their American Indian tribe – and is no longer eligible for membership. The tribal representative represents that ICWA is not applicable to Daughter.

Father disagrees. Court orders a new child custody trial so that Father may have an expert testify otherwise.

For the new trial, Father subpoenas the chief and other leaders (the real decision-makers) of his tribe, to testify that Daughter is eligible for enrollment in the tribe.

The tribal leadership then asserts sovereign immunity in federal court to challenge Father’s subpoenas, arguing that enrollment decisions are internal matters of Indian affairs about which tribe officials should not be compelled to testify.

Father responds that the tribe waived that argument by previously furnishing a representative to testify on the very same subject in the state’s family court at the first trial.

Read more in this UPI article: Tribal sovereignty issue in custody case and this Providence [RI] Journal article: Narragansett Indian Tribe tries to block subpoena of tribal leader.

Mother and Father have 1 year old Baby.

Mother and Father are separated.

Baby has condition as a result of which his lungs constantly fill with fluid and then have to be suctioned out.

Baby is in the hospital on a ventilator.

Baby’s prognosis does not look good.

The hospital and doctors recommend taking Baby off the ventilator and allowing him to die.

Father believes Baby has some quality of life and does not want to take Baby off the ventilator.

So Father seeks a court order prohibiting taking Baby off the ventilator.

As the case is progressing, another medical specialist is being consulted.

Read more in this CNN article: Father fights mother over baby’s life.

Police receive anonymous tip indicating that the odor associated with pot is emanating from a certain home.

Police go to investigate.

At the home, police find various drugs … and a Toddler.

Police contact the local child welfare agency (Agency), which takes Toddler into protective custody.

The Agency tests Toddler for drugs.

The test reveals that Toddler has more than one type of illicit drug in his system, including marijuana and methamphetamines.

Toddler’s parents are arrested for felony child abuse.

A juvenile dependency action will presumably be commenced as well to determine a suitable placement for Toddler … for a while. His parents may be otherwise engaged.

Read more in this Albuquerque KRQE CBS TV News 13 article: Parents busted over toddler’s dope test.

UK Grandmother is legal guardian of her two granddaughters (Girls).

Girls’ Mother abducts the Girls to Morocco.

Unlike the UK, Morocco is not a party to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Abduction.

Now Mother won’t return Girls to the UK and Grandmother.

The matter is in legal limbo in Morocco.

Grandmother would like to fly there to expedite things, but can’t afford the flight.

UK officials are negotating through the Moroccan Ambassador to the UK.

The Moroccan Ministry for Foreign Affairs has requested a document explaining the circumstances in both Engllish and Arabic.

That will be the basis of the decision by a Moroccan judge.

Mother is charged with child abduction.

Read more in this Blackpool [UK] Gazette article: Help us fly out to get our girls.

Father stresses out about meeting his child support obligation of $1,000 per month.

It’s not clear why. He has a job.

Father is determined to pay his child support.

So, to ensure that he has the funds …

Father allegedly steals merchandise from his employer and sells it to others for cash.

Father is arrested for theft.

Perhaps Father should have instead sought a downward modification of child support …

Read more in this [Waco, TX] KXXV News 25 article: Suspect paid child support by selling stolen goods.

Permanent alimony in Florida – and elsewhere – is getting old.

So think a lot of people and so say a growing number of legislators.

The recession, with so many layoffs, is just the straw that broke the paying spouse’s back.

Many simply can’t afford to pay anymore.

They are seeking relief from the courts in increasing numbers.

And many others simply don’t want to pay anymore … and just don’t think they should have to, forever.

Massachusetts is currently tweaking a bill implicitly shortening the length of time for alimony.

And legislators in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Oklahoma are pressing to limit the length of alimony obligations and end alimony if the receiving spouse lives with another romantic interest or commits a crime.

Lobbyists in several other states, including Florida, are agitating for similar legal changes.

Read more in this Poynter Institute article: Ex-Spouses Protest Prolonged Alimony in Economic Downturn.

Adults and children attend party in a park.

Adults drink alcoholic beverages.

One mother (Driver) reportedly admits to having three or four beers.

Driver, with her four children, decides to take an evening drive, presumably home.

Driver, it later turns out, has a suspended driver’s license.

Driver agrees to take three other children, one year old twins and a two year old, home for another young mother at the party. The younger mother reportedly admits to knowing that Driver is impaired.

Driver also takes a grandfather to some of the children along on the drive and … a friend.

Bringing the head count in the Chrysler PT Cruiser to a grand total of ten people, three adults and seven children.

No child car seats are in use.

While the car is moving, one of the back seat doors allegedly pops open – and two children fall out and roll in the intersection.

As police pursue the car, a third child falls out of the car and rolls on the street.

Driver is charged with DUI, driving with a suspended license, driving at night without headlights on, having seven unrestrained children in a car, endangerment of seven children, and having an open container of an alcoholic beverage in the car.

The absent mother who asked Driver to drive her three children home is charged with child endangerment as well.

The adult friend, who is taken into custody with an open beer in his possession, is also charged with child endangerment.

Two of the injured children, the baby twins, are initially in critical condition, but later improve.

All seven children have been placed into child protective custody.

Read more in this Las Vegas Review Journal article: MOTHERS CHARGED: Man saw kids, alerted police – Three children fell from car and this Las Vegas Fox 5 TV News article: Police: Mother Left Kids With Drunk Driver – Officer Saw Child Fall From Car.

Husband and Wife separate after an alleged incident of domestic violence to keep the peace between them. Neither wants anything to threaten Wife obtaining legal residency status in the US.

While Husband and Wife are separated, Wife and 5 year old Son live in Mexico, where both Wife and Husband are from. Unlike Wife though, Husband and Son are US citizens.

After two years of this separation, Husband allegedly abducts Son back to the US. Husband insists that he just wants Son to have access to better medical care for his tonsillitis.

Communications with Husband and Son having tapered off, Wife makes an application for return of Son to Mexico under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

Because Son has lived in Mexico for two years prior to his abduction, a US court rules that Son must return to Mexico for the custody case there.

This case stands out in that most cases concerning Mexico and the US involve an abduction from the US to Mexico, rather than the reverse as here.

It is not clear that Husband will pursue his custody case in Mexico, since it reportedly tends to favor mothers.

Read more in this Orange County [CA] Register article: 5-year-old boy returned to mother in Mexico.

Children are taken into protective custody by the state.

In time, biological parents’ (Parents) parental rights are terminated, freeing Children to potentially be adopted.

So, after their parental rights are terminated, are Parents responsible for child support for Children?

Well, Alabama’s Supreme Court has just ruled that they are.

The Court’s rationale is that parents who abandon, abuse or neglect their biological children should not be rewarded by being relieved of their obligation to support their biological children.

Still, the state’s highest court’s ruling seems to defy logical as well as being counterintuitive.

Taking the ruling to its logical conclusion, does the biological parents’ support obligation continue if the biological children are legally adopted by adoptive parents?

Or, for that matter, do the biological children still have the right to inherit from their biological parents (as well as from their adoptive parents)?

Read more in this Auburn [AL] Plainsman editorial: Our View: Ruling on Child Support Creates Questions, Worry.