Family court can be hard on grandparents these days.

But so can juvenile dependency court.

When a parent’s parental rights are terminated, a grandparent’s derivative grandparental rights are terminated too in many cases.

Sometimes even if the grandparents once had temporary custody of the grandchildren.

Arkansas grandparents hoping for some visitation with their grandchildren recently met with state lawmakers about their rights and desires.

State workers advised the grandparents how to file for visitation.

Read more in this [Little Rock, AR] KARK 4 News article: Grandparents Seek Visitation with Grandkids.

Florida’s Department of Children and Families (DCF) places three youngsters aged five and under with a foster family.

A sexually aggressive teenager was already placed with the same foster family.

The youngsters were allegedly sexually abused by the teenager, and still DCF reportedly took no action to remove the youngsters from the home.

The complaint on behalf of the youngsters alleges that DCF demonstrated “deliberate indifference” toward the youngsters’ well-being and intentionally placed them in harm’s way, in violation of their constitutional rights.

DCF’s employee defendants asserted immunity as a defense, on the theory that they were acting within their duties and discretion as employees on behalf of the state.

Read more in this Florida Times-Union article: Foster home molestation case can proceed and this WFLX Fox 29 TV news article: Court allows suit over alleged sex abuse.

Couple divorce.

Ex-husband adopts ex-wife’s persona on internet … 1,577 times.

Ex-husband uploads nude photos of former wife to internet.

New York Court enters order of protection ordering ex-husband to attend counseling and to cease pretending to be his former wife on the internet and to cease uploading nude photos of her on the internet.

Ex-husband is also sentenced to five years’ probation on related criminal charges.

Still, ex-husband doesn’t stop.

Ex-husband is then charged criminally with violating probation.

Ex-husband is sentenced to one to three years for that offense.

Now ex-husband is again arrested and charged with identity theft and criminal contempt.

Ex-husband pleads guilty.

Former husband faces incarceration for up to five years.

Read more in this North Country [New York State] Gazette article:Man Guilty Of Posting Nude Photos Of Ex-Wife.

Parental alienation. It’s become a hot button buzz phrase.

It’s also been widely discredited and rejected.

Yet it can influence which parent is awarded custody … at least in some states, in some judges’ courtrooms.

But what of false claims? It’s hard to prove that something didn’t happen.

And even if you can, it probably does not follow that the parent wrongly accused should be awarded custody as punishment of the false accuser.

As a result, in many, many cases, there is no redress, no remedy for those falsely accused. It’s just “too bad”.

But no longer, in New Jersey.

A New Jersey trial court has recognized a parental right to seek monetary damages for intentional infliction of emotional distress as a result of the other parent (and / or their relatives) turning their children against him or her.

The court distinguished such a claim from a claim for alienation of affections, which has been rejected in New Jersey.

It remains to be seen whether this will prove to be too fine a distinction on an appeal.

The court held that an emotional distress claim would have to be brought in family court after final judgment, and that such claims could be decided by juries.

However, companion claims against the other parent’s relatives would be relegated to civil court.

It will be interesting to see over time whether the threat of suit for damages deters parental alienation in New Jersey.

Read more in this Men’s News Daily article’s discussion of the New Jersey Law Journal article: Exes can sue over ruined ties to couple’s children.

More and more couples (although still a fairly small percentage) are agreeing to equal timesharing or near-equal timesharing following divorce or separation.

These arrangements can be more complicated for all concerned and introduce more interactions and, therefore, potential conflict, between parents.

But where parents get along and both are able to put their kids first, such schedules can work well for everyone.

Even where more traditional timesharing arrangements are generally adopted, studies show that there is somewhat more actual contact between the children and the noncustodial parent more recently than in the past under such arrangements.

In some cases, the reason for increased timesharing with the noncustodial parent is financial, having to do with monetary incentives built into more modern child support laws.

In other cases, of course, the reason is that fathers genuinely want to spend more time with their kids than more traditional timesharing schedules allow.

Are equal and near-equal timesharing arrangements likely to be court-ordered where the parties don’t agree to it?

Statistics show that courts are still much more inclined to follow older, more traditional timesharing schedules where the parties don’t agree otherwise.

Why? Equal timesharing is fraught with logistical challenges that, where parents can’t get along, virtually guarantee further litigation, parental conflict and, potentially, danger.

In those cases, of course, a more traditional timesharing schedule minimizes parental interactions and conflict and therefore works better.

Read more in this Newsweek article: Not Your Dad’s Divorce.

Teenagers. Dating. Holding hands.

Murdering the objects of their affections …

A 20 year old man was convicted of stabbing and dismembering his girlfriend’s body in Indianapolis.

In Texas, a 15 year old girl was stabbed to death at school and an 18 year old girl was shot and killed there.

And these are not just rare, isolated cases.

As a result, communities are trying to raise awareness, among kids, their parents and their teachers, of the behaviors that should raise red flags.

Texas passed a law that defines dating violence within the school safety codes.

Rhode Island passed a law that mandates teaching seventh-graders through twelfth-graders about dating abuse.

New York recently made restraining orders available for the first time to teenagers who are victims of dating violence. Before this, victims’ only remedy was to press criminal charges.

Indianapolis is training police officers in schools to recognize warning signs of dating abuse, and older kids to act as dating mentors and advisors to younger kids.

According to surveys, dating violence has risen by about 40% since just 1999, and may victimize 10% of teens.

Experts believe that cell phones and the internet have facilitated harassing behaviors. Another survey suggests that twenty-five percent of teens have been harassed by a date.

Yet another survey suggests that one-third of teens have been victims of emotional abuse by a dating partner, if not physical abuse.

Dating abuse is also believed to spur drinking, suicides, aggression and sexual activity in teenagers.

And even among teens, dating violence and abuse is about exerting power and control in the relationship.

Talk to your kids about their dating habits and …

Read more in this New York Times article: A Rise in Efforts to Spot Abuse in Youth Dating.

International child custody cases can be costly.

But there’s costly and then there’s really costly.

Where does the line get drawn?

Well, one law firm, which has a satellite office here in Palm Beach county, found out the hard way.

After prevailing in an international child custody case, the firm sought to recover attorney’s fees from the losing opposing party.

The total bill it submitted for attorney’s fees weighed in at $163,000.

For what the presiding federal judge in Pennsylvania characterized as a “garden variety” custody case, with few legal or factual disputes.

The Court refused to stick the losing party with the price of the prevailing party’s individual choice to staff the matter with a team of five different attorneys, four of whom attended a three day trial.

The modest finances of the losing party, whom the court apparently felt acted wrongly but in good faith, may have played a role in the Court’s ruling.

Of course, the Court’s decision doesn’t mean that the prevailing party or their attorneys would do anything differently if they had to make their decisions all over again …

Read more in this Philadelphia Legal Intelligencer article: Federal Judge Critical of Firm’s Fee Petition in Custody Case.

Pennsylvania couple divorce.

Mother gets custody of young girls.

Then Mother stops sending girls to school.

Mother loses custody of girls.

Girls go into foster care.

Mother abducts the girls outside of their school in mid-October.

And brings them here to South Florida.

To live on the beach in a dug-out pit of sand.

Mother contacts Father, who is estranged from the rest of the family, out of the blue, seeking money, and informs him that they are in Florida.

The older of the girls is found alone, abandoned, at a shopping mall, begging for food.

Mother and younger girl are found.

Mother is arrested and charged with kidnapping, interfering with child custody and other felony charges.

Read more in this Philadelphia Inquirer article: Abducted girls lived in Fla. sand pit; mother sought

Ohio Mother and Father have affair and conceive Baby.

Relationship apparently breaks up.

After Baby’s birth, Mother leaves Baby at a church in June without Father’s knowledge.

This abandonment does not comply with Ohio’s safe havens laws.

Mother is charged with child endangerment.

Baby, and Mother’s three other children, are all placed in foster care.

DNA test later determines paternity of Father in November.

Father and his family want Baby with them.

Court orders visitation with Baby at Father’s home.

Court adopts plan for Father to have custody of Baby before Christmas, with final hearing to take place in January.

Read more in this Mansfield [OH] News Journal article: Dad wins custody of baby left in Bellville and this WFMD News article: Mother Of Abandoned Baby Charged.

Brazilian Wife and New Jersey Husband have a Son in US and raise him in US for four years.

Then Wife takes Son to Brazil for a visit.

And doesn’t return.

Wife remarries in Brazil – without ever divorcing Husband.

More recently, Wife dies while still in Brazil.

Now Son is with his Stepfather.

And Stepfather is refusing to comply with court orders granting Husband access to Son.

It’s been four years since Husband has seen his Son.

Brazil is a party to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

Yet, even though Brazilian officials acknowledge that Husband has legal custody of Son, in fact, Husband can’t even see Son.

The State Department has reportedly expressed the opinion that Brazil frequently does not comply with the Hague Convention, despite being a party to it – and favors Brazilians and mothers in custody battles.

Read more in this ABC 7 Eyewitness News article: Dad’s Brazilian custody battle intensifies.