Canadian Husband is convicted of rape and murder.

Husband and Wife are divorcing.

Wife seeks to seal records in their divorce, allegedly to protect her privacy.

Some of Husband’s alleged victims contend that Husband began fraudulently transferring assets to Wife shortly after his arrest to avoid anticipated payouts which may be ordered to them and other judgment creditors.

Media attorneys also oppose sealing of the records or court-ordered bans on publication.

The Canadian family court has ordered that a written agreement between Husband and Wife be disclosed to media attorneys only, until the family court’s ruling after a full hearing on the merits of sealing or prohibiting publication.

As in Florida, Canada reportedly has a strong policy favoring treating divorce court case files as public records and disfavoring sealing records or prohibiting publication.

Read more in this CBC News article: Williams’s wife wants divorce records sealed and this Ottawa Citizen article: Judge: Russell Williams’ wife must disclose contract transferring marital assets.

Husband thinks Wife is having an affair.

Husband allegedly murders Wife’s suspected paramour.

Husband and Wife divorce.

Husband injures family court judge presiding over Husband’s and Wife’s divorce.

Husband allegedly also injures Wife’s divorce attorney.

Husband is under arrest for first degree murder of the believed paramour and two counts of attempted murder for the family court judge and his Wife’s divorce lawyer.

Husband seeks legal representation in his criminal cases by a public defender.

Husband is, however, denied a public defender because he reportedly has over $200,000 in assets.

Read more in this [Columbus, IN] Republic article: Man accused in Colo. Springs slaying, wounding of judge, to get private attorneys.

A new University of Michigan study concludes that twenty-eight percent of American mothers with two or more children have them with different fathers.

The study has 4000 women as participants.

The study also reports a substantial variance based on ethnicity, with:

• African American mothers at fifty-nine percent

• Hispancics at thirty-five percent and

• caucasians twenty-two percent

Factors making it more likely that children in a family would have different fathers include:

1. not living with a man at the time of birth

2. low income

3. limited education

Despite that, multiple fathers for multiple children in a family is pervasive at all income and educational levels.

Further, the phenomenon is more common among divorcees than single mothers.

The study has not yet been published and peer-reviewed.

Read more in this Business Week article: Many Moms Have Kids With Different Dads, U.S. Study Finds.

It can be frustrating – and worse – waiting for – or trying to enforce – past due alimony (also known as spousal support) (or, for that matter, child support) obligations. Especially when months turn into years.

Well, a woman in India waited nearly thirty years. Not to collect her alimony, mind you.

Just to get her court order for spousal support.

It seems she was divorced in 1983. And, for whatever reason, failed to seek alimony or child support in the original divorce proceedings.

Then, years later, in 1995, she petitioned the Indian family court to award her alimony and spousal support.

It is unclear whether her original divorce proceedings reserved on the issue of alimony for some reason or addressed the issue of spousal support in any way at all.

The woman apparently took the position in her 1995 family court filing that she hadn’t known of her legal right to alimony and spousal support at the time of her original divorce.

Indian law, however, apparently allows for new alimony claims to be filed after the original divorce is concluded, provided the spouse filing the claim has not yet remarried.

But the woman’s spousal support claim took seventeen years to “process” through the Indian family court. Seventeen.

(Which undoubtedly makes most of us feel much better about the speed and efficiency of our courts here in Florida and throughout the US.)

But, although it took nearly forever, the Indian court did eventually reward the woman with both a court order for alimony and a court order for child support. (Their child has, of course, since become a legal adult.)

Needless to say, the woman’s ex-husband appealed the Indian family court’s alimony and child support rulings.

But the Indian appellate court upheld the lower court’s spousal support and child support awards to the woman.

It is unknown whether the woman’s ex-husband has been complying with his court-ordered support obligations pending the outcome of his appeal. He reportedly operates his own (likely cash) business … and so does his current spouse.

But the woman is certainly making progress.

Read more in this Indian Express Limited article: 28 yrs after divorce, woman gets alimony and this New Delhi Television article: Woman gets alimony 28 years after divorce.

A personal finance expert opines that “modern” divorce is about money. And to a large extent, that’s true.

Of course, there may also be important noneconomic issues pertaining to parental responsibility and timesharing. But those are outside the focus of a personal finance expert.

Relative to the money aspects of divorce, however, here are some tips from the personal finance expert:

1. Follow the money. Copy records you can gain access to. Tax returns. Savings account statements. Retirement plans. Insurance policies. Financial statements. Wills. Trusts. Brokerage account statements. Credit card statements. Credit reports. Etc.

2. Poke around in the business. Business records. If the stakes are high enough, a forensic accountant may be warranted.

3. Protect yourself. Squirrel away a nest egg to see you through the case. A separate savings account is prudent. Ditto a separate credit card. Freeze the joint credit cards and any home equity lines of credit to avoid your spouse maxing them out.

4. Itemize premarital / nonmarital assets. Identify which were maintained separately and which were commingled with marital assets.

5. Don’t overlook your spouse’s pension and retirement accounts.

6. Be realistic in your expectations for alimony under the circumstances of your case and the law of your state. Also be aware that this is a rapidly evolving area of the law in many states. Depending upon both, you may want to have good handle on your reasonable employment and salary expectations.

7. Don’t overlook health care coverage and COBRA benefits.

8. If the assets and/or income involved are substantial, a tax advisor can be helpful in structuring a settlement to get the most tax-bang for your bucks.

9. Similarly, a divorce financial planner can also be helpful in evaluating settlement proposals and making your money work as hard for you as possible.

10. Bitter, protracted legal battles cost money. It is worth considering whether the reasonably anticipated benefits really justify the costs.

Read more in this CBS TV Money Watch article: 10 Steps to Avoid Losing Your Shirt in a Divorce.

Husband and Wife are both originally from Nigeria.

Husband and Wife have two Children together and the family has been living in the US.

Wife takes the Children to Nigeria on vacation … and informs Husband that they will not be returning.

Wife takes the Children to the UK for a vacation.

Husband applies for return of the Children from the UK to the US under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, even though the Children are just visiting in the UK.

The UK trial court concludes that the Children are habitual residents of Nigeria … but orders the return of the Children from the UK to the US anyway.

Wife appeals.

The appellate court reverses, holding that the Children should remain in Nigeria.

The court weighed heavily the delay in filing for return of the Children in the UK..

Read more in this [UK] Children & Young People Now article: Legal Report: Child abduction and this Bailii [UK] England and Wales Court of Appeal (Civil Division) Decisions.

Although things are changing, at least in some states, many gay couples raising children together still face many legal challenges, especially in the event of a breakup or the death of the biological parent.

In Michigan, one lesbian couple, an Attorney and a former Mechanic, have taken pains to create as nearly as possible the equivalent of equal spousal and parental rights, despite Michigan’s prohibition of adoption by a gay person of their partner’s biological or legally adopted child.

In this de facto family, the Attorney has given birth to two children. The Mechanic stays home and serves as the primary caregiver to the children.

Accordingly, the Mechanic earns no salary and is not permitted to save for her retirement on a tax-favored basis.

Nor does the Mechanic have any right to visitation or timesharing with the children in the event the couple breaks up … or the Attorney dies.

In fact, the Mechanic’s parental rights are severely limited even being together with Attorney. The Attorney signs a parental consent form twice a year authorizing her to consent to treatment for the children and related matters. Hardly a reliable solution.

The couple have consulted with experts who concentrate on serving nontraditional families like theirs. They have received some helpful advice … but cannot or choose not to act upon much of it.

As far as the children go, key recommendations include:

1. power of attorney for parental authority, which does not expire automatically

2. parental appointment of guardian

3. domestic partner agreement and

4. co-parenting agreement

From a financial perspective, the breadwinner partner can hire the nurturing partner as a nanny for a nominal salary. That would at least permit the nurturing partner to invest their nominal salary in an IRA.

Read more in this New York Times article: The Extra Hoops Gay Parents Must Jump Through

Sixty year old UK Husband and Wife are divorcing after twenty-one years of marriage.

Husband is a trust fund millionaire in the hotel business, currently living in Spain and managing a property there.

Husband is worth about 4 million UK pounds in assets he owns outright.

There is also 6 million UK pounds in a trust fund his father established during the marriage.

The UK family court awards Wife some properties, along with a 3 million pound lump sum payment from Husband based on the trust.

Husband asserts that the trust is not for his benefit but for future generations of his family, and that he has no control over it. Husband further insists that the trustees of the trust will not cooperate in making trust funds available to pay Wife the court-ordered obligations.

Husband further asserts that the upshot is that he will be forced to sell the assets he controls to pay the award to Wife and his court-ordered child support obligations, and that he will be left homeless.

The UK family court finds that Husband is misrepresenting his finances and relationship to the trust and trustees.

Husband has appealed the trial court’s rulings.

Read more in this UK Daily Mail article: Millionaire claims he faces homelessness after unique divorce ruling orders trust funds to go to wife.

Six (6%) percent of the globe’s Catholics live in the US.

Yet, of the marriage annulments granted by the Catholic Church, a whoppingly disproportionate sixty (60%) percent of them are granted to residents of the US.

These recently released skewed statistics touched off considerable debate.

The Catholic Church justified the numbers by patting itself on the back for issuing annulments expeditiously.

Other commentators found fault with Americans.

Read more in this Catholic Culture article: Why does the US lead the world in marriage annulments? and this Catholic World Report article: Annulment Nation.

Some months ago, a four year old Brooklyn Girl, who weighed only eighteen pounds, died of malnutrition, dehydration, drug poisoning and injuries resulting from abuse.

New York’s child welfare agency was already involved in the Girl’s life and had assigned a caseworker to her case.

At the time of her death, the Girl had allegedly been beaten regularly … and bound to her bed.

Her mother and grandmother both reportedly were aware of these facts.

The Girl’s mother and grandmother have both since been indicted for murder and manslaughter, respectively.

The Girl’s caseworker and his supervisor both allegedly subsequently made false entries in the Girl’s case file to reflect, fraudulently, that the child welfare agency had done its job, visiting, or attempting to schedule visits to the Girl’s home, and checking on her welfare.

In fact, the caseworker reportedly made no visits or attempts to check on the Girl and had not complied with the agency’s requirement of biweekly checks.

For their alleged negligence and attempted fraud in this case, the child welfare agency’s caseworker and supervisor were indicted for criminally negligent homicide, official misconduct and endangering the welfare of a child, as well as falsifying and tampering with public records.

The charges against the child welfare workers are believed to be the first of their kind in New York.

The child welfare workers’ defend that they were just following orders from higher ranked individuals in the agency and, apparently, that they are unfairly being made scapegoats.

The child welfare agency is concerned that the charges will adversely impact recruiting of child welfare staff.

Read more in this New York Times article: Welfare Worker and Supervisor Charged in Death of Child.