Canadian Husband and Wife are married for over twenty years.

Husband and Wife break up.

Husband and Wife agree on the amount of alimony Husband should pay Wife.

Husband allegedly removes $50,000 from his retirement account over a period of time. And transfers his stock in his company to his son.

A year after the divorce is finalized, Husband seeks to modify his alimony obligation based on an alleged drop in his income.

The Ontario, Canadia trial court does not buy Husband’s story, concluding that Husband moved money so that it could not be used for alimony …

And the trial court goes on to sentence Husband to six months in jail for hiding assets from Wife and his noncompliance with the trial court’s order.

Husband declines to pay Wife what he owes her, even to avoid jail.

The Ontario appellate court affirms the trial court’s ruling.

And this is yet another shot fired in Canada which may be heard around the family law universe. (See my recent post Canadian Court Upholds Family Court Damages Award for One Spouse’s Purely Psychological Abuse of the Other Spouse for another recent, high impact ruling from Ontario, Canada.

Read more in this [Canadian] Globe and Mail article: Hiding assets from ex-spouse leads to jail.

Mother is in the military and is scheduled to be deployed overseas.

Mother arranges for Grandmother to care for Baby during Mother’s deployment.

Grandmother reneges … a few days before Mother’s deployment.

It appears Baby will have to go into foster care if Mother is to deploy as scheduled.

What’s a mother to do?

Mother misses her appointed flight overseas.

After Mother makes other arrangements for Baby’s care, Mother reports for duty.

And, for her trouble, Mother is arrested for dereliction of duty and other charges, and under threat of court-martial and imprisonment.

In the end, the military merely grants Mother an “other-than-honorable” discharge. Mother’s rank is lowered and she is stripped of some of her military benefits.

The military reportedly views Mother as trying to avoid her commitment and not availing herself of alternative options it, presumably, considers adequate for Baby.

In 2009, 10,000 single parents were able to be deployed overseas.

But hundreds, if not thousands, of other single mothers in the military have reportedly been administratively discharged over child care difficulties similar to Mother’s.

Read more in this New York Times article: Single Mother Is Spared Court-Martial.

Wife seeks divorce from Husband.

Husband allegedly attempts to beat Wife to death – with a metal flashlight. Husband also attempts to strangle Wife.

Husband also threatens to kill himself.

Couple has two young daughters.

Husband is arrested on charges of attempted murder and strangulation.

Oh, Husband was an attorney who served two former Presidents in important roles when they were in office. Husband was also the chief attorney in a large corporation.

And couple has millions of dollars in assets.

Wife has filed a civil lawsuit against Husband for $30 million, of which she seeks an award before final judgment, due to her injuries, which reportedly disable her from working.

Wife also fears dissipation of assets prior to Husband’s anticipated incarceration for what may be a very long time.

And Wife believes she requires bodyguards and other extraordinary security measures.

Read more in this [Danbury, CT] News-Times article: Wife of former White House lawyer sues for $30 million.

Lots of people about to embark on the path toward divorce are shocked to learn that their spouse may have some claim to part or all of certain assets that they initially acquired prior to their marriage – or inherited during their marriage.

These folks are even more shocked when they learn that, for the most part, it didn’t have to be that way …

If they had only spoken to an attorney a lot sooner, and titled and / or managed their assets a little more wisely.

A prenuptial agreement or postnuptial agreement is probably the least expensive and optimal vehicle to head off a divorce-triggered disaster before it happens.

But there are other methods as well, some fairly simple and inexpensive, and some, such as various types of trusts, more complex and, therefore, potentially more costly.

The applicable law governing these divorce and/or estate planning issues may vary considerably from state to state. For example, some states apply the law of equitable distribution upon divorce and others apply community property law. There may be many other differences as well.

Florida is an equitable distribution state and not a community property state, so that must be kept in mind in reading the following referenced article.

Nonetheless, any analysis that gets anyone started thinking about these issues is a step in the right direction. But it’s only the first step …

Read more in this Lake County [Lakeport, CA] News article: Estate planning: Separate property trusts for married persons.

American missionaries travel to Haiti to rescue thirty-three earthquake orphans by taking them, temporarily, to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic, and then back to families in the US prepared to take the children in.

According to their lawyer, the missionaries are said to be in possession of paperwork backing up their authorization to remove the children from Haiti. But it is unclear whether the authorization is proper, or whether the children had passports.

It turns out that twenty of the children may not actually be orphans and may have one or more living parents. And their parents allegedly claim that the missionaries were only supposed to educate the children in the Dominican Republic, not take them to the US.

Now the missionaries are detained, under arrest in Haiti, for kidnapping the children into the Dominican Republic and for criminal conspiracy.

Rumor suggests that the missionaries’ leader may have misled others in their group about their humanitarian mission and/or legal procedure. The leader is under investigation in the US in connection with other possible crimes. But she reportedly maintains that the children’s parents wanted to give their children a better life.

It does not appear that most of the missionaries were aware that it would be illegal to remove the childen from Haiti without proper legal authorization.

The Haitian court has three months to rule on this case. Kidnapping is punishable in Haiti by up to fifteen years’ imprisonment.

Read more in

• this China Central Television article: Missionaries charged with child abduction
• this Salem [OR] News article: Five of Ten Americans on Child Abduction Charges Taken to Port-au-Prince Court
• this UK Times article: US Baptists charged with Haiti child abduction face 15 years in jail
• this New York Times article: Haiti Charges Americans With Child Abduction

Eighty-two year old Husband owns used auto parts business.

Husband has stroke.

Wife gets legal guardianship of Husband.

Husband is admitted to nursing home.

Eighty year old Wife discharges Husband from nursing home.

Wife rejects in-home nursing care.

Husband and Wife live in back room of Husband’s business establishment…

In conditions unfit for human habitation.

Police find Husband, unattended, at his business establishment, malnourished, with numerous bedsores, afflicted by dementia, and wearing soiled clothing.

Wife is arrested for abusing Husband.

Wife represents herself at trial.

Wife maintains, in essence, that Husband is fine and should be allowed to return home.

Wife is convicted of abusing Husband.

Wife is ordered to relinquish legal guardianship of Husband to Wife’s and Husband’s daughter or the state.

Wife is denied unsupervised visits with Husband.

Wife is sentenced to eight years’ confinement in prison, suspended, with probation.

If Wife disobeys any of the court’s orders, Wife’s suspended sentence could be reinstated.

Husband is committed to a nursing home.

Wife reportedly states that Husband is unhappy in the nursing home and will be retaining his own counsel to procure his discharge.

Husband and Wife have at least $1 million in assets.

Read more in this Delaware News Journal article: Delaware crime: Husband abuse gets wife eight years’ probation.

In Japan, the wives control the pursestrings. Historically, Japanese wives skim some of the family’s earnings and roll it over into their own personal rainy day fund, called “bellybutton money”.

The weak economy in Japan over the last year and a half or so has taken its toll on many wives’ so-called bellybutton money.

Some wives have had to dip into their private stash to cover household expenses. Others have economized on spending for the family to maintain their rate of skimming.

Interestingly, according to a survey, the main reason that Japanese wives accumulate their bellybutton money is so they can afford to get a divorce around the age of fifty. It is reported that many Japanese wives are able to amass UK 1 million pounds.

In a similar vein, a recently passed Japanese law now entitles Japanese wives to half of their husbands’ pensions. As a result of the new law, many sixtysomething Japanese wives have consulted lawyers about divorce.

Read more in this UK Times article: Japan’s wives forced to indulge in navel gazing.

Ontario Canada’s highest court has fired a shot which may be heard around the family law universe.

Common law Husband threatens and harasses common law Wife … with the intention of intimidating her into backing off on her claims for property division and alimony.

For example, Husband threatens to send intimate pictures of Wife to her grandmother.

And Husband paints their common law marriage as merely the business relationship of landlord and tenant.

And Husband sends Wife scary letters, including one referring to a bullet in her head.

Husband also engages in frivolous, but nonetheless expensive, litigation intended to wear Wife down financially.

Sound familiar? If you’ve spent any time in American family courts, it should.

Based on Husband’s pattern of conduct, the Canadian appellate court refused to be used by Husband.

The Court declined to hear Husband’s appeal, concluding that it is an “abuse of process”.

Allowing to stand a $250,000 judgment awarding Wife damages for Husband’s intentional infliction of mental and emotional suffering and reimbursement of her legal fees and costs.

This was the first Canadian case in which the Court compensated a spouse for purely psychological abuse suffered in the absence of physical abuse.

Husband is also being prosecuted for his alleged threats and extortion.

Read more in this Ottawa Citizen article: Court refuses to be pawn in divorce case.

Maltese Mother and Scottish Father are divorced.

Mother has custody of their Daughter and they live in Malta.

Father lives in Scotland.

Last November, Mother and Daughter go to Scotland to visit relatives.

While they are there, Father requests a visitation day in Scotland. Mother agrees.

But Father refuses to return Daughter and accuses Mother of keeping Daughter in a dangerous and unsanitary environment.

Because of Father’s allegations, Scottish authorities detain Daughter in Scotland pending a hearing.

Daughter remains in Scotland for almost two months, attending a Scottish school, before any hearing.

In early January, the Scottish court finds that Husband has no rightful claim to custody of Daughter and rules that Daughter should be returned to Malta under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.

Read more in this Times of Malta article: Girl returned to mother after ‘nightmare’.

Everyone knows some parent (or grandparent) of an adult child who just doesn’t like their child’s chosen spouse.

The reasons vary – and sometimes there really is no actual reason.

In most instances, the parent (or grandparent) has no choice but to “get over it”.

But that doesn’t necessarily stop them from trying to interfere or control – even from the grave.

And so it is with a wealthy Israeli Grandmother dissatisfied with her Grandson’s choice of Wife.

Both Mother and Grandmother have had no relationship with Grandson since his marriage ten years ago.

In her will, the Grandmother leaves her fortune to Grandson and her other grandson, but Grandson can’t collect his inheritance … until he divorces Wife (or Wife dies).

(There are a couple of stated exceptions, but they apparently don’t apply here.)

Now Grandson intends to challenge the will.

Similar provisions in wills have been struck down in some US states on the grounds that it is against public policy to instigate divorce.

Read more in this Monsters and Critics / WOTR Limited article: Till death – or money – do us part: Israeli man’s marriage dilemma.