Friday, March 04, 2011
SOME DEVELOPMENTS ON SHARED/EQUAL PARENTING
The South Dakota House passed a Shared Parenting bill. House Bill 1255 passed the floor by a vote of 53-16. The bill then went to the Senate for a hearing on March 2. We will update readers on the progress of this bill as information becomes available to us.
Maryland House Judiciary Committee heard testimony on HB1132, another shared parenting bill. Ten of the twenty-two members of the committee were bill cosponsors. Testimony lasted for three hours and can be accessed here.
Labels: Custody, Family Court Reform
Sunday, February 28, 2010
FAMILY FEUD OVER RELIGION OR GRANDSTANDING CONTEMPT?
A case that has been characterized as a "family feud over religion" is currently playing out in Chicago. The transcript of an ABC interview and the video of that interview set the scene for the upcoming March 3 trial. And this article provides an update.
From our perspective, this case is more about defiance of a Court Order and violation of an implied agreement than it is about freedom of religion. Mr. Reyes admits that his wife insisted that he convert to Judaism. And not only did he convert--after they were married, no less-- but he had not renounced his Jewish faith as of the birth of his daughter. Therefore, like it or not, Mr. Reyes' daughter is a Jew and his belated attempts "to exercise his First Amendment Rights" by baptizing her without his wife's permission rings just as hollow and cynical as his attempts to frame Catholicism as a branch of Judaism.
Again, if Mr. Reyes were sincere, he would not have summoned the press to record and witness his act of defiance while simultaneously proclaiming his innocence of the act of contempt. And, if he were truly a Catholic as he now claims, he would have both renounced Judaism and converted to Catholicism before he baptized his daughter, not sometime in the future.
Labels: Custody, Religion and Custody
Saturday, February 06, 2010
"DEADBEAT PARENTS" TARGETED IN SOUTH CAROLINA
Phillip Caston of the Post and Courier wrote that South Carolina has approved $25 Million for a statewide computer system to track people who are delinquent in their child support payments. As explained in "Deadbeat parents targeted" :
Phillip Caston of the Post and Courier wrote that South Carolina has approved $25 Million for a statewide computer system to track people who are delinquent in their child support payments. As explained in "Deadbeat parents targeted" :
This is good news indeed for the South Carolina parents who are now collectively owed more than $1.5 Billion in back child support. Or it would have been if something had actually been done on this front after the article was first published on January 27, 2005. As it is, the child total support arrearage has more than doubled, additional federal fines have been levied, the economy has tanked, and the same incompetents who were in charge in 2005 are currently running the show at the South Carolina Child Support Enforcement Division. And to add insult to injury, South Carolina now owns the "distinction" of being the only State in the whole U. S. of A. that has failed to install a computerized child support collection and tracking system.South Carolina will spend $25 million on a computer database to record and track down deadbeat parents after being hit with more than $42 million in federal fines since 2001 for failing to implement such a system.The state Budget and Control Board on Tuesday approved the move, which will allow state and county governments to work together in collecting money from parents who are delinquent in their child support payments. The state will continue to pay the fines until the system is in place.
"We at DSS will have a partnership with the 46 clerks of courts for enforcing child support payments," said Larry McKeown, director of the child support enforcement division at the state Department of Social Services. "Rather than having to go to another county, they can access the information from anywhere."
Today, DSS and each of the state's 46 counties have their own computer systems. The new system will improve communication between DSS and county clerks of court.
"For example," McKeown said, "if we find a person and input them into our system, Charleston County can quit looking for them."
South Carolina parents owe more than $700 million in back child-support payments, with more than 70,000 people in the state dodging payments each year.
DSS had 17,446 active cases of non-custodial parents owing child support in 2004 for Charleston County. The department also had 6,517 active cases for Berkeley County and 3,681 active cases for Dorchester County last year.
DSS collected more than $247 million in payments last year. More than $35 million of that came from Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester counties.
"The system will allow us to monitor and remediate delinquent accounts more rapidly," McKeown said. "Quicker response to a missed payment will accelerate efforts to get the non-custodial parent paying again."
South Carolina and California are the only states out of compliance with tracking deadbeat parents through a computer database. South Carolina tried to build a $43 million system in 1994, but the private contractor hired to do the work didn't create it. The state sued the contractor, getting back $17 million.
The Budget and Control Board on Tuesday authorized a 10-year contract for the database, with South Carolina paying about $25 million and the federal government picking up the rest of the more than $100 million cost, according to Michael Sponhour, spokesman for the Budget and Control Board.
Gov. Mark Sanford has proposed using $11.5 million from the state's capital reserve fund to pay some of the cost.
One of the more effective ways of getting child-support payments is by withholding wages, a method that should work even more efficiently with the new system, McKeown said.
"With a statewide system," McKeown said, "DSS will enter the data and when it matches a case anywhere in the state, the automated system will generate a wage withholding notice to the employer the same day."
Labels: Child Support Collection, Custody, Federal Fines, Institutional Mismanagement, Welfare Reform
Thursday, January 14, 2010
FAMILY COURT JUDGE CAUSES ANOTHER ACCIDENT WAITING TO HAPPEN
Check out "New Jersey Judge Calls Surrogate Legal Mother of Twins," which discusses a rather unusual New Jersey custody case between a gay couple and the woman who acted as the surrogate for them. In this case, "The gestational surrogate, who is not genetically related to the babies and carried them in an arrangement with her brother and his male spouse, now has the right to seek primary custody of the children."
So much for the sanctity of contracts. So much for the biological rights of sperm donors and egg donors. So much for the concept of "Equal Protection under the Law." Regardless of one's views on same-sex marriages, adoption by gays, fertility clinics, and surrogacy, this ruling is blatant over-reaching judicial lawmaking that is guaranteed to have serious negative consequences, not only on the parties in the case but on couples who are this very minute making arrangements with fertility clinics and surrogates to create a family.
Granted, there may be an unreported epidemic of gay couples who are unfit to be parents in the State of New Jersey and who are hiring surrogates to incubate fetuses for them in order to avoid the investigation associated with adoptions. Still, if this is a problem, it is a problem for the Legislature, not a Family Court Judge who wants to use his enormous powers to make a point.
Labels: Custody, Wasting Court Time
Saturday, January 02, 2010
Lisa Miller, who was ordered by a court in Vermont to turn over her child to her former partner, has missed the 1pm EST January 1st deadline. A Vermont judge had ordered Lisa Miller to turn over daughter Isabella to Janet Jenkins at 1 p.m. Friday at the Falls Church, Va., home of Jenkins' parents.
This case has drawn worldwide attention as Miller and Janet Jenkins were lesbian partners. After a civil union ceremony in 2000, Miller was artificially inseminated and gave birth to a daughter. In 2003, the couple separated and Miller (the birthmother) renounced her homosexuality and became an evangelical Christian.
Years of court battles ensued with U.S. Supreme Court opting note to hear the case. The Virginia Supreme Court ruled in favor of Jenkins who argued that Miller had not allowed her to visit with their daughter and ignored the custody rules set down by the Vermont Family Court.On November 20th, the Vermont court reversed a prior custody arranged ordering full custody to Jenkins. The court also ruled that on January 1st, Lisa Miller, the birth mother, must return the child over to Janet Jenkins.
Those who are interested can read more on this story at Vt. Judge: Birth Mom Must Give Child to Ex-Partner and Birth Mother Defies Order to Give Child to Ex-Partner. But our prediction is that, despite Ms. Miller's obvious contempt for the Court, she will never spend a day in jail for contempt. Our experience is that only men are incarcerated for contempt. Moreover, it would take an extremely courageous judge to enforce the Law under the facts of this case.
Labels: Civil Contempt, Custody, Parental Kidnapping
Friday, December 18, 2009
BRAZIL ASSISTS IN DENYING BIOLOGICAL FATHER REUNIFICATION WITH HIS SON
The AP has reported that "Brazilian top court rules boy stays for now."
This ruling is clearly in violation of International Law, common sense, and common decency. Parents everywhere should be outraged at Brazil's actions and should boycott Brazilian products until Sean Goldman is reunited with his father and allowed to return home to the United States.
Labels: Custody, Parental Kidnapping
Friday, March 20, 2009
OUTLAW GRANDMA SURRENDERS CURRY BABY--"THE REST OF THE STORY"
chicagotribune.com has reported Curry gets custody of son from the maternal grandmother Yolan Henry. The article goes on to report:
Henry said that on Friday her lawyer would appeal the order to hand over her grandson."
He has seen his father twice his entire life ..." Henry said of Noah. "They never knew my granddaughter and since she's been dead, they haven't seemed to care."
Attorneys for Curry disputed that he had seen his son so seldom.
Henry said Curry's child support payments were cut off the day after the double murder. Public records confirm that the payments stopped that day.
"I've been doing everything on my own. I've adjusted my life to take care of [Noah]," Henry said. "I have not asked Curry for a dime."
We may have rushed to judgment. Mr. Curry, who sits on the bench for the New York Knicks at $10,000,000 a year and is unable to personally care for his son most of the year, apparently had the presence of mind to terminate his child support obligation one day after the child's mother was brutally murdered in front of him.
Labels: Civil Contempt, Custody
Monday, February 05, 2007
JANET AND LISA MILLER-JENKINS MADE LOVE IN THE MORNING BEFORE LEAVING FOR THE DOCTOR'S OFFICE
Our prediction is that this is a story that will be long, expensive, and tortuous and whose outcome will be unsatisfacory to everyone involved.
Our prediction is that this is a story that will be long, expensive, and tortuous and whose outcome will be unsatisfacory to everyone involved.
Labels: Custody
