Our Law Blog

Child custody is often disputes in divorce cases in California. It is common for each parent to believe that the children would be better off with them. Parents have the ability to work out an agreement related to child custody without having to have the judge make important decisions regarding child custody. However, if parents cannot reach an agreement, they may have to litigate the matter.

Parenting Plan

California law recognizes a written parenting plan in which the parents determine how to divide time between parents. This written custody agreement outlines which parent will have physical custody. This may be joint custody in which both parents have a significant amount of time with each parent. Alternatively, it may provide for primary custody for one parent and visitation for the other parent. The plan should include an agreement regarding a regular school week, summer time, birthdays and holidays. This parenting plan may list the parents’ schedules and identify each parent’s responsibility toward raising the child. The parenting plan should also lay out how decisions regarding the children will be made.

The law is the law, and there is no getting around that. Right? Well, not technically. In the law, several loopholes exist that really don’t make any sense. These are due to the way the laws are written, poorly thought out laws, and using almost inapplicable laws to justify actions.

In other words, your lawyer may be able to find a way out of certain problems in certain states by manipulating certain laws. Here are seven of the most outrageous loopholes that you can find throughout the country.

There are many reason why a parent may need to be concerned about their child being taken out of the country.
Perhaps you are married to another country’s citizen? Or maybe you have simply gone through a divorce and you are worried whether or not your ex-spouse could take your child out of the country. These fears are valid and completely natural, but perhaps not completely warranted.

First and foremost, as with all legal matters, the absolute best thing you can do is hire an attorney that is experienced in this exact matter. A family law attorney with experience in international matters is your absolute best bet if you want to know everything there is to know about a situation like this one.

This may lead to a family law legal representative or recommendations and fact sheets online or through loved ones. No matter who is seeking the custody, it may be an uphill fight depending on all the circumstances of the case and those involved. There are many elements that must be analyzed thoroughly so that the judge is able to discover the best candidate to take the primary custody for the youth.
Mothers are often considered at an advantage when attempting to gain full or primary custody of a child. While this may be true when the judge is biased towards the female spouse, this is not always true. Many determining what course to follow take all facts, pieces of evidence and testimonies into account when placing the youth. This means that no matter what the gender of the parent, it is vital that both a case and a lawyer are hired for better chances at success in these matters. When a father has gainful employment, a nurturing environment and better circumstances, it is possible he may obtain primary custody of his son or daughter. This makes it more important to ensure the same is true of the mother if she is seeking the same type of custody through the court.

Child custody laws are based on state law. There are a number of different types of custody. What is best in a particular case depends on the state laws, the parents’ agreement and the circumstances.

What some divorcing parents would like, more than anything, is for the other parent to vanish. They believe that would solve all their problems. What they don't recognize is that when one parent disappears, the children's problems generally get worse.

A few years ago a case in the Court showed us what a high price children can pay when they lose a parent through divorce.
The case had started 14 years earlier. The divorcing parents had a one-year-old daughter. They were quarreling about how much time dad should spend with her. At some point the mother grew weary of the fight, and she moved to Nevada where she filed a second divorce suit. People could do that back then. It seems the father had also grown weary of the fight, because he ignored the Nevada court papers.

Imagine a woman is so infuriated with her husband for his philandering, gambling and drinking that she disinherits him. Upon her demise, the husband commences an application for support under Part V of the Succession Law Reform Act (the “SLRA”).[1] The husband qualifies as a dependant because he is a spouse and his wife had a legal obligation to support him. What impact, if any, would his past behaviour have on his entitlement to dependant’s support?

By way of background, claims for dependant’s support are governed by Part V of the SLRA. Within Part V, section 57 contains the definition of a “dependant,” which includes the spouse of the deceased. The definition also provides that the deceased must have either been providing support or been under a legal obligation to provide support to the dependant immediately before his or her death.[2] Section 62 of the SLRA contains an extensive, but not exhaustive, list of factors the court will consider in determining the amount and duration of support to be awarded to a dependant. Section 62(1)(r) contains factors considered specifically for a dependant spouse, and subsection (i) therein contains the phrase “a course of conduct by the spouse during the deceased’s lifetime that is so unconscionable as to constitute an obvious and gross repudiation of the relationship.”[3] This leads to the first question that a disinherited spouse might have: what will be considered unconscionable conduct sufficient to preclude or lessen the amount or duration of support awarded?

In addition to remedies that are available at the state level, such as garnishment of wages and state tax offset programs, the Deadbeat Parents Punishment Act creates a federal criminal cause of action for parents who refuse to make court-ordered child support payments.

Issuance

This federal act was signed into law in 1998 by then-President Bill Clinton. After Clinton passed the act into law, he publicly stated that a central reason why many single mothers have to rely on welfare programs is because the fathers of their children have failed in their responsibilities to support their children. He said that the act was established so that children could have a higher quality of life.

Family law cases can often be emotionally straining. Sometimes, one parent is given primary custody at the objection of the other parent. The non-custodial parent may attempt to become the primary custodian by removing the child from the state or country, making it more difficult for the other parent to find him or her and to enforce the order.

Often, after a separation or divorce, a parent decides to move because he or she can no longer to afford to live in the same city, for a new job opportunity, or so that he or she can be closer to extended family for financial or emotional support. Whatever the reason, when a parent wants to move, difficult decisions have to be made regarding where the children will live and how the other parent will maintain a relationship with them.

Sometimes, divorced or separated parents can agree on where their children should reside and what the visitation arrangements will be. Many times, however, these situations are emotionally and logistically difficult, and parents cannot agree. It will then be up to a court to decide.

Summer is almost upon us, which means two things: school is out and summer vacations are in. And with summer, say goodbye to your daily routine and hello to possible chaos. This sentiment especially rings true if you have recently gone through a divorce and are adapting to new custody and visitation schedules.

Here are some helpful hints to ensure that you and your ex do not ruin these vacations for your children:

Hague Convention on International Child Abduction

As globalization on both a personal and business level has increased the world has seemingly become smaller. Romantic relationships — and breakups — that cross national borders have become more common. Relationship breakdowns, often nasty for adults in the same locale, can be even more complicated when children and multiple government jurisdictions are involved. One of the worst outcomes of these breakups is the abduction of children. One parent decides to take the child back to the parent’s country of origin. To make things less complicated, the Hague Convention on International Child Abduction was created.