Bill Would Protect Troops’ Child Custody Rights

Deployed service members sometimes fight two wars: one overseas and one over child custody agreements.

Stacey Adair of Wichita told Kansas lawmakers last week about the custody problems his sister faced after she deployed to Iraq.

Child Custody, Visitation Issues Considered

The House Judiciary Committee waded through a series of bills Wednesday that are designed to ease or eliminate disputes between divorcing parents on such issues as child custody and visitation.

Legislators have heard numerous tales from disgruntled and discouraged parents in recent years about those issues, and agreeing on solutions proved elusive Wednesday, too.

Child Custody, Visitation Issues Discussed

The House Judiciary Committee began wading through a slew of bills Wednesday that are designed to ease disputes between divorcing parents, often catching their children in the middle.

Legislators have heard numerous tales from disgruntled and discouraged parents in recent years about child custody and visitation issues.

Various laws have been passed to offer solutions, but that piecemeal approach has not been successful, said Rep. Mike Vehle, R-Mitchell.

Court Denies Father’s Motion in Child Custody Case

The Superior Court has denied a man’s motion to set aside a judgment stating he is the biological father of a minor child.

The court said it is statutorily prohibited from declaring the nonexistence of a father-child relationship and finds that such declaration would not be in the best interest of the child.

Designed to Help Kids, 2 Laws Take Effect

Protecting children from abduction and securing the financial condition of children whose parents are divorced are the intent of two laws that take effect today.

Several child support collection amendments are included in HB18. In particular, state law will now allow a court to approve a method of child support payments other than income withholding. The amendments also allows the state agency in charge of collecting delinquent payments — the Office of Recovery Services — to enter into special agreements with payers for electronic payment of child support.

New Year Signals Start of New Child Custody Rules

When the New Year rolls around, significant new rules for child custody cases will apply to new filings. This comes on the heels of major recent child support changes, with which we are all still struggling! Some of what has been enacted is helpful, but the parenting plans are a nightmare.

Changes to child elections of custody have been long overdue. Currently, a child who turns 11 years old has the right to talk to a judge about custody; once the child turns 14 years old, the child has virtually an unfettered and absolute right to choose between the parents.

Closed Courtroom Sought for Quets Custody Hearing

The adoptive parents of twins kidnapped by their birth mother last year are asking that a Wake District Court judge close the courtroom to the public for a custody and visitation hearing being held in two weeks.

Lawyers for Denise and Kevin Needham, an Apex couple, filed a motion asking that a Jan. 2 child custody and visitation hearing in Wake County’s family court be closed to the public because of extensive media coverage in the case.

Family Law

Child custody cases take place in our court system every day. But lately, the process has become a bit more difficult. The problem stems from a new law passed earlier this year. It dictates what the state will pay lawyers who accept these cases, sometimes unwillingly. Now a local judge is speaking out against the new program.

The state legislature changed system for compensating attorneys that represent parents at a child custody hearing this summer. The pay in a case works out to $13.13 an hour. Lawmakers significantly reduced the amount of compensation was and created the Office of Regional Council to help cover the cases.

Custody rules 'exposing children to war zones' - National - theage.com.au

In a finding that challenges the Howard government's changes to child custody laws, new research has found that children aged under 10 can be emotionally harmed by shared-parenting arrangements in many families.

Where parents cannot co-operate and remain hostile towards each other, shared-parenting arrangements can result in a higher-than-normal rate of clinical anxiety in the children, the research found.

Hasselhoff, Ex-wife Agree on Child Custody

David Hasselhoff and ex-wife Pamela Bach have agreed on post-divorce terms that include joint custody of their teenage daughters, Hasselhoff's attorney confirmed.

The former 'Baywatch' star and Bach divorced in August 2006 after more than 16 years of marriage. After months of negotiating custody and financial arrangements, a deal was struck Friday, attorney Melvin Goldsman said Tuesday.

Stuck Together: Inside the Modern Divorce

Martha McCarthy, who has been practising family law for more than 15 years, says "You cannot agree to anything on a temporary basis that you wouldn't be willing to live with in the long term."

And so, she explains, for anyone who seeks some sort of serious child custody arrangement or desires sole custody of children, relinquishing any bit of ground in the household arrangement -- even temporarily -- is simply out of the question.

Grant Gold, another family law lawyer who has a surprising number of clients who continue to live together for increasingly long periods of time, says he tells those who say they cannot stand living in the matrimonial home that "what you lose by getting out is the ability to get back in in a hurry.… I don't want anybody leaving until there are arrangements in place for kids, for money; if you're the dad, I don't want you leaving until we have visitation nailed down."

Only 2.3% of Israeli Divorced Dads Have Custody?!

A new Israeli parliamentary subcommittee is holding hearings on fathers' rights and child custody. It is claimed in the hearing that only 2.3 percent of divorced men in Israel have custody of their children--amazing.

On Your Own in Domestic Court

Annette Morgan, 41, is no stranger to the domestic court system. She can use terms like "remand" and "guardian ad litem," describe how proceedings for child custody work in practice, and discuss eloquently the problem of not having any records kept during domestic court hearings.

But like many involved in domestic court, she is not a lawyer and doesn't even have a college degree. She's learned because she's had to, having struggled for the last two years to change a permanent custody order that bars her from seeing her son.

Evaluators in Child-Custody Cases Scrutinized

Psychologists and other mental health professionals are increasingly playing a role in child custody disputes.

Using a battery of psychological tests and expert judgment, psychologists make recommendations about which parent should have custody.

On The Home Front: Soldier Custody Battle

When he returned from Iraq, Jon Johnson thought his fighting days were over. He was wrong. The medic with the Iowa National Guard's 133rd Infantry Battalion had to fight the court system for custody of his two kids.

Before he left for war, Johnson had primary physical custody of six-year-old Sammy and three-year-old Cody. He and his ex-wife decided she should have temporary custody of them while he was away.

Target 32 Investigates: Child Protective Services

The Chief Supreme Court Justice of Kentucky is surveying judges across the state to see if he should suggest opening up child protection courts.

Kentucky is one of 21 states that still close child protection proceedings. But there is a growing movement to open them after the Inspector General of Kentucky documented widespread abuses within the child protection system.

After three years of controversy, problems linger. A Target 32 investigation found that social workers are troubled by what they call suspicious conduct by their colleagues already under fire in the Inspector General?s report.

Linda Roberts, a single mother who had her four children taken away after her ex-husband sexually assaulted one of them, turned over a tape of her child custody proceeding.

Britney Spears' Lawyers Fear She's 'in denial' in Child Custody Battle

Britney Spears' lawyers are pleading with her to seek help from a psychiatrist over worries that she is "in denial" in the custody fight for her kids.

The attorneys fear that the troubled pop star is not realizing the fact that she could lose Sean Preston, two, and Jayden James, one, in her battle with ex Kevin Federline, who has temporary custody presently.

Testimony Concludes in Slain Dentist Child Custody Hearing

In gripping testimony Thursday afternoon, Gavril Malakov, brother of murdered dentist Daniel Malakov, told the judge that his family was threatened by the elderly mother of Daniel's ex-wife, Mazoltuv Borakhova.

"She was telling me, 'You will pay for this! You will all pay for this!'" Malakov told the court. "She screamed out to my dad, 'Your kids will die. You will bury your kids!'"

The outburst allegedly occurred during the chaotic custody transfer that took place six days before Daniel Malakov was gunned down at a playground in Forest Hills. At the time, Mazoltuv Borakhova was forced to turn her child over to the Malkovs under a court order that gave him custody of daughter Michelle.

Mom Represents Self in Custody Case

If there's one thing Sylvie van Hoek has learned the past seven months, it's that real life's trials aren't exactly like "Law & Order."

"It's not like TV. You don't get to object to everything," van Hoek said. The 45-year-old suburban single mother, part-time grad student and catechism teacher is representing herself in a bitter legal battle with her ex-husband, who does have a lawyer. At stake is custody of their 9-year-old son.

Spears Giggles, Curses at Hearing in Child Custody Battle

Britney Spears arrived in court giggling on Friday but was later heard swearing during a break in a closed hearing that ended with no decision on her bid for shared custody of her two young sons with Kevin Federline. The court was expected to issue a written ruling by Tuesday after extensive testimony was presented on a number of issues, lawyer Mark Vincent Kaplan said.

Spears did not comment after the hearing. Earlier, she uttered an epithet when a reporter asked how the proceedings were going.