PA Lawmaker Fighting $25 Child Support Fee

Some Pennsylvania families who need the government's help to collect child support received unwelcome news in the mail this summer: They must now help defray the cost of that service.

The Department of Public Welfare has sent out notices informing parents it will deduct a $25 annual fee from child support payments to custodial parents who receive at least $2,000 a year and who have never received cash assistance welfare benefits.

As small as that may seem, Rep. Kate Harper considers it a big deal for single parents who struggle to feed, clothe and shelter their children—and an outrage for the government to take any money intended to fulfill a child's basic needs.

"These people are taxpayers—this is their own money," said Harper, R-Montgomery. "This is one parent paying to another parent for the benefit of their children."

The fee is collected on a per-case basis, meaning that parents with more than one child-support case in Pennsylvania will pay the fee for each case.

Harper hopes the outcry from affected parents will be loud enough to prompt her colleagues to support legislation she introduced last month to repeal the fee. But persuading Democrats who control the House to revisit the issue in an election-shortened fall session will be a tough sell.

18 ADDITIONAL FLDS CHILDREN RELEASED FROM COURT SUPERVISION

Texas child welfare authorities have filed to remove 18 more FLDS children out from under court supervision.
The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services said Thursday it filed 18 nonsuits with a San Angelo judge overseeing the child custody case involving children taken in the raid on the Fundamentalist LDS Church's YFZ Ranch.
That makes 286 cases that have been nonsuited, said Child Protective Services spokesman Patrick Crimmins. The number includes 26 "disputed minors," whom CPS believed were children but later conceded were adults.
CPS said 439 children were taken into state protective custody during the April raid. The agency recently revised its count, reducing the total number by one, based on more accurate numbers as the nation's largest child custody case drags on.
A nonsuit ends court jurisdiction over the child, freeing the families from court orders such as parenting classes, availability for CPS investigators and a requirement to remain in Texas. However, CPS has said in many cases they could still have some level of involvement with the families.
Hundreds of children were placed in state custody when law enforcement and CPS caseworkers responded to the Utah-based polygamous sect's Eldorado property, based on a phone call alleging abuse and neglect.

50 CENT TO ATTEND COURT FOR CHILD CUSTODY

50 Cent is to appear in court next month, to try and win custody of his 11-year-old son Marquis.
The rapper has been battling for custody against his former girlfriend Shaniqua Tompkins for the last few months. Now a hearing will be held on October 22 at the New York Family Court.
During their legal battle, Tompkins suggested 50 Cent - real name Curtis Jackson - was involved with a fire that damaged her home back in May. The rap star has denied having anything to do with it.
Until the court date, Jackson has been granted weekend visitation rights - allowing him to see Marquis every other weekend until the trial starts.

50 CENT DEFENDS LIMITED CUSTODY REQUESTS

Rapper 50 Cent has defended his child custody requests, insisting he only wants visitation ever other weekend because he wants minimum disruption to his son's education.

The 'In Da Club' hitmaker has been embroiled in a legal battle with his ex-girlfriend Shaniqua Tompkins over custody of 11-year-old Marquise for months, and now the former couple's legal spat will go before a judge on Monday.

50 Cent - real name Curtis Jackson - was reunited with Marquise last month after he accused Tompkins of "kidnapping" their son following a devastating fire at her New York home in May.

The star, who lives in Connecticut, has since been criticised for his request to spend just two weekends a month with Marquise - but the rapper insists he's simply taking his kid's schooling seriously.

Nudist Denied Visits with Grandchildren

Even nudists say their lifestyle is not for everyone.

But the residents of one nudist community in Pasco County says a contractor for the Florida Department of Children and Family Services overstepped its legal authority when it denied placement of two girls in Lake Como.

Lake Como is home to 500 people, few of whom wear clothes around the neighborhood. This spring, one of the residents got a court order granting weekend visits with her two grandchildren at Lake Como. The children's mother lost her parental rights because of several arrests and stints in jail.

On the eve of the girls' first weekend, a case worker for Eckerd Community Alternatives blocked the placement.

Custody Battle Erupts at School

Two Clarkston parents were arrested Wednesday, after a custody fight over their child spilled over into the classroom.

The two were taken into custody at around 12:30 p.m. Clarkston police said a separated couple encountered each other at the beginning of the afternoon kindergarten session at Parkway Elementary School.

Police said it was a verbal argument, but according to witness reports, at one point, they were physically pulling the child in both directions. Those witnesses said the classroom was cleared as a school resource officer responded and made the arrests. The two were cited for Disorderly Conduct and Disturbing School Activities, then released from police custody.

3 Pony Rule Cuts Strahan's Child Support

Former New York Giants defensive end Michael Strahan on Tuesday won his appeal from an $18,000-a-month child support obligation imposed in his 2006 divorce, which a New Jersey appellate court found both exorbitant and unfairly apportioned against him.

The court, in Strahan v. Strahan, A-3747-06, said that the trial judge failed to make the specific findings of fact necessary to sustain his decision to add $200,000 a year to the $35,984 annual award that the couple's twins girls are due under statutory guidelines.

While acknowledging there are unique problems with determining the reasonable needs of children of high-earning families, the court said trial judges should nevertheless avoid overindulgence -- citing the doctrine of In re Patterson, 920 P.2d 450 (Kan. App. 1996), that "no child, no matter how wealthy the parents, needs to be provided [with] more than three ponies."

The court also found error in the trial judge's saddling of Strahan with 91 percent of the child support obligation, especially since the judge did not impute any income to Strahan's former wife, Jean, even though she is college-educated and capable of working but has voluntarily chosen not to do so.

International Custody Battle Resolved

A sharply divided Vermont Supreme Court on Friday waded into a long-running international custody dispute, reversing a Vermont Family Court decision and giving jurisdiction in the case to a Canadian court.

The 3-2 decision reverses a 2002 ruling by Judge John Wesley in Bennington that gave custody of a son born to a Bennington couple to the father and ruled that a Canadian court was right to give the mother custody of the child.

The mother in 2003 obtained her own child custody order in Canada, where she had fled after claiming her ex-husband had abused her and threatened to harm her and their son. She was convicted in federal court last year of kidnapping her son.

"This is one of those rare cases where the best interests of the child must take precedence over the policy goal of deterring parental wrongdoing," Justice Marilyn Skoglund, writing for the high court's majority, said in the decision. "Canada was the more appropriate forum to resolve this matter."

In a stinging dissent, Justice Brian Burgess said the majority's ruling sends the wrong message to parents unhappy with court custody decisions.

Divorce: Fighting For, About, and Around Kids

Actions for divorce are like any other civil suit wherein the rights and duties of parties are decided and judgment is rendered. That is, aside from the fact that at the end of the case, both sides are still really mad.

There are exceptions, but the general rule is that if a judge or magistrates decides the outcome of who gets custody of the kids and on what days, everyone feels cheated. Dissolutions, which are simply divorces where the parties agree how to divide everything prior to filing in court, are always preferable but often impossible in the emotionally charged time of separation.

The legal issues of property settlement in a divorce, apart from alimony, are fairly cut and dry - everything acquired during the marriage that is not a gift or devise directly to one of the spouses gets divided in half. Problems deal mainly in valuations. For the calculation of alimony, it seems to matter more where you are getting a divorce than to whom you were married - it varies county to county.

Dividing a child is obviously more difficult. The wisdom of King Solomon is often needed and absolutely inadmissible in divorce court. (Solomon's proposal to halve the child really wasn't all that clever - what kind of hooligan would actually agree to cut the child in half in front of someone who was in the process of writing a book of the Bible? I think everyone already knew the likely outcome of it all when the retrobate showed up to the hearing with her face all exposed wearing a worn-out Ravi Shankar concert T-shirt.)

Custody Fight Continues Over Ex-Lesbian's Child

The battle continues between a homosexual activist and her former lesbian partner over who will control the now heterosexual, Christian woman's biological daughter. It's the latest twist in a complicated story.

Lisa Miller is a former lesbian who became a Christian, left the homosexual lifestyle, and took her biological daughter with her. Miller's former partner, Janet Jenkins, has been using a since-dissolved Vermont civil union to try to claim parental rights to Miller's daughter. Earlier this week, a Virginia civil court ruled that Jenkins must go to juvenile and domestic relations court to seek enforcement of a Vermont visitation order.

Attorney Mat Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, is representing Miller in her efforts to protect her six-year-old daughter. He says the former Vermont civil union should be rendered meaningless in Virginia's courts by Virginia's 2007 marriage protection amendment.

Custody Fight Continues Over Ex-Lesbian's Child

The battle continues between a homosexual activist and her former lesbian partner over who will control the now heterosexual, Christian woman's biological daughter. It's the latest twist in a complicated story.

Lisa Miller is a former lesbian who became a Christian, left the homosexual lifestyle, and took her biological daughter with her. Miller's former partner, Janet Jenkins, has been using a since-dissolved Vermont civil union to try to claim parental rights to Miller's daughter. Earlier this week, a Virginia civil court ruled that Jenkins must go to juvenile and domestic relations court to seek enforcement of a Vermont visitation order.

Attorney Mat Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel, is representing Miller in her efforts to protect her six-year-old daughter. He says the former Vermont civil union should be rendered meaningless in Virginia's courts by Virginia's 2007 marriage protection amendment.

16-Yr.-Old To Pay Child Support To 19-Yr.-Old Mom Who Allegedly Sexually Assaulted Him

It's a situation fraught with so many twists and turns that if you saw it on a movie screen you might not believe it.

It began when a 19-year-old girl from the town of Lancaster, Ohio was accused of molesting a 15-year-old boy. Jane Crane was allowed to stay at the child's Columbus-area home when allegations surfaced that her stepfather was being abusive.

But something apparently clicked between the girl and the underage son of those providing her temporary refuge. She's since been charged with unlawful sexual conduct, after allegedly having physical relations at least twice with the underage boy.

So far, the story is somewhat sad, but not that unusual.

But here's where it takes an odd turn. The teen became pregnant as a result of the encounter and paternity tests prove the boy is the father of the little girl, who was born in late April.

Gloves Are Off in Aussie's 007 Custody Battle

Australia's James Bond, George Lazenby, has cranked up his bitter child custody battle with estranged wife, former tennis champion Pam Shriver.

Queanbeyan-born Lazenby, who played 007 in On Her Majesty's Secret Service in 1969, has asked the US judge handling the case to order psychological tests on himself and Shriver to determine if they are fit to be parents.

"He wants it because he has nothing to lose," Lazenby's lawyer Marina Korol said.

The couple, who have three children, four-year-old George and two-year-olds twins, Kaitlin and Samuel, have waged a public war in the past week.

Lazenby, in court papers filed yesterday, accused Shriver of consuming "a cocktail of prescription painkillers, Ambien sleeping pills and rum or vodka each night and during the day".

Shriver, who won 22 Grand Slam doubles titles with Martina Navratilova, has alleged her husband of six years offered beer to their children, was anti-Semitic and threatened to kill her.

Scenarios Behind Hiring A California Child Custody Lawyer

Divorce is regarded as one of the most horrible things that may happen to a couple, especially if a misunderstanding is not resolved immediately. Many individuals are filing their petition for divorce with their respective partners because they cannot resolve their differences anymore. They feel that they cannot stand with each other living under the same roof anymore; they are just uncomfortable seeing and being with each other.

Aside from the legal procedure that needs to be followed, the family is also experiencing emotional distress. The atmosphere will not be as friendly as before, because such divorce petition means separation-one moving out of the house while the other will remain. In addition, if they have children, their custody will also be a subject for argument in the family court. That is the saddest part of a couple filing for a divorce-giving the children to whoever has the better right under the family law.

In the case of child custody, many divorcing couples are getting a child custody lawyer aside from the divorce lawyer for their petition. Most of the states in the country have their own regulations with regards to family law. In California, they have their own set of regulations that applies to child custody cases. That is why if you are residing in California and planning to get hold of the custody of your children in case your husband or wife filed a divorce, you need to hire a California-based child custody lawyer.

Your child custody lawyer will be your representative in California family courts. He or she will be the one to explain to you the possibilities of getting the custody of your children based on the circumstances present as well as the laws and regulations covering child custody issues.

Custody Shopping

Child custody cases can get very messy if both parents are fighting for sole custody. But what if one parent is granted custody in one county, and another is granted custody in a different county?

It recently happened to an Encinitas man. Doug Rhodes told NBC 7/39 he became the victim of a legal loophole, called jurisdiction shopping.

"She's my life, you know. I love her more than anything in this world," Rhodes said about his 7-year-old daughter Katarissa.

He said he's spent thousands of dollars fighting in court for sole custody.

"To go back and forth, the chaos and confusion for my daughter, it's just been too much," Rhodes said.

After four years in court, a San Diego judge gave him full custody. The judge also gave Katarissa's mom, Stephani Bolton visitation rights on Sundays. But on July 8, Rhodes said all of that changed. When he went to pick up Katarissa at school, he was met by a San Diego County sheriff's deputy.

Judge Divides FLDS Child Cases

Nearly four months after the largest child-custody case in U.S. history commenced, Texas 51st District Judge Barbara Walther has broken it up, leaving 234 separate cases involving the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Walther split Case No. 2902 - which included more than 300 children - into 110 cases grouped by mother, and Case 2903, which included more than 30 children, into nine cases, also grouped by mother. They join 115 cases filed separately by the state's Child Protective Services agency, which removed nearly 440 children from the sect's Schleicher County compound in early April.

"This is something we've known all along needs to be done," said Tom Green County District Court clerk Vicki Vines. "Nobody had a good enough grasp on it (until now). Everybody's got it a little more under control."

Lesbian's Children To Be Returned To UK

An Ontario judge has ruled that a woman who fled to Canada from the United Kingdom with her two adopted daughters must return with them to allow her former lesbian partner full access to the children under what amounts to a joint custody agreement.

Justice Jennifer Mackinnon, of Ontario Superior Court, ordered Connie Springfield to return to England with her two daughters, 8 and 6, whom she adopted with her long-time partner Sarah Courtney six years ago. Ms. Springfield had spirited the two children to Canada late last year in what the judge called a "long thought out, deceptive method of her removal of the children."

The lesbian couple had broken up five years earlier and had, apparently amicably, continued to share custody of the children until Ms. Springfield took them on what was supposed to be a visit to family members in Ottawa last December, but which she acknowledged planning for some time as a permanent move.

Parents Lose Custody of Girl For Naming Her Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii

A nine-year-old girl whose parents named her Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii was put into court guardianship in New Zealand so that her name could be changed.

A family court judge, Rob Murfitt, gave the order after hearing that the child was embarrassed about her name and had refused to reveal it to friends. "She told people her name was K because she feared being mocked and teased," the child's lawyer, Colleen MacLeod, told the court.

The judge criticised parents who give their offspring bizarre names, saying it exposed children to ridicule among their peers.

"The court is profoundly concerned about the very poor judgment that this child's parents have shown in choosing this name. It makes a fool of the child and sets her up with a social disability and handicap, unnecessarily," he said.

Dad Sold Drugs to Win Child's Custody

A father who agreed to sell over €10,000 worth of cannabis to try and raise a deposit for a flat so that he could get custody of his daughter has been jailed.

Jude Sherlock (36) and his partner lived in their car for two months before Sherlock agreed to sell the drugs in the hope of getting a flat.

He appeared before Judge Desmond Hogan at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

"It was not a long-term enterprise. He did it to get himself and his partner on stable ground," defence counsel Laurence Masterson told the court.

Spears, Federline Settle Custody Battle

Pop singer Britney Spears and ex-husband Kevin Federline have settled their long and bitter custody battle over their two sons, but terms of the deal remained confidential.

Federline's attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan told several media organisations late on Thursday that Federline retained sole custody of Sean Preston, two and a half, and Jayden James, 22 months, but outside a Los Angeles courthouse following a closed hearing on Friday, he declined to discuss custodial issues.

"I'm not going to comment on the terms of an agreement that has not yet been made an order of the court," Kaplan said.