Tennessee Moves to Split Custody Evenly in Messy Divorces

A Tennessee bill that would evenly split child custody in contentious divorce cases is drawing national attention and dividing groups along gender lines.

On one side is an alliance of women's groups, some judges and the Tennessee Bar Association, who say the change would make divorces tougher to settle and give abusive ex-husbands leverage they shouldn't have. Spending half of the time with each parent would also impose impractical schedules on kids, they say.

On the other side are fathers' rights groups who say kids get deprived of full relationships with both parents. Courts have too long ignored laws calling for custody decisions to be made in children's best interests, they say, and judges are overly influenced by notions about the mother-child bond.

The state's House Children and Family Affairs' Family Justice Subcommittee is scheduled to meet today to review divorce-related data it requested from the Tennessee Bar Association, as it works to determine whether to send the bill to a second committee that could send it to the full House.

Other states, including Missouri, start from a presumption of an even custodial split unless there has been abuse, said Janet Richards, a law professor at the University of Memphis who specializes in child custody matters. Tennessee would be alone in requiring clear, convincing evidence that one parent is unfit before dividing custody unequally, she said.

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Help Line Could Eliminate Tense Child Custody Situations

FLORENCE - Lauderdale County Circuit Judge Jimmy Sandlin said the Co-Parenting Help Line can "defuse a potential volatile situation."

The help line is available for couples who are going through the initial stages of divorce, said program coordinator Debra Simmons. It's a benefit to parents who may have tension when it comes to child custodial issues. The help line, which is beginning its fourth year, is under the umbrella of Families First and is funded through the Alabama Law Foundation.

"We try to solve problems, help them work through the conflict and find a solution that will be agreeable to both parties," Simmons said.

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New Push to Protect Custody Rights of Troops

An Ohio lawmaker who has been blocked four times in his efforts to pass legislation to protect deployed service members from losing custody of their children has launched a new two-pronged effort to try to get his proposal into law.

Republican Rep. Michael Turner will try once again to attach to the annual defense policy bill provisions designed to prevent courts from denying child custody to service members while they are deployed. Turner hopes a promised meeting with Defense Secretary Robert Gates will result in objections to his legislation being dropped.

As a backup plan, Turner also has introduced a separate bill, HR 4469, that falls under the jurisdiction of the House and Senate veterans’ affairs committees. This gives him another avenue if he cannot overcome objections from the Defense Department and Senate Armed Services Committee, which have been the roadblocks to date for his legislation.

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Deadline for Woman Missing in Custody Case

A judge refereeing a child-custody dispute between former lesbian partners balked Friday at issuing a contempt citation for one of them and instead gave her 30 days to appear in court with the girl or face arrest.

Lisa Miller has disappeared with 7-year-old Isabella Miller-Jenkins, and Miller's former partner renewed her call for help finding the girl.

"Every day I wonder where she is, and if she's OK," said Janet Jenkins, of Fair Haven. "Every time the phone rings, I hope it is someone calling to tell me they have found her."

Miller, the girl's biological mother, was ordered to surrender custody of Isabella on Jan. 1, but she failed to do so. The girl is now considered a missing person.

On Friday, Family Court Judge William Cohen - who had ordered the custody change two months ago - rejected Jenkins' plea for a contempt-of-court citation against Miller but found her in violation of his previous order. He set a Feb. 23 court date, saying if Miller doesn't appear with the child then, he would issue a warrant for her arrest.

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Brazil court delays custody ruling on US boy

The American father at the centre of an international child custody battle will have to wait another day at the very least to learn whether his nine-year-old son can return with him to the US from Brazil.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Gilmar Mendes had been expected to rule on Sean Goldman's case yesterday, then today.

The decision will likely not come down until tomorrow.

Sean’s mother took him on vacation to Brazil in June 2004, but instead of returning to New Jersey, she divorced his father David Goldman and remarried in Brazil.

His mother, Bruna Bianchi, died last year, but Sean's stepfather Joao Paulo Lins e Silva continued to raise him in Brazil and has claimed custody rights.

Also today, Silva’s lawyer Sergio Tostes issued a statement denying reports that Sean would return to the US if his maternal grandmother Silvana Bianchi was allowed to accompany him on the flight.

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The foster child thought she had nobody left to love her. She was wrong.

The search begins inside a sparse office in a corner of the St. Louis family court.

Carlos Lopez, a 6-foot private investigator with a disarming smile, and his partner Sheila Suderwalla sit at a computer side by side, scouring court records, police files, motor vehicle records, occupancy permits and mug shots — any clue that would lead them to a woman named Karen.

Karen is not a wanted criminal. And the partners are not looking to solve a crime.

Suderwalla, a petite social worker with a driven passion for the underdog, and Lopez are on the trail of something far more elusive: a lost relative with a heart big enough and bloodlines strong enough to change the life of a 15-year-old foster child.

Her name is Lisa, and she feels as if she has nobody.

Lisa doesn't know it yet, but she is at the center of a groundbreaking $2 million federally funded St. Louis program called Extreme Recruitment, one of the first programs in the nation that partners social workers with private investigators in a gumshoe effort to reunite foster children with long-lost family members.

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Supreme Court overturns ruling barring mom's move

BOISE, Idaho (AP) - The Idaho Supreme Court has overturned a lower court decision barring an Idaho mother from moving to another state after her divorce.
The justices concluded Friday that that 6th District Magistrate Judge Gaylen Box had no authority to prevent Aneka Allbright from moving to Michigan with her new husband.

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Joe Jackson Sent Packing by Child-Custody Agreement

Joe Jackson might want to start scanning the "Roommates Wanted" section of Craigslist.

Showbiz 411 reports that the child-custody agreement forged between deceased King of Pop Michael Jackson's ex-wife Debbie Rowe and Jackson's mother Katherine has a non-negotiable clause that Jackson's father Joe must move out of the family home in Encino, California.

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Fight for Custody Rights of Military Parents

Lieutenant Eva Slusher, a Kentucky mother and member of the National Guard, was shocked in 2004 when she returned from deployment to find she had lost custody of her daughter. A costly and timely custody battle later that included her military service used against her, Slusher regained custody of her daughter. Ohio Congressman Michael Turner heard about her plight and has introduced a bill that would not allow military service to be used against a parent in a custody case.

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Dad's Custody Battle Hits "Brick Wall"

It's been more than two years since 5-year-old Liam McCarty was taken from his home in New York, and brought illegally to Rome by his mother.

Now 8, Liam is not living with either of his parents, but rather at an orphanage facility run by Italian Social Services because his mother was deemed unfit to parent. The child's father

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2 families vie for custody of baby girl taken from womb

Two families are seeking custody of the newborn authorities are calling Baby Jane Doe, the child stolen from her mother’s womb last month. But for at least the next month, the child will remain in state custody, a judge ruled during a closed-door hearing yesterday in Worcester Juvenile Court.

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Morocco and Norway in International Child Custody Case

A child custody battle between a Moroccan former Olympic athlete and his estranged Norwegian wife has strained diplomatic ties after Morocco said Norway helped spirit the two children away from their father.

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Custody of Michael Jackson's Children Still Up In The Air

Who will win custody of Michael Jackson's three children? Many variables seem like they could affect the outcome.

Jackson's will names his mother as guardian (or in her absence, Diana Ross).

His ex-wife Debbie Rowe tried to disclaim her status as a legal parent, and then returned to court and had the termination of her rights overturned.

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RI Court Revokes Custody Rights for Illegal Immigrant

An illegal immigrant from Mexico who was deported after her 2005 conviction on child neglect and cruelty charges has permanently lost custody of her two young children, one of whom was born in Mexico, the other in Rhode Island.

The children — who have been in the custody of the state Department of Children, Youth and Families — have been living together in a Rhode Island foster home for several years and the foster parents now plan to adopt them, according to a lawyer for the DCYF. The son will be 8 in August; the daughter turned 5 last week.

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WV Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Gay Couple

The West Virginia Supreme Court has ruled in favor of a same-sex couple fighting to retain custody of an 18-month-old foster child.

In an unsigned opinion issued Friday, the court barred enforcement of a Fayette County Circuit Court order that the girl should be taken away from Kathryn Kutil and Cheryl Hess. Judge Paul Blake Jr. had ruled the child should be placed with a heterosexual couple who might adopt her.

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Fake Rockefeller "Wanted Custody"

Christian Gerhartsreiter - who called himself Clark Rockefeller - is accused of abducting seven-year-old Reigh Boss.

His British ex-wife, Sandra Boss, told a Boston court he made the threats when she said she was considering divorce.

Mr Gerhartsreiter's lawyers claim he suffers from delusions and did not know it was wrong to snatch the child.

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Alleged Neo-Nazi Parents in Custody Battle

Just seven years old, she showed up at school with neo-Nazi propaganda written all over her body, calmly described how to kill black people, and spoke proudly about white people being superior to all other races.

Now the disturbing views of the girl are at the centre of a heated child-custody case that began Monday in Winnipeg.

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Lawyers Reaching Custody Agreement in International Kidnapping Case

A custody agreement between the parents of a 3-year-old girl kidnapped by her Russian mother from France in March should be finalized in a few weeks, a French lawyer for the girl's mother, Irina Belenkaya, said Monday.

The agreement will provide for the girl to live either in France or Russia, and one of the parents could voluntarily move to the country of the girl's residence, said prominent Russian lawyer Anatoly Kucherena, who is helping draft the agreement to bring an end to the high-profile custody battle.

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Woman Caught After Dodging Child Support

Authorities Monday arrested a Camden-area woman who assumed a fake identity for more than seven years to avoid paying about $30,000 in child support in Lexington County, Sheriff James Metts said.

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NBA Star's Child Support Case Dismissed

A court in Maryland dismissed a child support case against NBA star Chris Bosh last week, upholding Bosh's claim that the state did not have jurisdiction in the case.

Bosh, a forward for the Toronto Raptors, argued that the state had no jurisdiction in the case even though his former girlfriend, Allison Mathis, gave birth to their daughter in Maryland in November.

Prior to the birth, Bosh had petitioned Texas to resolve the child custody and child support for the couple's unborn child.

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