Nassau

Published on: June 28, 2012

Court Discusses the Rights of a Non-Marital Parent

by Stephen Bilkis

On October 15, 1999, a child was born between the petitioner mother and respondent father. The respondent father acknowledged his paternity and his name was placed on child’s birth certificate. A New York Family Lawyer said the respondent visited regularly and contributed to the child’s support for 18 months. However, the parties never married or lived together because respondent has a family of his own. Accordingly, in the spring 2001, the parties’ relationship ended, although respondent continued to call the petitioner to discuss the child during the months that followed. During the years that follow, respondent father did not visit nor give support to the child.

The mother then met and married her current husband. The mother moved out of her apartment but submitted a change of address notification form to the United States Post Office. She changed her home telephone number but kept the same cell phone number, the same job, the same work address and the same telephone number at work. The mother notified her landlord about her move.

Thereafter, the respondent father received a notice from the petitioner mother’s intent for stepparent adoption. Respondent father filed a petition seeking visitation rights and opposed the adoption. In his petition, respondent alleged that he did everything for the child. On 2006, the petitioner mother and her husband filed a stepparent adoption.

Published on: June 25, 2012

Plaintiff Claims Order for Protection was Violated

by Stephen Bilkis

In consolidated proceedings in accordance with the Family Court Act articles 6 and 8, the man appeals, as limited by his brief, from stated portions of an order of the Family Court which, among other things, adjudged him to be in violation of an order of protection and sentenced him to 15 days of incarceration in the Nassau County Correctional Facility, and as limited by his brief, from so much of an order of the same court, as denied his application for sole child custody of the couple, or alternatively, increased visitation.

A New York Family Lawyer said Article 6 of the Family Court Act has the authority to make initial child custody and visitation awards. It also may modify existing orders, unless a judgment of divorce retains sole jurisdiction to the Supreme Court. While Article 6 of the Family Court Act gives Family Court jurisdiction over child custody, the substantive law of child custody remains embodied in case law.

Article 6 further confers the Family Court jurisdiction over guardianship proceedings. The Surrogate’s Court has concurrent jurisdiction for guardianship, and Family Court can grant only guardianship of the person, while Surrogate’s Court can grant guardianship of the person and guardianship of the property.

Published on: June 21, 2012

Court Determines Custody Dispute

by Stephen Bilkis

A married couple was having marital problems. The husband left his wife and his daughter when he left their apartment in May 1981. From that time, the wife had custody of their daughter.

A New York Family Lawyer said the wife continued to have custody over their child during the divorce proceedings she instituted against her husband when the family court granted her temporary custody over their child while her application for divorce was being heard. She asked to an order granting her custody over their child and for the payment of maintenance and child support.

During the course of the divorce proceedings, the husband also applied that instead of being given visitation rights, he be granted custody over their child. The only question before the family court then was who between the mother and the father should be given custody over their child.

Published on: June 18, 2012

Court Decides on Relocation of Parent in Shared Custody Arrangemet

by Stephen Bilkis

The Facts:

The parties were divorced in 2004. The parties had joint legal custody of their children with the mother having physical custody and the father having certain rights of parenting time. A New York Family Lawyer said at the time of the divorce, the parties were living in Albany, New York, having relocated together from Long Island. Immediately after the divorce was finalized, the parties continued to live together for financial reasons but eventually moved into separate apartments in Albany with the children living with the mother. The father exercised his parenting rights during this time, though the extent to which he did so is in dispute.

Sometime after, the mother met her current husband, a resident of South Carolina, in an online chat room and began a long distance relationship which resulted in one of them traveling once every few months to see the other. At other times they would both travel and meet somewhere in the middle. In 2005, the mother had a hysterectomy which she blamed for causing her to lose her job. A Nassau County Family Lawyer said the loss of her job and the father’s alleged failure to provide regular child support placed her in dire financial straits which she believed could only be remedied by relocating to South Carolina where, aside from her current husband, her mother and sister resided.

Published on: May 16, 2012

Court Rules on Common Law Marriage

by Stephen Bilkis

Whenever people attempt to defraud another, it is a criminal situation, however, when married people defraud each other, it is somehow worse. A New York Family Lawyer said in some cases that reach the Family Court, the lines that define right and wrong can become blurred. This is what happens when people attempt to circumvent any system for their own personal gain.

In 1935, a woman from Turkey and her husband ran a business in Atlanta, Georgia where they purchased oriental carpets from an Iraqi man who was born of Jewish parents. The relationship between the parties was amicable and provided a good working base for all involved. In 1941, the Iraqi man was returning to New York after a sales trip to meet with the couple in Atlanta when he had a bad traffic accident near Folkston, Georgia. Following the accident, the Iraqi man was taken to a hospital in Folkston and then transferred to Emory University Hospital for further treatment. A Nassau County Family Lawyer said the Turkish woman spent many hours assisting the Iraqi man in his recovery. As a result of this close connection, the two developed a strong friendship. When he recovered, the man asked the woman if she was interested in running one of his Hotels in Miami Beach, Florida. She agreed and moved to Miami. In 1945, she divorced her husband and lived in a suite at the hotel that she managed for the Iraqi man.

They soon began a more intimate relationship. The man would visit her frequently at the hotel and was known to sometimes stay over with her at the hotel. In November of 1945, a few months following her divorce, the man bought a house in Miami Beach, Florida and told the woman to redecorate it in her own taste since it would be their marital home. The woman proceeded to redecorate and renovate the house to meet her qualifications for it. In December of 1945, the woman collected the man from the airport after he flew down from New York. They drove to the house where he told her that he loved only her and that he wanted her to be with him for life. She agreed and the following day, the went to the hotel and informed the staff that they had married.

Published on: May 14, 2012

Parent’s Visitation Rights Suspended

by Stephen Bilkis

A husband and wife had two children of their own and the wife had a child by a former partner. All of the children are minors. The ACS filed petitions in family court alleging that the eldest child, the wife’s child by another former partner was neglected. ACS alleged that the husband and wife inflicted excessive corporal punishment on the child resulting in bruises on the child. The mother beat the child using an extension cord while her husband punched the child.

A New York Family Lawyer said the ACS also filed a petition of derivative neglect upon the two younger children of the couple alleging that since these two minors witnessed the abuse of the eldest minor child, they were considered derivatively neglected as well.

After a hearing at the family court, A Nassau County Family Lawyer said the children were ordered removed from the home of their parents. The eldest child was placed with his great grandfather on the mother’s side, his nearest relative.

Published on: May 10, 2012

Court Decides on Relocation of Child

by Stephen Bilkis

In the instant proceeding, the petitioner/father seeks to modify custody and enjoin the parties’ six and half year old child (“the child”) from relocating with the custodial parent, the respondent/mother to the Aramco compound in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.

A New York Family Lawyer said the respondent opposes the petition to modify custody and requests permission to allow their child to permanently reside in Saudi Arabia with respondent, respondent’s husband or the child’s “Step-Father” and the child’s two half-siblings.

Is it in the child’s best interest to award petitioner custody and compel the child to remain in New York with petitioner or to maintain custody with respondent and allow the child to relocate to the Aramco compound in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia?

Published on: May 8, 2012

Court Determines Custody Issue

by Stephen Bilkis

A former husband filed a petition to modify a divorce decree order made by another court and seeks a sole custody of his son. A decree of divorce was filed and was made by the Supreme Court. The basis of authority for the decree was a separation agreement entered into between the couple which had been adhered to by them for one year prior to the commencement of the proceeding. A New York Family Lawyer said the separation agreement entered into between the husband and his wife was filed in the county clerk’s office. The terms of the separation agreement were included but not merged in the decree of divorce.

The decree ordered that all matters arising in the future pertaining to the enforcement of the decree or to requested modifications of any provision whether pertaining to child support, visitation or child custody, be and the same are referred to a family court or to the appropriate court having authority to the issue. A Nassau County Family Lawyer said the separation agreement indicates that the couple was married and lived in New York and the wife shall have custody of the children of the marriage. The husband’s visitation rights were outlined in some detail.

The issue came on for a proceeding and the father appeared by counsel but the mother failed to appear. The court was informed that the child who is the subject in the proceeding lives in Connecticut but runs away and is in New York with the father.

Published on: May 6, 2012

Mother Takes Child Out of State Due to Abuse Suspicions

by Stephen Bilkis

The father, who is thirty-two years of age, and the mother, who is thirty years old were married in New York. A New York Family Lawyer said while married, the father worked as a first grade teacher and the mother worked as a mandarin interpreter. The couple knew each other for only a short time prior to their marriage, at which point, the mother became pregnant with their child. The mother gave birth to a son and at the time of the son’s birth the couple was living separately. However, during the early days of the marriage, the couple lived at the mother’s relative’s residence in Brooklyn. A great amount of the couple’s marriage can be characterized as tumultuous and there were incidents of domestic violence.

The father commenced a divorce action alleging cruel and inhuman treatment. Initially, the mother appeared without a counsel but later retained one. The mother was allegedly served with the summons with notice in an action for divorce at a Family Court.

In support of her request that she be awarded full legal child custody, the mother alleges that the father is merely trying to avoid paying child support and that he does not really care about child custody. A Nassau County Family Lawyer said she argues that, until recently, the father lacked involvement with the child since the child was conceived. The mother contends that the father demanded a paternity test to prove his relationship to the child, but even after paternity was established, the father had little to do with the child. The mother avers that, as recently as 2005, the father was willing to forego child custody, in favor of the mother.

Published on: April 27, 2012

Court Determines Visitation and Custody Issues

by Stephen Bilkis

A man and a woman met in New York. The man was a resident of Florida. The woman got pregnant and gave birth to a son on August 9, 2007. A New York Family Lawyer said the father stayed in New York at the mother’s apartment for a fortnight after the baby was born. But the father left New York and returned to Florida. He did not disclose any plans to return to New York nor did he have any plans to bring his son to Florida.

Two months after the child was born, the mother filed a case in the Family Court of New York for the sole child custody of her son. A Nassau County Family Lawyer said five months during the pendency of the mother’s petition for sole child custody, the father appeared and filed an application for sole child custody or at least visitation rights.

During the pendency of the mother’s action for child custody, their son remained with her but the father was able to have one-day visits with their son nine times. He was able to get one overnight visit and one weekend visit with their son in New York. And the child was able to stay with his father for one week in Florida.