Articles Posted in Custody

The Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) filed an abuse petition, pursuant to Family Court Act against the respondent mother and the person legally responsible for the subject children, respondent R., with regard to the children of the respondent mother.

A New York Family Lawyer said ACS alleged in their petition that a fifteen-month-old child was in the care and custody of respondent R. and that the toddler was returned to the respondent mother with two black eyes and swelling to his forehead. It was alleged that the toddler and his eleven-year-old sibling left Brooklyn with respondent R. to go to his home in New Jersey for the weekend. Later that same day, the younger child was brought to the hospital and was pronounced dead on arrival. Significantly, despite her brother and sister accompanying her to New Jersey when she learned of her child’s death, respondent mother chose to spend the night with respondent R. in his home, with eleven-year-old Sheila who was present at the time of Angel’s death, knowing R. was a suspect for the homicide of her son that day.

ACS further alleged that despite knowing of these injuries and even documenting these injuries with a camera on her cell phone, the respondent mother failed to seek any medical attention. A New York Custody Lawyer said the ACS effectuated an emergency removal of the surviving children upon the death of the toddler. Subsequently, respondent mother gave birth to another baby. ACS sought for the child’s custody. A New York Custody Lawyer said the Court determined that the temporary removal of the infant was necessary to avoid imminent risk to this child’s life and health.

Continue reading

The Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) filed an abuse petition, pursuant to Family Court Act against the respondent mother and the person legally responsible for the subject children, respondent R., with regard to the children of the respondent mother.

A New York Family Lawyer said that ACS alleged in their petition that a fifteen-month-old child was in the care and custody of respondent R. and that the toddler was returned to the respondent mother with two black eyes and swelling to his forehead. It was alleged that the toddler and his eleven-year-old sibling left Brooklyn with respondent R. to go to his home in New Jersey for the weekend. Later that same day, the younger child was brought to the hospital and was pronounced dead on arrival.

Significantly, a New York Custody Lawyer said that despite her brother and sister accompanying her to New Jersey when she learned of her child’s death, respondent mother chose to spend the night with respondent R. in his home, with eleven-year-old Sheila who was present at the time of Angel’s death, knowing R. was a suspect for the homicide of her son that day.

Continue reading

When child custody issues involve a parent who is not native to the United States, the court is forced to deal with additional issues that are not common among domestic cases. Many countries do not respect divorce proceeding rulings from outside of their borders. A New York Custody Lawyer said that means that it is unfortunately fairly common for one parent to abscond with a child to a different country. It becomes very difficult for the other parent to regain visitation with that child when they have been taken overseas. In order to prevent this type of parental abduction, courts work to create reciprocal agreements with other countries. However, not all countries are willing to comply.

Patriarchal countries are often non- compliant when faced with the concept that the mother of a child has a right to the child against the will of the father. In cases of that nature, it can become almost impossible for the mother to obtain the child. For this reason, some mothers will actively take steps to prevent a father from a patriarchal country from removing the child from the United States. In one case of this type, the mother refused repeatedly to obtain a passport for her minor child to accompany her father outside of the United States. A New York Family Lawyer said the father made an application to the court to have the mother obtain a passport for the child and to enable him to take the child back to his homeland to meet his family overseas. There is no other implication that the father might be a threat to abscond with the child.

However, it is important to ask why the mother was resistant to the notion of the father taking the child overseas. The mother is more familiar with the ability of the father to abscond with the child than the court is. A Nassau County Family Lawyer said he must assume that she presented more evidence about her concern for allowing the father to take the child overseas than is recorded in the documents of the case. However, one must also assume that the court heard both sides of the argument and was able to review the risk involved that the father will not return to the jurisdiction with the child.

Continue reading

A married couple who resided in New York filed for a divorce and was granted a decree of divorce in January 18, 1980. The decree or divorce granted the custody of their common child to the wife while giving the husband a visitation schedule.

A New York Family Lawyer said the father took full advantage of his visitation rights and cultivated a good relationship with their daughter despite the divorce. The child also began a close relationship with her grandparents on her mother’s and father’s side.

Sometime in 1987, the mother applied for a modification of the visitation schedule in the divorce decree. The mother claimed that she has obtained employment in Tennessee and would like to relocate there with her child.

Continue reading

A couple was married in New York sometime on April 7, 1979. They had a daughter who was born on November 28, 1980. A New York Family Lawyer said tht two years after their daughter was born, the woman sought a divorce from her husband. The woman was granted custody of the child while the divorce case was being heard.

In February 24, 1983, the mother and father made oral stipulations where the parties agreed that their daughter will remain with the mother and the father will have liberal visitation rights.

The order of divorce was honored by the mother and the father except for some instances when the mother took her daughter to the Bahamas for a vacation in 1985. A New York Custody Lawyer said while on vacation there, the mother met a Canadian who was also divorced and had two sons. The Canadian was a resident of Montreal where he had a business.

A Caucasian woman married an African-American man on December 5, 1973. They had a daughter. The woman filed for divorce on the ground that her husband was physically abusing her and that he had extra-marital affairs with other women. A New York Custody Lawyer said she then asked the family court for custody over her child during the pendency of the divorce proceedings. She also asked for child support and for possession of the family home.

The husband made counterclaims against his wife. He charged her with neglect, physical and verbal abuse as well as abandoning their home and taking their child from him.

The family court granted custody to the mother during the pendency of the divorce proceedings and also ordered child support to be paid to her. During the pendency of the divorce, the father was to have visitation rights. Once during the divorce proceedings, the child was taken by her father on one of his visits. He never returned the child and the woman asked for an order of protection against the father. The mother then exerted efforts to find her daughter. She succeeded in discovering her husband’s whereabouts and the mother went to San Francisco, California to take custody over her own child and brought her back with her to New York.

Continue reading

In an action for a divorce and additional relief, the husband appeals, as limited by his brief, from so much of a judgment of the Supreme Court as awarded counsel fees to the complainant wife. A New York Family Lawyer said the wife was awarded with $150 per week in child support, granted the husband with visitation to the infant only to the extent that it is supervised to the wife’s satisfaction, and distributed the marital assets in the proportion of 75% to the complainant wife and 25% to the husband.

The judgment is modified, on the law and in the exercise of discretion, deleting the $430.00 and substituting the words $372.50; deleting the $150.00 and $430.00, and substituting, respectively, $86.63, and $372.50; deleting the words which equals $100.00 per week, leaving a balance of $50.00 per week, and substituting the words leaving a balance of zero; striking the eighth decretal paragraph and substituting a provision granting the wife a credit for the required payments on the balance of her purchase-money mortgage of $372.50 per month until the entire mortgage amount of $24,000 has been paid; deleting $150.00, and substituting the $86.63; adding to the eleventh decretal paragraph thereof, after the figure $2,885.84, and the complainant’s Nissan automobile with a net value of FOUR-THOUSAND DOLLARS ($4,000); and striking the twelfth decretal paragraph. As modified, the judgment is affirmed insofar as appealed from, with costs to the complainant, and the matter is remitted to the Supreme Court, Nassau County, for a hearing and determination on the issue of visitation, unless the parties can reach an agreement on visitation prior thereto. In the interim, a New York Custody Lawyer said the provisions for visitation contained in the third decretal paragraph shall continue.

The trial court properly distributed the marital assets in a proportion based upon the ratio of the parties’ respective earnings during the latter years of the marriage, when most of the marital assets were acquired. A Nassau County Family Lawyer said the award of the greater proportion of the marital assets to the wife was particularly appropriate in view of her extraordinary efforts to improve the economic condition of the family when compared to the husband’s complacency in that respect. The court erred, however, in failing to include as a marital asset the parties’ automobile which was purchased with savings accumulated during the marriage.

Continue reading

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. Respondent visited regularly and contributed to the child’s support for 18 months. However, a New York Custody Lawyer said the parties never married or lived together because respondent has a famil 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.

Continue reading