Articles Posted in Suffolk County

A New York Family Lawyer said a couple was married and the mother gave birth to their child later that year. They lived together in their native country. But, after an argument that happened between the couple, the mother left the marital home with her child.

Thereafter, during the pendency of a custody proceeding initiated by the father, the mother took her child and settled with her new boyfriend and his family, without informing the father of their location.

A New York Child Custody Lawyer said that subsequently, after the father discovers the location of the mother and their child, and after learning that the mother had obtained an order from the family court with regards the custody of their child upon the father’s default, the father initiated a proceeding in the same court, seeking child custody.

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A New York Family Lawyer said the Mother and the Respondent Father are both Egyptian nationals and were married in Egypt and have one daughter born in January, 1987. The parties were divorced on July 11, 1987, in a court of competent jurisdiction. Pursuant to the divorce decree, the Father agreed to pay pounds sterling> E. 350 monthly in addition to school, treatment and child custody expenses for the daughter. The Father paid this amount for the month of June, 1987, only. Thereafter, he fled to the United States, without giving notice to the Mother and has not paid his Egyptian child support obligation since. The Mother obtained a judgment for child support in the appropriate Egyptian Court, for a sum of pounds sterling E. 100 to be paid monthly, from November 8, 1987, to the present. Both the Mother and Father appealed this decision and the Egyptian Appellate Court sustained the initial judgment of pounds sterling E. 100 monthly for child support. The Court issued the judgment upon the Father’s salary in Egypt and stated that the amount of support could not be increased until his affluence and change in financial status was proven with American financial statements. The Mother has no way of obtaining the necessary proof in Egypt because the Father is not in Egypt and refuses to give her the appropriate documentation. The Father appealed the judgment of pounds sterling E. 100 monthly, and the court held that the amount was appropriate to the Father’s financial status in Egypt and that the father owes a non-delegable duty of child support to his daughter under Egyptian civil and religious law. The Father was held in contempt for his failure to pay child support in 1995 when he returned to Egypt. The Father would be held in contempt again, should he return to Egypt, for his willful failure to support his child. His child support obligation, based on the current value of the Egyptian pounds sterling E., equals around $29.41 monthly. Thus, his total arrears resulting from the Egyptian judgment is $13,763.88 to date.

A New York Child Custody Lawyer said the Mother entered the United States on a student visa and filed a petition for child support in Albany County Family Court. The Mother resided in Towson, Maryland, until the middle of May, 1996, when the visa expired and she returned to Egypt with her daughter. The Mother currently resides in Alexandria, Egypt. The Mother appeared in person on May 2, 1996, for a hearing in Albany County Family Court. The Father resides in Albany, New York and appeared personally at the same hearing. Thus, the Court has personal jurisdiction over both parties.

A Suffolk County Family Lawyer said the Mother filed a set of objections with service of process to the Order of the Hearing Examiner. The Mother objected to the dismissal of her complaint and stated that the failure to provide a Family Court Act (FCA) affidavit when the Hearing Examiner was on notice that the Mother had returned to Egypt was an unreasonable request and abuse of discretion. The Father filed a Rebuttal with service of process and claimed that since the Mother had re-alleged each and every objection submitted to the Court, the Mother has opened the door to rebut those objections and, therefore, the previous request deemed untimely is now resubmitted and should be deemed timely. The Father states that the dismissal of the Mother’s petition was proper and consistent with FCA. The Court will consider the Father’s argument that the court had the power and authority to construe the Mother’s petition as one for enforcement and modification. Furthermore, the Father correctly states that, with a foreign support order in hand, the Mother may come to a New York court and bring an action for enforcement or modification of the foreign support order.

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This Family action concerns custody of two children, ages 13 and 11. The current proceedings were commenced when the father filed a petition pursuant to Article 6 of the Family Court Act seeking a modification of an Order of Custody of the children after the mother relocated beyond the radius clause in their divorce stipulation. The mother subsequently filed her own petition.

A New York Family lawyer said that pursuant to a contented-to stipulation and the Judgment of Divorce the parties were divorced in 1998. As per the terms of their stipulation, the mother had sole custody of the two children and the father had certain rights of child visitation. One provision of their stipulation was that the mother could not relocate outside of a fifty (50) mile radius with the children. Each party became involved with other long-term partners and each has had other children. The mother and her paramour, have been together approximately nine years and have two children out of wedlock. The father is remarried and together they have one child. Each family unit lived in various areas of Queens and Long Island over the years until the mother moved, with her paramour, the subject children and her other two children to Pennsylvania. It is this move that has spurred the current litigation.

A New York Custody Lawyer said that in September 2006 the father filed a petition for custody of the two subject children. Despite being properly served with the custody petition, the mother did not appear in Court for over three court appearances. On the fourth court appearance, the mother did appear in Court that morning, but then did not return to Court that afternoon, despite being told to do so by the Hon. Judge’s court attorney. The mother claims her legal aid attorney informed her she could go home. As a result of her failure to return to Court on the afternoon one day, and the inability of the Court to reach her by telephone, the Judge transferred custody of the subject children to the father. The father made arrangements for that order to be enforced in Pennsylvania, and on the next day, he obtained physical custody of the children in Pennsylvania and brought them to his home in New York. They have lived with him since that time.

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A husband initially commenced a divorce proceeding in his place but the court declined to hear it since his children are United States citizens. The husband thereafter initiated the action again and an extensive decision of the court was issued on child custody and visitation.

A New York Family Lawyer said the parties have five children and at present, the four youngest children reside with the mother at a shelter, while the eldest child resides with the father at their marital residence. The parties are each in good health. An interpreter was also provided for the wife throughout the proceeding since she does not speak English. Even if the husband testified in English during the custody and visitation trial, he requested the use of an interpreter for the financial proceeding. The husband’s former attorney was relieved as counsel shortly after the decision of the matter was rendered. The attorney was then substituted.

During the party’s marriage, the husband worked in a construction industry which enabled him to financially support his family. Subsequently, the parties and their children traveled back to their hometown. The husband returned to the United States after two weeks, however, the wife and children were left at the husband’s parent’s house. Later, the wife and the youngest child left the husband’s parents’ home and went to live with the wife’s family in a nearby village over the objections of the husband and his family. The four eldest children remained with the husband’s parents. Thereafter, the marriage fractured.

A New York Family Lawyer said that, objections filed by Respondent, the non-custodial parent, to an order of the Support Magistrate in favor of Petitioner modifying a child support order of $25 per week for birth expenses by an additional $62 per week for current child support of the parties’ one-year-old son. Specifically, respondent contends that the Support Magistrate’s findings are inaccurate and fail to reflect his current financial situation, including his other confinement and support obligations in Essex and Saratoga counties, respectively.

A New York Custody Lawyer said that, the Child Support Standards Act (CSSA) requires all child support determinations to be based upon the income of each parent less certain statutory deductions, the net amounts of which are then added together to arrive at the parties’ “combined parental income”. A party’s income generally consists of his/her gross income “as should have been or should be reported in the most recent federal tax return”, and may be calculated based upon the party’s most recent pay stubs. A court is not bound by the income reported in an individual’s income tax return, and has considerable discretion to use other resources available to a parent in determining a child support award including “money, goods or services provided by friends and relatives”. The CSSA requires downward adjustments of each party’s income for certain items of expense and income, such as FICA (medicare and social security), unreimbursed employee business expenses, alimony and maintenance actually paid, income from public assistance and supplemental social security, and child support actually paid pursuant to a court order on behalf of any child for whom the parent has a legal duty of support and who is not subject to the instant action”.

A Suffolk County Family Lawyer said that, following these adjustments, the parties’ respective incomes are added together to arrive at the “combined parental income” upon which is calculated the “basic child support obligation”, consisting not only of child support but also child care expenses incurred by the custodial parent, apportionment of “future reasonable health care expenses of the child not covered by insurance”, and under appropriate circumstances educational expenses “in the best interests of the child as justice requires”. The amount of child support is determined by multiplying the combined parental income (up to $80,000) by the CSSA child support percentage applicable for the number of children of the parties, the result of which is then “prorated in the same proportion as each parent’s income is to the combined parental income” to arrive at the non-custodial parent’s child support obligation. Each parent’s pro rata share of the combined parental income is also used to apportion “each parent’s share of future reasonable health care expenses of the children not covered by insurance”, as well as child care expenses. “Where the custodial parent is working, or receiving elementary or secondary education, or higher education or vocational training which the court determines will lead to employment”, each parent’s pro rata share of those expenses must be “separately stated and added to the” child support amount. If the custodial parent “is seeking work and incurs child care expenses as a result thereof”, “the non-custodial parent’s share shall be separately stated and paid in a manner determined by the court”.

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