Charlotte Divorce Lawyer BlogIn the case of Keaton v. Keaton, the North Carolina Court of Appeals reviewed the trial court’s determination that neither party met their burden of proving that there had been a substantial change in circumstances affecting the welbeing of the minor child. The parties separation agreement, which was incorporated into their Judgment of Absolute Divorce, provided primary child custody of the parties’ minor child to Mom with visitation to Dad.
Articles Posted in Child Custody
Domestic Violence in Child Custody Dispute
A man involved in a child custody dispute recently committted an act of domestic violence when he hit the mother and the grandmother with his car in Monteray, California. According to the article, the man and a family member were in a motor vehicle and trying to leave with the minor children. The mother and grandmother of the children came outside of the house, stood in front of the car, and tried to convince the men to leave the children with their mother.
Virtual Visitation in Family Law
Courts are beginning to utilize new technology to experiment with the implementation of “virtual visitation” on divorced parents who do not live in the same state. A New York judge recently ruled that a mother who was moving out of state to Florida must make her two children available to talk to their father via Skype, an online video chatting service. Many other states have also begun to experiment with virtual visitation laws, with judges ordering non-custodial parents to keep in contact with their children through email, instant messaging, and web cameras.
Establishment of Child Custody or Modification of Child Custody?
The North Carolina Court of Appeals overturned a ruling which established child custody using the “best interests of the child” analysis when it should have applied the “substantial change in circumstances” analysis for a motion to modify child custody. In December 2006 the trial court entered a custody order which set the matter for review in February 2007. Said review never happened and an order was entered in February 2007 closing the file. In March 2009 the trial court entered another custody order pursuant to a motion in the cause for establishment of child custody applying the “best interests” analysis. The Court of Appeals ruled that the December 2006 custody order constituted a permanent custody order and the trial court was required to find that a substantial change in circumstance affecting the welfare of the child had occurred prior to entering a new custody order.
Lawyer’s Motion for Modification of Child Custody Denied
The North Carolina Court of Appeals recently decided a case relating to a motion to modify child custody custody in Cherry v. Thomas. The Mother’s child custody lawyer filed a motion to modify child custody. The trial court denied Mother’s motion to modify custody. The trial court held that there had been a substantial change in circumstances. However, it further held that Mother did not meet her burden of showing that the substantial change in circumstances actually affected the welfare of the minor child. The primary alleged substantial change related to the parents work schedules, they were North Carolina law enforcement officers. First they worked opposite shifts and days – the nonworking parent kept the minor child. Eventually, the work schedules changed to where both parents Monday through Friday during regular business hours. The Court of Appeals upheld the trial court’s ruling.
Grandparent Visitation and Custody in Charlotte, North Carolina
According to a Pew Research Center analysis of the most recent Census Bureau data, the number of children in the United States being raised by their grandparents rose sharply as the recession began. In all, approximately 7 million children live in households that include at least one grandparent. Of that number, 2.9 million are being raised primarily by their grandparents, a number up 16 percent from 2000, with a 6 percent surge from 2007 to 2008.
There are many reasons why grandparents are taking over child raising duties. Grandparents frequently report taking over when a single parent becomes overwhelmed with financial problems, is incarcerated, becomes ill, succumbs to substance abuse, or dies. High rates of divorce and teenage pregnancy as well as long overseas military deployments also factor into the increased dependence on grandparents.
According to the Pew Center, 34 percent of grandparent caregivers are unmarried, and 62 percent are women. Child-rearing by grandparents also varies by race, but the sharp rise in grandparent caregiving from 2007 to 2008 was among whites. However, overall, 53 percent of grandparent caregivers are white, 24 percent are black, and 18 percent are Hispanic.
Divorce Attorney Fees Paid by Divorce Insurance
Now you can buy divorce insurance to cover your divorce attorney fees. The average cost of an American divorce this year ranged from about $15,000 to $30,000. As a result, the North Carolina-based insurance company SafeGuard Guaranty Corporation is now selling a divorce insurance product called WedLock. A unit of WedLock runs insureds $16 per month and provides $1,250 to cover expenses such as legal proceedings. Insureds can buy multiple units, and for every year they keep their policy, SafeGuard will reward them with another $250 of coverage for each unit they own.
How does WedLock work? When a married couple files for divorce, the policyholders simply send in their divorce papers to receive cash from SafeGuard. To prevent spouses who are already planning a divorce from working the system, SafeGuard require at least 36 months from the effective date until spouses can claim their coverage.
On its website, SafeGuard provides a Divorce Cost Calculator and a Divorce Probability Calculator for those who are unable to decide whether they need to procure divorce insurance.
View and Print our Charlotte Divorce Attorney Blog Family Law Newsletter – Fall 2010
In this issue of our Charlotte Divorce Attorney Blog Family Law Newsletter, we take a look at the increasing popularity of Post-nuptial Agreements and the many topics which can be addressed by Post-nuptial Agreements. We also consider a couple issues relating to Father’s parental rights in child custody disputes. Finally, we discuss how a divorce can affect your Last Will and Testament and other similar legal documents.
Click here to view and print our Charlotte Divorce Attorney Blog Family Law Newsletter – Fall 2010:
CHARLOTTE DIVORCE LAWYER BLOG FAMILY LAW NEWSLETTER FALL 2010
International Child Custody Disputes
Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban child who became the star of an international custody battle a decade ago, released his first comments on the incident on the recent 10th anniversary of his return to his father in Cuba. He reported that he is happy to be in Cuba, and extended his gratitude to “a large part of the American public” for reuniting him with his father.
Gonzalez was only five years old when a fisherman found him floating off the coast of Florida in an inner tube on Thanksgiving Day of 1999. His mother and others fleeing Cuba drowned trying to reach American soil, while his father remained on the island. Gonzalez’s relatives in Miami refused to give him up after he was found, and Fidel Castro led marches in Cuba calling for his return home. U.S. immigration officials ruled that Gonzalez should be returned to Cuba, which created an outrage among Cuban-Americans. Armed federal agents raided the home of Gonzalez’s uncle in April of 2000 and seized Gonzalez from a closet to return him to Cuba.
Several American parents have waged notorious international custody battles in the years following Gonzalez’s ordeal. David Goldman of New Jersey very recently ended a highly publicized five-year child custody battle for his son, who was taken to his mother’s native Brazil for vacation and was never returned. Instead, Goldman’s wife divorced him and remarried a Brazilian man. When she died in 2009, her Brazilian husb\and moved to adopt the child. After five years of fighting, Goldman was permitted to return his son to American soil on Christmas Eve of 2009.
Divorce is Not Always Bad for the Children
Researchers from Montclair State University in New Jersey recently reported that, in marriages with a great deal of conflict, the notion of “staying together for the kids” might do more harm than good. The study, which was presented last year at the annual meetings of the Population Association of America, is being prepared for publication in a scientific journal.
To form their conclusions, the researchers analyzed the results of a national survey of nearly 7,000 married couples and their children living in the United States. The parents were initially surveyed in 1987 and asked questions to gauge their level of marital conflict at home, including how often they disagreed over money, household tasks, the in-laws, and multiple other hot-button issues. Then, between 1992 and 1993, both parents and children were surveyed, with researchers assessing how the parental conflict changed over the years, including whether the couple divorced. The children were surveyed a final time, as adults in 2001 and 2002, and were asked about their level of happiness and conflict in their own current relationships.
The results of the study indicate that children of parents who fight a lot yet stay married experience more conflict in their own marital relationships than children of parents who fight and get divorced. Researchers indicate that the results show that children do suffer short-term issues during crisis periods when their parents divorce, but they usually recover in the long run. Constant exposure to parental strife is most likely what causes children’s future relationships to suffer and sometimes end. In contract, parental happiness did not appear to affect the children’s adult relationships; children of happily married parents did not necessarily grow up to have happy marriages themselves.