With summer quickly approaching, children are soon to be on summer break and the routine of the school year is at a standstill until the fall. Most children are enrolled in summer camps, summer school, or have family vacations lined up to account for these breaks. However, there…
Judicial Oversight of Requests Regarding Education Parties in family law cases involving custody may dispute school enrollment decisions related to their children, be it choosing between public and private school, or which district in which to enroll. When communication between and the parties and counsel reaches an impasse…
A parent actively restricting or attempting to restrict the other parent’s access to a child to protect the child from harm may be acting appropriately. A fairly obvious example of why one parent may want the other parent to have limited access to a child could be a history of child abuse or exposure to domestic violence. In the most extreme cases, appropriate gate-keeping may result in the non-custodial parent having no contact with a child because of the harm that such contact might cause.
In C.A. v. C.P. et al., the Third Appellate District recognized the parental rights of a child’s mother, husband parent and biological father (C.A.). The child was born into an intact marriage after mother had a short relationship with C.A. All parties were aware of the child’s paternity,…
People v. Sanchez represents a potentially significant evidentiary problem in the context of custody and visitation cases involving a custody evaluation and report. Under the holding in Sanchez, which is a criminal law case, case-specific, out-of-court statements that are relied upon by an expert to form his or…
In California, mediation is mandatory whenever custody and visitation are at issue, and for good reason – custody mediation can have a very positive, long-term impact on families. See summary of Dr. Robert Emery’s 12-year study on the effects of divorce mediation at http://emeryondivorce.com/divorce_mediation_study.php. On the other hand,…
The actress Halle Berry took her ex husband to court for straightening their daughter’s hair without her consent. The news article is located here. Leaving aside any racial component, a child’s appearance falls under “legal custody”. As noted previously, certain decisions require joint agreement, and if the parties cannot…
In a dissolution proceeding, the Court has jurisdiction (or power) to make custody and visitation orders. Joint legal custody means that both parents shall share the right and the responsibility to make the decisions relating to the health, education, and welfare of a child. Fam. Code § 3003….
A recent Doonesbury cartoon should remind all family law parties to watch what they post to their Facebook page. While the comic focuses on potential adultery (not a specific ground for dissolution in California), Facebook and other social media posts can potentially impact support and custody/visitation decisions. For…
Surrogacy is defined as “the practice by which a woman (called a surrogate mother) becomes pregnant and gives birth to a baby in order to give it to someone who cannot have children” (Merriam-Webster). Laws vary state to state as noted in this recent New York Times article….