Tag: sole parental responsibility

Child Custody and Religious Camp

Posted by Ron Kauffman on

Can a parent with child custody stop the other parent from enrolling a child in a religious camp during that parent’s summer timesharing? The Nebraska Supreme Court recently answered that question, and the answer is important for every child custody dispute involving religion.

Religious camp custody

Reason to Believe

The parents were married in 2010 and had two children. They stipulated to a property division and agreed to joint physical custody on a rotating schedule giving each parent equal time.

However, the parties could not agree on one aspect of child custody, the children’s involvement in the Father’s church, and whether the children could attend a church-affiliated overnight camp during the Father’s parenting time.

The Father wanted joint legal custody and testified that the parties agreed on most things. The Mother wanted sole legal custody, saying she had handled most major child-related decisions and did not trust Jacob with big decisions because of his dishonesty about an affair and communication problems.

While both parents had been raised in the religion associated with Jacob’s church, the Mother left the church about five months before filing for divorce, objected to some of its teachings and disagreed about continued church attendance.

The church camp included Bible classes, crafts, activities, nature, and religious themes, but the camp director testified that children did not have to be affiliated with any religious organization to attend and that the primary focus was fun, friendship, and independence.

The Father’s parents lived on the camp property as caretakers; he had attended the camp, served as a counselor, sat on the camp board, and described the camp as a major part of his life and faith development. The Mother had also enjoyed the camp as a child but later opposed the children attending that church camp, even during Father’s timesharing, but did not object to a nonchurch camp.

At trial the court awarded the Mother sole legal custody, allowed the Father to discuss religion and involve the children in church activities, but ruled church camp was to be decided by the Mother as sole legal custodian.

The Father appealed.

Florida Child Custody and Religion

I’ve written about the intersection of religion and divorce. Religion, religious beliefs, and religious practices are not statutory factors Florida courts consider when determining parental responsibility.

Nor is religion an area in which a parent may be granted ultimate responsibility over a child. Instead, the weight religion plays in custody disputes has grown over time in various cases. Why?

Because placing restrictions on a parent’s right to expose his or her child to religious beliefs has consistently been overturned by courts in the absence of a clear, affirmative showing that the religious activities at issue will be harmful to the child.

Generally, Florida courts will not stop a parent from practicing their religion or from influencing the religious training of their child inconsistent with that of the other parent. Religious practices can be restricted, however, when there is a clear, affirmative showing that they “will be harmful to the child.”

Nebraska

The Nebraska Supreme Court recognized the family judge heard the conflicting evidence, observed the witnesses, and ultimately concluded that sole legal custody should be placed with the Mother because joint legal custody would not be in the children’s best interests and affirmed the grant of sole legal custody.

However, the high court also recognized that fit parents have constitutional rights when it comes to their children’s religious upbringing.

Accordingly, a court can only restrict a parent’s religious practices with a child only when those practices pose an immediate and substantial threat of harm to the child’s temporal well-being. Any restriction must also be narrowly tailored.

At trial, the family judge found little or no evidence that the father’s religious practices harmed the children and also found no basis to restrict him from discussing his beliefs or involving the children in church activities during his parenting time.

Given those findings, the Supreme Court concluded there was no basis to let the mother veto the children’s attendance at church camp during the father’s parenting time. The Nebraska Supreme Court case shows a constitutional limit to a parent’s designation of sole legal custody.

The Nebraska Supreme Court opinion is here.

Losing Custody for Lack of Medical Care

Posted by Ron Kauffman on

At a time when there is a COVID vaccine, losing custody for your child’s lack of medical care is a real possibility. This is especially true for two Nebraska parents who refused to provide cancer treatment for their 4-year-old son. Their custody case reached the Nebraska Supreme Court.

Custody Medical Care

Breaking Away

The 4-year old, named Prince, was diagnosed with alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma of the right forearm with local metastases to the axillary lymph nodes. His parents were assured that his condition was curable with regular chemotherapy and radiation, but without treatment, the condition would be fatal.

His parents, Mohamed and Abak, informed of Prince’s diagnosis and prognosis, intentionally kept him from receiving treatment. The state became concerned that their actions placed Prince at a risk of harm.

Dr. Melissa Acquazzino, a cancer specialist, told the parents that Prince would likely die within six months if he didn’t get the treatments.

Prince’s initial treatment went well. His tumor visibly shrank and his side effects were minimal. The hospital’s social worker also arranged for money to help the parents repair their car so they could make the weekly chemo appointments.

But two months after treatments began, Prince began experiencing side effects such as nausea, vomiting and fatigue, court records indicated, and his parents began skipping some of his appointments.

The father felt the doctors were giving Prince too much medicine, too quickly, and that the cancer would not kill his son, but the treatments would.

Prince did attend his radiation appointment on October 2, 2019 but after that, however, neither parent brought Prince to any further radiation or chemotherapy appointments.

Hospital officials contacted the state Child Protective Services agency, which investigates cases of child abuse and neglect. A state investigator experienced difficulty in locating Prince, who had been living with his mother at a Lincoln homeless shelter.

The father, according to the investigator, said the mother was in Arizona seeking a second opinion. The father also disagreed with the investigator’s opinion that Prince was in danger of dying if his treatments were not resumed.

During a four-day trial in Lancaster County Juvenile Court, there was no evidence presented that the parents had sought a second medical opinion, nor that Prince had received any treatments. Neither parent raised a religious or cultural objection to the treatments.

The trial court ruled that the child lacked proper parental care by reason of the “fault or habits” of both parents. The parents appealed.

Florida Child Custody

I’ve written about child custody issues as they impact divorce and paternity issues. The Nebraska case, by contrast, involved a dependency matter. In Florida, “custody” is a concept call parental responsibility, which can be either shared parental responsibility or sole parental responsibility.

In divorce and paternity cases generally, shared parental responsibility is a relationship ordered by a court in which both parents retain their full parental rights and responsibilities. Under shared parental responsibility, parents are required to confer with each other and jointly make major decisions affecting the welfare of their child.

In Florida, shared parental responsibility is the preferred relationship between parents when a marriage or a relationship ends. In fact, courts are instructed to order parents to share parental responsibility of a child unless it would be detrimental to the child.

At the trial, the test applied is the best interests of the child. Determining the best interests of a child is no longer entirely subjective. Instead, the decision is based on an evaluation of certain factors affecting the welfare and interests of the child and the circumstances of the child’s family.

Some of those factors concern the demonstrated capacity and disposition of each parent to determine, consider, and act upon the needs of the child as opposed to the needs or desires of the parent and of course, evidence of, child abuse, child abandonment, or child neglect.

As seen in Nebraska, when child neglect, abuse or abandonment come into play, a state’s child protective services get involved.

Cutters and Custody

The Nebraska Supreme Court upheld the decision citing previous rulings that “proper parental care” included providing for the “health, morals, and well-being” of a child, and not placing them “in situations dangerous to life or limb.”

The child’s mother, Abak, argued that that Prince did not lack proper parental care by reason of her fault or habits and that Prince did not face a definite risk of future harm.

But the Supreme Court found that she didn’t address the crux of the State’s case: that she took Prince out of Nebraska and, for more than 3 weeks until the State was able to locate them, kept Prince from receiving the treatment essential to his survival.

The Father tried to blame the Mother, arguing the failure to treat Prince’s cancer was exclusively on Abak. The Supreme Court did not buy it.

The high court found it more likely than not that Mohamed supported and bears responsibility for the decision to remove Prince from treatment.

As an aside, a Nebraska jury found Abak guilty of negligent child abuse and the Father reportedly was quoted as saying:

“We are a family in pain and our human rights have been violated this is beyond Nebraska this should be international because for you to take a child from a parent that has never wronged the child this is wrong,”

The Omaha World Herald article is here.

 

Child Custody Fight Club

Posted by Ron Kauffman on

The child custody battle between Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie is set to go to a trial next month because the parents can’t agree about the future of their six children after two years of litigating.

Child Custody Fight Club

According to USA Today, the couple could still reach an agreement out of court and put the messy breakup of their family behind them, but lately their ability to see eye-to-eye seems to have deserted them.

The two stars’ legal teams have been in negotiations since September 2016, when Jolie filed for divorce citing irreconcilable differences and “the health of the family” after 12-years together, two of those years in what we later learned wasn’t wedded bliss.

Fury

Their custody dispute comes down to this: She wants sole physical custody of their six kids, ranging in age from 10 to 17; he wants to share physical custody.

According to a document filed Monday in Los Angeles County’s Family Court, Pitt and Jolie have asked for an extension to June 30, 2019, on the appointment of retired Judge as a temporary “private” judge in their case.

He has handled all pre-trial issues and motions and will preside over the custody trial, scheduled for Dec. 4, likely behind closed doors and not at a public courthouse.

Sole Child Custody

The question about an award of sole custody of children frequently comes up and is a matter I’ve written about before. Many people are surprised to learn that the term “custody” is no longer recognized in Florida.

Florida replaced the “custody” term for the “parenting plan” concept in order to avoid labeling parents as “visiting parent” or “primary parent” in the hopes of making child custody issues less controversial.

Under Florida’s parenting plan concept, both parents enjoy shared parental responsibility and a time-sharing schedule. “Shared parental responsibility” means both parents retain full parental rights and responsibilities and have to confer with each other so that major decisions affecting their child are made jointly.

A time-sharing schedule, as the name suggests, is simply a timetable that is included in the parenting plan that specifies the times, including overnights and holidays, that your child spends with each parent.

Florida’s parenting plan concept has changed sole custody into “sole parental responsibility.” The term means that only one parent makes decisions regarding the minor child, as opposed to the shared parental responsibility terms, where both parents make decisions jointly.

How do you get sole custody in Florida?

Sole parental responsibility, or sole custody as people generally call it, has been made more difficult to obtain. Florida’s public policy is for each child to have frequent and continuing contact with both parents after a divorce.

Because of Florida’s public policy, courts order shared parental responsibility unless the court finds that shared parental responsibility would be detrimental to the child.

In those cases where detriment is proved, the court orders sole parental responsibility to one parent, with or without time-sharing with the other parent, if it is in the best interests of the minor child.

World War Z?

The couple have had a bitter divorce that has been frequently in the news. In November 2017, Jolie claimed she and Pitt had reached an interim custody agreement in which she would continue to have sole physical custody of the kids. But Pitt immediately disputed that.

In June 2018, a judge warned Jolie that if she didn’t start encouraging the children to forge relationships with Pitt, she could be in danger of losing custody.

Then in August 2018, a Jolie bombshell: she accused Pitt of not paying “meaningful” child support. Pitt hit back, arguing he’s paid over $1.3m in bills for her and the children.

All of this makes matrimonial lawyers despair:

Do they want their children to say “My mom and dad kept it between themselves and just let us know how much they loved us and always supported our relationship with the other parent, or My mother hated my father and let us all know it?”

The USA Today article is here.

 

Anatomy of Sole Custody

Posted by Ron Kauffman on

Grey’s Anatomy star, Jesse Williams’ estranged wife, Aryn Drake-Lee, is requesting sole custody of the couple’s two children, citing the actor’s unpredictable work schedule, a dangerous driving incident and his alleged “revolving door” of women. When is sole custody awarded in court?

According to news reports, in court documents filed on August 11, the real estate broker claims that she is responsible for the day-to-day care of the kids because of the Grey’s Anatomy star’s busy schedule.

“Jesse would ‘join in’ when he was available and home, but he rarely took care of the children without my or the nanny’s help and presence,” the documents say.

“Jesse became distant, secretive and was home less and less, traveling for unexplained reasons while telling the kids, ‘Daddy is at work.’ We tried marriage counseling in the fall of 2016, but were unsuccessful. Jesse eventually moved out at the end of March 2017.”

Florida Sole Custody

The question about an award of sole custody of children frequently comes up in consultations, and is a matter I’ve written about before. Many people are surprised to learn that the term “custody” is no longer recognized in Florida.

Florida replaced the “custody” term for the “parenting plan” concept in order to avoid labeling parents as “visiting parent” or “primary parent” in the hopes of making child custody issues less controversial.

Under Florida’s parenting plan concept, both parents enjoy shared parental responsibility and a time-sharing schedule. “Shared parental responsibility” means both parents retain full parental rights and responsibilities, and have to confer with each other so that major decisions affecting their child are made jointly.

A time-sharing schedule, as the name suggests, is simply a timetable that is included in the parenting plan that specifies the times, including overnights and holidays, that your child spends with each parent.

Florida’s parenting plan concept has changed sole custody into “sole parental responsibility.” The term means that only one parent makes decisions regarding the minor child, as opposed to the shared parental responsibility terms, where both parents make decisions jointly.

How do you get sole custody in Florida?

Sole parental responsibility, or sole custody as people generally call it, has been made more difficult to obtain. Florida’s public policy is for each child to have frequent and continuing contact with both parents after a divorce.

Because of Florida’s public policy, courts order shared parental responsibility unless the court finds that shared parental responsibility would be detrimental to the child.

In those cases where detriment is proved, the court orders sole parental responsibility to one parent, with or without time-sharing with the other parent, if it is in the best interests of the minor child.

The Anatomy of Sole Custody

Drake-Lee allegedly claims in court documents that her husband has “not recognized and prioritized the children’s schedule over his own and their need to maintain it daily, even on weekends, whether or not a parent is working.”

She also claims that her ex does not make the children’s school pick-up and drop-off a priority, and tries to make the nanny drive the kids, although that’s not what she was hired to do.

However, in previous court documents Williams has claimed that Drake-Lee has declined his requests to spend more time with the children. “Aryn restricts my time with the children and decides when, and for how long I may have them,”

The US Weekly article is here.