IN THE MATTER OF: J.M. (No. COA19-421) Under certain circumstances, a court will remove children from the custodial care and control of a biological parent and place them with a foster family. The court then develops primary and secondary case plans. The case plans consider the children’s best interests and…
When a marriage ends, many former couples carry hurt, anger, grief, resentment, and hostility towards each other. Some former spouses cannot let go of these feelings even after the divorce. What happens to the children of these marriages when those feelings carry over into their post-separation lives? During custody exchanges,…
Padilla v. Whitley De Padilla, COA19-478 (2020) (unpublished). Child custody orders are modifiable. In order to do so, the party seeking a modification must show a substantial change from the circumstances found in previous order that warrant the modification. It may seem obvious that a diminishment in the custodial parent’s…
Routten v. Routten, ______ N.C. _______ (2020). Child Custody can be a hotly contested issue in divorce cases with minor children involved. In certain instances, a court can award sole custody to one parent and even deny visitation to the noncustodial parent. That determination is severe and, by law, must…
Hamdan v. Freitekh, ______ N.C. App. _______ (2020) (COA19-929). Here in North Carolina, and across the nation, the Uniform Child-Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA) sets the jurisdictional rules for how and where custody orders are enforced. The cardinal rule in custody cases has always been, and continues to be,…
Shak v. Shak, ____ Mass. _____, SJC-12748 (2020). Nondisparagement clauses are ubiquitous in custody agreements and orders. Generally, they are a blanket prohibition on a parent from “talking bad” about the other parent in a form that the minor child(ren) will understand (whether in their presence or on social media,…
Demar v. Comm’r, T.C. Memo. 201991, 2019 WL 3244301 (2019) (a) Facts: Husband and wife were divorced. The divorce decree, which was a consent judgment, provided that the child would reside primarily with the wife. The husband was permitted to claim the child as a dependent for tax purposes in…
Skitzki v. Comm’r, T.C. Memo. 2019106, 2019 WL 3946102 (2019) (a) Facts: Husband and wife were divorced. The divorce decree gave the father custody two weekends each month, one weekday per week if the mother was in Ohio, and three (before age four) or four weeks in the summer. It…
There are lots of fun activities for families to enjoy in and around Greensboro and Western NC this summer, and it’s especially important for divorced moms to get out there and make some wonderful new memories with their children. Divorce is hard on everyone, but middle schoolers are particularly sensitive.…
Divorced moms in Greensboro, North Carolina, know that most teens seem to have no problem spending their days inside on their phone, chatting with their friends and watching videos or streaming shows. But it’s summertime, and the great outdoors is calling. How can you entice them to put the phone…