UPDATES IN MICHIGAN FAMILY LAW

Mail tampering | Opening or hiding the other spouse's mail

Here's a situation family lawyers deal with from time to time. A husband opens mail that is specifically addressed to his wife. He sees something she very much wishes he had not seen. Or a husband finds some mail addressed to him that his wife has opened and has hidden from him. Is a spouse lawfully allowed to open the other spouse's mail? Does the offended spouse have any legal recourse where the husband and wife live together?  If so, what recourse? Is it different if the parties have separated, divorce has been filed, and mail forwarding hasn't yet occurred? 

There's a legal answer and there  is a practical answer.

Section 1708 of the United States Code, Title 18 provides:

NPR on "Hooking Up"

NPR explores "Hooking Up," the trend that began with high school and college kids. According to the report, sex without intimacy is becoming popular in 20-somethings as well. All I have to say is: I wish that more of these young folks are using some form of birth control and I hope that they are getting vaccinated against the HPV virus. What is known is that non-marital birthrates are up for young-20s and down for teenagers.

Sex without intimacy - No dating, no relationships from NPR

Significant increase in unwed births reported by CDC

HPV articles on this Blog

David Goldman | Back to square one?

The Associated Press announced today that a federal judge in Brazil overturned Judge Rafael Pinto's June 8th decision that Sean Goldman's biological father, U.S. citizen David Goldman, should have custody of his son six days a week whenever Goldman is in Brazil. The new ruling is that Sean must remain with Joao Paulo Lins e Silva, his Brazilian stepfather, until a federal court reaches a final decision on Sean's permanent custody.

Judge Pinto had ruled on June 1st that Sean was to be returned to the United States immediately. Incredibly, that decision was suspended by a Brazilian Supreme Court justice after a petition was filed by a political party. The argument was that removing Sean from his current family environment would cause him harm. How in the world can a political party have any standing to raise an argument in a court case involving individuals?  Judge Pinto was angered by the stay in the proceedings and then issued his June 8th decision.

Update on David and Sean Goldman

The Today Show - June 25, 2009

David Goldman who has been trying to recover his son from Brazil for over five years, appeared with his lawyer Patricia Apy on the Today Show today with Meredith Viera. It was a powerful interview and a fitting exclusive rebuttal of the highly objectionable CBS Morning Show interview with Sean's stepfather and maternal grandmother earlier this week. You'll find this interview below.

Happily, Viera is willing to do her homework, unlike the coverage earlier this week on CBS' The Morning Show. It was obvious that no one at CBS has a clue about the real issues here. Must be that sensationalizing a story means more to CBS than getting a hard news story right.

June 1, 2009 decision: Brazilian Judge Rafael Pinto ruled that Sean should be returned to the U.S. immediately

A firm opinion was issued by Judge Rafael Pinto on June 1st in Rio de Janeiro stating that Sean has  been the victim of parental alienation and that he should be placed in the custody of his father immediately to avoid more harm to Sean. The transition was to take place in the United States. Unfortunately, Joao Paulo Lins e Silva appealed almost immediately, and a stay was granted.

On June 8th, Judge Pinto decided that since Sean wasn't cleared to leave Brazil, it was appropriate to have the reunification of father and son take place in Brazil. Given the fact that Joao Paulo Lins e Silva, Sean's stepfather has gone to great lengths to interfere with and/or simply prevent (in violation of a court order) positive parenting time between David and Sean, reunification in Brazil is less than ideal, as David and Patricia Apy told Viera.

Tough economic times | Harder for women to breastfeed?

Nursing moms need workplace policies that support breastfeeding. Ask your Members of Congress to co-sponsor the Breastfeeding Promotion Act today! Take Action

Another blog devoted to children's health issues:

Tough economic times may be making it harder for women to breastfeed?  Yes!  According to a recent ABC news story, one of the fall-outs from the recession is that some new mothers are feeling forced to take shorter maternity leaves due to concerns about finances and job stability.¹ Unfortunately, women who have to cut their maternity leave short often can't continue to breastfeed their infants because many workplaces don't adequately support breastfeeding.² That's a big problem when you consider that 56% of women with infants are now the in the labor force--we need common-sense workplace policies to make sure that moms who want to breastfeed can.³

Act now for nursing moms by urging your Member of Congress to support the Breastfeeding Promotion Act: http://momsrising.democracyinaction.org/o/1768/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=27279

Several new reports about David & Sean Goldman

June 16th ruling on reunification:  This Order by Judge Pinto placed Sean in the custody of his father from 9 AM Monday until 8 PM Saturday - in Brazil for a "transitional period." Judge Pinto, finding signs of parental alienation syndrome that "there is no doubt that the minor needs to have contact with his father as soon as possible." Sean is to spend 9: PM Saturday on Saturday until 9 AM on Monday with the stepfather. This arrangement will continue until all pending appeals are decided. You may read the Order here.

According to the Latin American Herald Tribune, the  Brazil federal court in Rio de Janeiro has authorized Sean's father, David Goldman, to live in Brazil with Sean while it reaches a definitive  verdict in the custody battle with the boy’s Brazilian stepfather. This decision in favor of David Goldman holds that pending a final verdict in the case, nine-year-old Sean, will stay 6 days a week with his father and 1 day per week with his stepfather. Sean was abducted to Brazil by his mother in 2004. She died in child-birth last fall and Sean has lived with his step-father since then. 

Meanwhile, read more details in The Moderate Voice about this startling development in the tragic battle by an American father to regain custody of his son who was kidnapped to Brazil five years ago.  That report says that while the order for reunification of Sean with his father pending final resolution is commendable, it seems ridiculous that David Goldman can only “have custody” of his son for six days a week, from Monday 9 AM until Saturday 8 PM, and…in Brazil.

Warning for parents about potentially fatal animal bites

Many of my readers know that from time to time I write about children's health issues. This is in an effort to keep parents abreast of the latest information in child health care. When appropriate, I send clients this information because their children are at risk or have already been diagnosed with a disease or condition (autism spectrum disorder, for example).

We all know that from time to time, children get bitten by animals . . . family pets or neighbors'  roaming animals. We worry more about this in the summertime when children are outside playing. I'll bet that we all know someone who was bitten by a dog as a child and has a disfiguring scar on his or her face because the dogs and kids are often the same height. But what most people don't know is that, if not properly treated, an animal bite can be fatal. I'm going to share this information with my clients who have minor children, and I hope that you will share it with yours. If you are a lay reader, please share this information with your family, friends and neighbors. You could save a life.

We all know that from time to time, children get bitten by animals . . . family pets or neighbors'  roaming animals. We worry more about this in the summertime when children are outside playing. I'll bet that we all know someone who was bitten by a dog as a child and has a disfiguring scar on his or her face because the dogs and kids are often the same height. But what most people don't know is that, if not properly treated, an animal bite can be fatal. I'm going to share this information with my clients who have minor children, and I hope that you will share it with yours. If you are a lay reader, please share this information with your family, friends and neighbors. You could save a life.

Sham divorce & fraudulent transfers

Professor Barbara Glesner Fines writes today on the Family Law Prof Blog about Sham Divorces:

Basically, these are divorces in which the parties collude in order to transfer property from the marital estate to the spouse who doesn’t have a legal problem—in other words, the one who isn’t in danger of having the assets recovered by someone he or she has defrauded.

Now who could that possibly be? Could it be Walter Forbes, former chairman of Cendant Corporation, who is serving prison time for one of the biggest accounting scandals in U.S. history? The feds are trying to intervene in the divorce to prevent a property distribution that would frustrate Mr. Forbes’ $3.275 billion restitution order. 

Then there’s the case of nine Continental Airlines pilots. The airlines is suing them, claiming that they allegedly obtained a sham divorce in order to trigger a cash pension payout to their ex-spouse, who they subsequently remarried. The problem? The Domestic Relations Order (DRO) resulted in a huge payout of the pilots’ pensions to their wives. After they received the money, they remarried.

You can read Prof. Fines’ blog article here, and find links to more information about these cases.

Hague Convention Article 13(2) | Objections of child to return

ABC News reports today on the Sean Goldman case. Sean is 9 1/2 years old. A transcript was released by the Brazilian family's lawyers on Wednesday. In the transcript, Sean Goldman tells a psychologist that if he is sent back to New Jersey to be with his father David Goldman he will "break down totally." At several points in the interview he says, "I want to stay here in Brazil." You may read a translated version of the interview here.

How might Sean's objections impact the case?

Initially, I thought that these objections were a last-minute effort to fit this case into Article 13(2) of the Hague Convention. Article 13(2) allows a court to take into consideration the objections of the child to a return to the left-behind parent. Typically, it is the maturity of the child, the reasonableness of the child's objections, and whether the child's objections appear to be coerced or influenced that sway the deciding court.

However, after reading the lengthy translation of the ruling from Judge Pinto in Brazil, I see that a psychological evaluation was ordered by the court and that Sean's step-father has raised every possible defense against return. I urge you to read the lengthy ruling, which shows how hard David Goldman's attorneys have worked to bring Sean home. [Patricia Apy in New Jersey is Goldman's American lawyer and he has another lawyer in Brazil as well.] The ruling also makes clear the perfidy of the Brazilian stepfather and the lengths to which he has gone to prevent the return of this child. Every possible defense has been raised under the Convention. Each exception is stretched to absurd lengths. You can read the June 1st ruling on http://bringseanhome.org.

The Sean Goldman case takes a turn for the worse

A June 17, 2009 Op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal accuses Brazil of helping to kidnap American children. Former assistant secretary of state for Inter-American Affairs (1989-93) Bernard Aronson wrote in “Brazil helps kidnap American children”: “In the coming weeks, Brazil will define itself to the United States and to the wider international community by how it treats a 9-year-old boy.”

On September 24, 2008, I blogged about Sean Goldman, who was born and raised in Red Bank, N.J. Sean’s father, David Goldman, is an American father. His former wife was born in Brazil. Almost five years ago to the date, Sean’s mother flew to Brazil with him. She said it was a two-week vacation. Once there, however, she divorced David Goldman and re-married. Her new husband belongs to a powerful family of prominent Brazilian lawyers. Sean’s mother died tragically in childbirth one year ago, and her Brazilian family has used its powerful connections to prevent Sean's return to his biological father.