UPDATES IN MICHIGAN FAMILY LAW

Should a child be called as a witness?

In a case for publication, Surman v Surman, __ Mich App ___, __ NW2d ___ (2007) decided December 4, 2007, the Michigan Court of Appeals held that a child may be called as a witness at a child custody trial to testify about the child’s allegations of abuse at the hands of a parent.

Here, after allegations of child abuse were made by a child, his father filed an ex parte motion to suspend the mother’s parenting time. The father claimed that the mother had told the child to lie to his counselor. An ex parte order was entered on August 1, 2005. Jane Surman filed a motion to rescind that order and to transfer custody to her from Joseph Surman. She attached a protective services report to her pleading. The court temporarily placed the child with his mother with an ex parte order issued on August 9, 2005.

Subsequently, a child custody trial was had in November and December 2006. Jane Surman’s attorney advised the court that he intended to call the child, now 12, as a witness. Joseph Surman’s attorney objected. The parties were told to submit briefs on the issue. Ultimately, the trial court held that the child could testify about the alleged abuse.

Child abuse? Mom fights system to be believed

Family lawyers who practice in the area of child abuse and neglect sometimes find that charges of Munchausen by Proxy have been made against their clients after doctors, nurses, and/or hospital staff have alleged that here are no observable symptoms of illness in a child, yet the child is frequently presented for treatment. The charges allege that the mother continues to bring the child into the office or into the emergency department seeking treatment and describing symptoms that are not seen by medical personnel.

Munchausen by Proxy is a rare mental disorder in which caretakers, usually mothers, either fabricate (make up) or cause illnesses in their children. The theory is that these mothers make their children sick in order to garner approval for their fastidious care and attention to the child. In other words, the mother is seeking positive attention from doctors and other medical personnel.

Recently, Diana Owen, a mother in Massachusetts was accused of having Munchausen by Proxy. The effects upon her, her child, and her family were devastating as she fought to regain custody of her only child Bryanna-Rose. Bryanna-Rose,  called by her mother Diana her "miracle baby," was conceived after Diana and her husband had been told they would never have a child. At the age of four months, the infant was taken from Diana by protective services and placed in foster care.

Home Alone: Part V

There has been a lot of interest in the issue of whether children should be left home alone and of how old children should be before they can be left alone. The interest is shown by the number of parents from all over the country who have come to this Blog seeking information.

We discussed this topic on the State Bar of Michigan Listserv not long ago. Several family lawyers cited examples of why children should not be waiting alone at a bus stop for even 5 minutes just so Mom (or Dad) could get to work on time.

Then came this chilling reminder of two lost boys. One of them, Ben Ownby, 13 years old, was forcibly kidnapped in January 2007 in Missouri as he was walking home alone from his school bus stop. An anonymous call led to the recovery of Ben 4 days later and also the recovery of Shawn Hornbeck, now 16, who was snatched in 2002 while riding his bike and held for more than four years. Both had been held in captivity and sexually abused by Devlin.

What more can be said? This isn’t an Ozzie and Harriet world. Parents all want to keep their children safe. Parents need to safeguard their children. Even though state laws might lead one to conclude that 11 or 12 is the appropriate age when children can be left alone, clearly that was not the case for Ben and Shawn.
You can read the New York Times story here: Man Sentenced to Life for Kidnapping Boy. A one-time registration may be required.

Here are some FAQs and some safety tips for parents and children:

Home Alone: Part IV

Our discussion continues on the Listserv of the State Bar of Michigan's Family Law Listserv. Section member Mark Crane posted the following on Tuesday October 9, 2007:

We had a funeral service at Lake Orion High School last week for two brothers, ages 14 and 16, who were killed the preceding weekend in a car accident.  Driving home from a cross-country  meet, they ran a stop sign and their Honda Civic was hit by a pickup truck.  As if that is not suffering enough for one family, their older brother is in critical condition at a VA hospital in Texas, having been injured in combat in Iraq as a result of an IED explosion.  Statistically speaking, car accidents and even injury sustained during combat are real risks to young people.  So are certain types of childhood cancers, drowning, suicide, abuse at the hands of parents and other family members, and injuries sustained in the home.  Statistically speaking, abduction by strangers is not even a blip on the screen.  I am not suggesting that this is a risk to be ignored.  However, most parents would do well to spend less time worrying about this particular risk and more time focused upon the things that cause the other 99.99 percent of childhood mortality.  I, for one, can't imagine making a living preparing reports like this one, titled "Deaths:  Final Data for 2003," but for those who are interested in statistics regarding causes of death, see the following from the CDC:

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr54/nvsr54_13.pdf

 

Mark E. Crane
Mark E. Crane, PLLC
950 West University Drive, Suite 102
Rochester, MI 48307

Technorati tags: child care, babysitter, babysitting ,
childcare

Home Alone: Part III

Recently, I blogged the issue of leaving children home alone. The interest in these Blog articles has been immense. Parents all over the country came -- mostly via Google -- to Updates in Michigan Law looking for an answer to the question "how old does a child have to be before the parent can leave him/her home alone?" Primarily, it appears that parents are concerned because the other parent fails to provide proper care and supervision. This could, of course, form a basis for modification of an existing custody or parenting time order.

This week, the issue arose again on the State Bar of Michigan's Family Law Listserv.

Summertime and the living is easy . . . or is it?

It's summertime. Many non-custodial parents are exercising large blocks of summer parenting time. It's easy to see, however, that there are some disgruntled and/or concerned parents out there who may be unhappy with the way the other parent is handling the children's summer care.

I wrote recently on this blog about the appropriate age when children can be left alone without a caregiver and about the appropriateness of assigning siblings to provide care for younger brothers or sisters.

In checking to see what brings people to my Blog, I note that in the past few days, parents from the following states have Googled to check on this issue, indicating a high level of concern about whether children are being neglected: I note visitors from TN, CA (many), IL, UT, NY, MI (many), NJ, TX, MS, KS, KY, PA, WA, ME, IA, GA, CO, MD, AND SC in the past several days.

It's time to check out the safety resources available to parents for babysitter training. You can read my earlier article here. Home Alone: Child care and babysitter issues

If your child lives in Michigan and you believe that a parent is leaving the child or children unsupervised, you'll want to review the Michigan Child Protection Act. Is the other parent's actions "neglect or abuse?" Does leaving a child alone, or leaving a sibling in charge of younger children, constitute "failure to protect?" For more information,  see my website.

Technorati tags: home alone, child care, babysitter, babysitting ,
childcare

Home Alone: Child care and babysitter issues

Questions frequently arise during the course of a divorce about about how old one must be in Michigan to be a babysitter, about how old a child must be in Michigan before she can be left alone without a babysitter or daycare, and about whether older siblings can babysit for younger ones.

An appallingly large number of children are left without care and supervision by their parents. See, Left Unsupervised: A Look at the Most Vulnerable Children, By Sharon Vandivere, M.P.P., Kathryn Tout, Ph.D., Jeffrey Capizzano, M.A., and Martha Zaslow, Ph.D., April 2003, published by Child Trends, a non-profit research organization based in Washington, D.C.

Most States do not have regulations or laws about when a child is considered old enough to care for him/herself or to care for other children. Currently Illinois and Maryland have laws addressing this topic. States may have guidelines or recommendations. These guidelines are most often distributed through child protective services and are administered at the county level.

If your child lives in Michigan and you believe that a parent is leaving the child or children unsupervised, you'll want to review the Michigan Child Protection Act. Is the other parent's action "neglect" or abuse?" Does leaving a child alone, or leaving a sibling in charge of younger children, constitute "failure to protect?" For more information, see my website.

Shaking a baby shatters lives

"Shaking a baby shatters lives." That’s the message that Cathy Sanders has been trying to get across over the past seven years. She’s raised money through donations to her non-profit organization, Shaken Baby  Prevention, to pay for billboards and more recently to pay for large images that cover the back of public buses in Northern Virginia and in the Washington DC area. The images are shocking, which is just what Cathy wants.

Cathy Sanders is the mother of Ryan Sanders—a beautiful, beautiful boy who, at the age of 8 weeks, was shaken by his daycare provider. Ryan was shaken so violently that he was left permanently disabled. Ryan is now 14. He cannot talk, dress himself or brush his teeth alone. He has the cognitive abilities of a toddler.

Cathy Sanders gave me permission to post some pictures of Ryan in an article on my website. There are links to a Washington Post article published yesterday and also to Cathy's website in my article. Cathy has some incredible resources and also a photo album of her beautiful, beautiful boy on her website. http://www.sbsprevention.com/ 

To visit Jeanne Hannah's website for more information, click here:

Technorati tags: Shaken Baby Syndrome, child abuse

New Laws on Under-age Sex in Ireland

The Associated Press reports from Dublin on June 3, 2006 that Ireland has passed an emergency bill on under-age sex, and the Supreme Court ordered a man at the center of the controversy to be reimprisoned for having sex with a 12-year-old girl.

According to the report, these developments were the result of public outrage over a decision last week by the Ireland Supreme Court that declared a 1935 law governing statutory rape of minors unconstitutional on the grounds that the law did not provide men with a defense permitting men accused of having sex with girls aged under 15 to claim they thought the girl was older.

Reporting Child Abuse & Neglect

Child Protection Act: “Child Abuse” and “Child Neglect” Defined

Section 2 of Michigan's Child Protection Act, MCL 722.622, defines "child abuse" and "child neglect" as follows:

(f) "Child abuse" means harm or threatened harm to a child's health or welfare that occurs through nonaccidental physical or mental injury, sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, or maltreatment, by a parent, a legal guardian, or any other person responsible for the child's health or welfare or by a teacher, a teacher's aide, or a member of the clergy. 

(j) "Child neglect" means harm or threatened harm to a child's health or welfare by a parent, legal guardian, or any other person responsible for the child's health or welfare that occurs through either of the following:(i) Negligent treatment, including the failure to provide adequate food, clothing, shelter, or medical care.(ii) Placing a child at an unreasonable risk to the child's health or welfare by failure of the parent, legal guardian, or other person responsible for the child's health or welfare to intervene to eliminate that risk when that person is able to do so and has, or should have, knowledge of the risk. 

Contact Information: Children’s Protective Services

Typepad, the Internet Blogging service used to produce this Blog, does not support extended posts of complicated html material. Therefore, I've published this contact  Information for all Michigan Counties on my website, arranged alphabetically. The contact numbers for Adult protective services are also included.

To access these numbers, click on this link, then scroll to "Links to Information about Michigan Family Law" where you will find both Word and PDF files that you can read online or download to your computer.

To contact Jeanne Hannah with your questions or to view her Family Law website, click here.