UPDATES IN MICHIGAN FAMILY LAW

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

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.

Children | Protecting them online

NPR's techie Omar L. Gallaga, blogging on All Things Tech, writes on June 15, 2009 about how parents can protecting their kids online. The featured tech gadget is one that carefully allocates how much  time kids can spend on the Internet, playing computer games, watching TV. Hmmm What a way to tick off your kids! And how are they going to get their homework done if they cannot go online? See the Time-Scout Monitor (left), a way to limit and keep track of the amount of time kids spend on the computer. Card Access, Inc.

Here are some other ways you can protect your kids if they are online.

Home Alone | When is it appropriate?

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. When children may be with the non-custodial parent for a large portion of the summer, specific concerns often arise about whether the child can or should be left home alone.

This isn't an Ozzie and Harriet world anymore. I can remember when, in 1975, I felt perfectly comfortable to browse in the adult section while my three-year-old ran to the children's book area of Horizon Books in Traverse City to look for the book he'd come back clutching saying "This is the Richard Scarry book I need today!" Would I allow a young child to be unsupervised in a downtown store today? Absolutely not. Similar concerns are raised these days about leaving children unsupervised in their home.

Medicaid's role in health care reform | A client's concerns in today's economy

Children in families served by family lawyers often have only Medicaid coverage for health care. The Center for Children and Families released a report on March 21, 2009 about Medicaid's role in health care reform. 

According to the agency, Medicaid is a cornerstone of the U.S. healthcare infrastructure and should be maintained, strengthened and integrated with other components of the health care system as part of health reform. The agency's recommendation was based on a research report issued by the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families ("CCF").

Shaken baby cases on the increase

Massachusetts child abuse specialists say that cases of “shaken baby syndrome” which can cause devastating brain injury to infants have at least doubled in the last few months. They attribute the increase in frequency to economic stress on families in this challenging economy. Shaken baby syndrome is preventable. Near the end of this article, you will find a link to information about prevention. I bring this to your attention because shaken baby syndrome occurs right here in Traverse City and its environs as well.

Abstinence isn't working to reduce teen pregnancy & STDs

Rob Stein, a Washington Post Staff Writer states on December 29, 2008 that “[t]eenagers who pledge to remain virgins until marriage are just as likely to have premarital sex as those who do not promise abstinence and are significantly less likely to use condoms and other forms of birth control when they do, according to a study released today.”

Stein describes the new analysis of data from a large federal survey. This study found that more than half of youths became sexually active before marriage regardless of whether they had taken a "virginity pledge." Of serious concern is that the study revealed that the percentage of teens who took precautions against pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases was 10 points lower for those who had pledged abstinence than for who had no pledged.

HPV | Changing teenagers' futures in a heartbeat

I was recently struck by how easy it is for teen sex to change in a heartbeat the future of young women without a teenager even knowing what has happened until it is too late.

I've written extensively about the dangers of teen sex and the rampant increase in incidence of HPV infection. HPV is the STD that keeps on giving, spreading exponentially when an infected boy or girl has sex with others. There are three strains of HPV that cause virtually all cervical cancers.

Here's a story about how cervical cancer changed one woman's life forever. She is a survivor of cervical cancer caused by HPV. She had it twice. Now she is unable to conceive or carry a child. She and her husband will be fortunate indeed if just one of the remaining cryo-preserved embryos that they saved before her treatment allows them to have children.

Sperm donation | Should donors' anonymity be protected?

  The Boston Globe reports on November 23, 2008 of rising demands for release of donor information from sperm banks so that children may identify their fathers. Sperm donation has traditionally been cloaked with anonymity, but many young people now challenge that. The Globe reports a growing debate about whether donors should be allowed to remain anonymous. At the center of the debate are organization such as the Donor Sibling Registry, an online entity that has helped over 5,900 people conceived by sperm donation with their half siblings or with the donors themselves. Thus, the debate revolves around who has greater rights--the donors who want to be anonymous or the children who want to know more about their fathers.

Childhood schizophrenia treatments questioned

I do not usually write so frequently about social issues, but the troubling news about off-label prescribing of powerful medications for children diagnosed with schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder just keeps coming. Because many friends, relatives, and clients have children with those diagnoses, I feel compelled to alert parents to news that encourages them to seek a second opinion before agreeing to medicate their children with anti-psychotics prescribed by their children’s primary care physician or psychiatrist.

FDA approves Gardasil to prevent vulvar and vaginal cancers

Many of my regular readers know that I post often about social issues, in particular teen pregnancy and the prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV). HPV is a sexually transmitted disease. Two strains of it (16 & 18) cause virtually 100% of all cervical cancers. See National Cancer Institute Q & A.

The FDA announced on Friday that the HPV vaccine Gardasil has been approved for two additional uses — prevention of vaginal and vulvar cancers caused by HPV types 16 and 18.

Teen pregnancy | Abstinence education not an option

Teen pregnancy is becoming a huge issue as birth rates once again rise and as the percentages of first births to unmarried mothers increases after a hiatus between 1991 and 2006. An op-ed piece by June Carbone of University of Missouri-Kansas City and Naomi Cahn of George Washington University, both family law professors, was published in STLtoday.com on September 5,  2008. It's well worth reading by family lawyers counseling their clients and also by parents.

HPV Vaccine | Marketing hype or effective protection?

Regular readers know that I have frequently blogged on the topic of Gardasil, Merck's HPV vaccine.

The New York Times today (August 20, 2008) published an in-depth article examining the manner in which Merck has marketed the drug and the controversies surrounding Merck's efforts. Merck calls the efforts "education," but critics call it marketing. This article is certainly worth reading by all parents of teenage girls. The New York Times article can be accessed here. Drug Makers’ Push Leads to Cancer Vaccines’ Fast Rise

My Blog article "Human papillomavirus (HPV) is more prevalent than we thought" provides statistics and links to my other collected writings on the topic of Gardasil.

For further reading, The Evidence Gap is a the New York Times' series that explores medical treatments in use despite scant proof they work and discusses steps toward more consistent use of evidence-based medicine.

Posthumous reproduction and today’s military

On the heels of yesterday's serendipitous discovery of Professor Charles Kindrefan, Jr.'s article about assisted reproduction comes this article written by a JAG lawyer, titled "To Be Continued: A Look at Posthumous Reproduction As It Relates to Today’s Military," by Major Maria Doucettperry of the JAG Corps. [Judge Advocate, U.S. Army. Presently assigned as Deputy Chief, Military and Civil Law Division, Office of the Judge Advocate, U.S. Army Europe and Seventh Army]

Major Doucettperry writes: "Permitting families of recently deceased Soldiers to collect semen from the Soldier for the purpose of artificial insemination implicates many moral, ethical, and legal issues. This practice should therefore be limited to cases where the servicemember has voluntarily surrendered a specimen prior to death and has clearly indicated the intended disposition of such specimen in the event of his death or incapacity.

Additionally, military benefit eligibility criteria should be redefined to encompass any children conceived from this process within a specified period from the servicemember’s death. The following Sergeant (SGT) Smith and First Lieutenant (1LT) Perry hypotheticals demonstrate the perplexities raised by unanswered moral and legal questions surrounding sperm cryopreservation as they may be presented in the military arena."

Major Doucettperry cites two specific and factually different hypotheticals. The implications - social, moral, ethical, and economic - are substantial.

The drugging of America's children: Part 2

In an earlier blog article, I criticized the use of psychotropic medications that are not approved by the FDA for use with children. Congress continues to investigate the cozy relationships between manufacturers of these powerful drugs and the doctors, recipients of enormous stipends from the drug makers, who prescribe the drugs and who perform research paid for with Big Pharma monies.

The New York Times reported on July 12, 2008 that U.S. Senator Grassley is investigating lucrative arrangements between manufacturers of psychotropic medications and psychiatrists.  Grassley reported to Congress in June that a renowned child psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School, and a colleague, had disclosed to university officials that consulting fees from drug makers were several hundred thousand dollars each between 2000 and 2007. Grassley reported that, in fact, they’d been paid at least $1.6 million each.

Assisted reproduction - social and legal ramifications

I read a statistic today in Steve Worrall's blog: 47% of children born in Georgia are born to unmarried women. And "on my way to the Forum," I happened upon an interesting work in progress, by Charles Kindregan, Jr., Distinguished Professor of Law, Suffolk University Law School, Boston.

Professor Kindregan's article involves children conceived by other means than sexual intercourse. He explores newer and evolving forms of parenthood, influenced both by changes in society and by new forms of conception being pioneered by medical and reproductive science.

Kindregan explores how assisted reproduction has influenced our understanding both of the modern family and the parent-child relationship and the legal ramifications.

You can download and read The New Parentage: Of Families, Sex and Asexual Choices here.

Childhood injuries | "What if" & "Oh, no!"

Children | Head injuries | Medical emergencies: Today, an editorial from the New England Journal of Medicine counsels doctors and parents to pay special attention to what might appear to be minor head injuries in order to protect children under their special attention and care.

Many of you know that, from time to time, I write about children and social issues or other family issues that are medical, not legal.

Sixth Circuit refines standards in Hague Convention cases

In Robert v Tesson, ___ F3d ___ (2007), the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals decided a case on November 14, 2007 that refined the legal standard to be applied in determining a child’s “habitual residence” under the Hague Convention. The Sixth Circuit court heard oral argument in this case in October 2007 and rendered its 15-page decision about three weeks later, in response to a letter received from the United States Department of State, Office of Children’s Affairs that emphasized the Hague Convention’s command that Hague Convention matters be resolved “expeditiously.”

The Robert Court held as follows:

Finding your child after a parental kidnapping

There must be something in the water. I handled two parental kidnapping cases in March. This makes five cases for me in the past year. In all of these cases the children were successfully located and returned to the custodial parents within 24 to 48 hours. Other parents express fear that their child may, too, be at risk.

Prevention of parental kidnapping is not always fool-proof. About 800,000 children were abducted in 2003 alone, the last year for which statistics are available. Fewer than 1% of these abductions were  by strangers. So parents want to know: What can I do to make sure that I can find my child or children if the non-custodial parent takes off with them?

Children diagnosed with ADHD

Occasionally I write about social issues such as the drugging of America's children and the dangers and prevalence of HPV. Thus an article about adverse effects of Ritalin and other stimulants prescribed to children diagnosed with ADHD caught my attention.

Physician's Watch states today that the American Heart Association proposes cardiac testing before prescribing stimulants to children with ADHD.

What if father opposes adoption of child born out-of-wedlock?

I am sometimes asked whether a biological father must automatically lose his rights to a child conceived out of wedlock if the mother places the child for adoption and he hasn’t been involved up to that point in time (i.e, he's a "do-nothing father.")  A more serious question arises when the mother wants to place the child for adoption, isn't ready to be a single parent, feels strongly about not involving the biological father, and wants the child to have a 2-parent family.

In a case for publication, the Michigan Court of Appeals has answered this question for us. The court’s decision provides family lawyers dealing with adoption cases with some practice pointers in how to deal with similar cases in the future, and certainly informs use about how we might counsel a mother-to-be so that she has more control over what happens.

Here is a brief chronology of what occurred:

STDs | One in 4 teenage girls has one

One-fourth of American girls aged 14 to 19 have a sexually transmitted disease, CDC researchers reported yesterday at the 2008 National STD Prevention Conference in Chicago.

As part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, some 800 teenage girls were asked about human papillomavirus, chlamydia, genital herpes, and trichomoniasis, and also submitted vaginal swabs for testing.

Among other findings:

• STDs were more common in black than white teens (48% vs. 20%).
• HPV and chlamydia were found most often — in 18% and 4% of all girls, respectively.
• Some 15% of infected girls had more than one STD.

You can read the CDC press release here. (Free)

New York Times story "Sex Infections Found in Quarter of Teenaged Girls"

Relocation | Parent remarries & moves out-of-state

Today's society is extremely mobile. The economy in Michigan, for example, is forcing some parents to relocate to states where suitable employment is available. In addition, divorced parents are increasingly likely to look at an online dating services for introductions to suitable new mates. Very often, a marriage to someone met on line results in relocation of a parent. What happens if the remarried parent wants to move with the children? Does it matter if that parent has sole legal custody? How about cases where the parents share joint legal and joint physical  custody? What if they share joint legal custody, but the parent wanting to relocate has primary physical custody?    

Autism disagnoses | Epidemic or not?

From time to time, I comment on social issues rather than legal issues of importance to Michigan family lawyers and their clients. The increase in diagnoses of autism has concerned me, as have reports of effects of medication on America's children. Many children are receiving antipsychotic medications that are normally prescribed for psychotic adults. Side effects are prevalent among these children.

Who gets custody of pets in a divorce?

It's true, I know, that many people are as attached to their pets as they are to their children. I know some folks who have no children and their pets ARE their "children." Thus, as Liz Sadowski has often pointed out on the State Bar of Michigan's Listserv, deciding who gets custody of "Fluffy" or "Fido" after divorce, annulment or entry of a judgment for separate maintenance can often be as sticky a wicket as who gets the Tupperware. Gee, I hate those arguments over trivial, replaceable personal property like Tupperware. Not that I am suggesting for a minute that Fluffy or Fido are "replaceable." But did the Michigan State Legislature have to get involved?

Should a mother and her boyfriend falsely claim he's the father?

A question was posed today whether a man and woman commit perjury by signing an affidavit in which each knowingly and falsely states that the man is the child's "natural father," knowing that he is not the biological father. The answer to the question is not likely to be found in a hair-splitting analysis of what a "natural father" is.

Can you say "perjury?" One analysis might take into consideration the fact that in 2004 a woman who filed a false affidavit  was successfully prosecuted for perjury for making a false statement in a domestic relations case. The case is State v Lively, 470 248 (2004). The Court's analysis of the perjury statute bears a reading.

Don't let the "trees" block your view of the "forest." What's the big picture? I would not end my analysis with the perjury issue, even if I concluded that there's little likelihood that either party will be prosecuted for this felony and/or that the statute of limitations might run prior to the time that anyone ends this cohabitation relationship or before the real biological father with an ax to grind raises the perjury issue. That is because there are far larger issues at stake here.

What does the client stand to gain by signing the Acknowledgment? What are the specific protections? What are the specific (and real) detriments? Because the legal interests of the biological mother and the man willing to acknowledge as a father are so very diverse, the real problem is to figure out whether the client is well-served by signing a false Acknowledgment of Parentage and whether he or she has any further benefit or detriment arising from this action. [Here's the State's Form DCH-0682w].
 

Lap babies | Safety for infants on airliners

In this day of economic necessity and parent relocation because of employment out of state, family lawyers are seeing more and more cases of minor children being transported by air to and from parenting time with a non-custodial parent located some distance away. Thus, the New York Times caught my attention today.

The 100-mile rule | Effect of sole legal custody

I thought I would check on the status of Spires v Bergman, Court of Appeals Docket No. 276722. In this paternity case, the mother had sole legal and sole physical custody and was granted permission by the trial court to relocate to another State.

In Michigan, a court rule MCR 3.211(C)(1) requires that all custody and parenting time orders contain a provision preventing a change a child's residence from Michigan unless the parents agree or the Court approves the move.

The father claimed on appeal, among other things, that the trial court was obliged to apply the 100-mile rule and to deny the relocation motion. He also claimed that the trial court should have considered the D'onofrio factors before granting the order.

The trial court affirmed the trial court's decision that the 100-mile rule did not apply because the mother had sole legal custody. This is in accord with the statute, MCL 722.31.

An application for leave to appeal was filed on October 2, 2007. The Michigan Supreme Court denied leave on November 27, 2007. Docket No. 134977. 

You may read an earlier discussion of the Spires case here.

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.

Revocation of Acknowledgment of Parentage | A roadmap

The Michigan Court of Appeals decided Johnson v Smith on November 20, 2007, giving us yet another lesson in how and when an acknowledgment of parentage may be revoked.

In Johnson, the parties were involved in an “on again, off again” relationship that began in the late 1980’s. They never married. A son was born on January 24, 1990 and was named Hollis DeAngelo Smith III. Defendant signed an acknowledgment of parentage on the day following the child’s birth. Orders regarding child support, custody and parenting time were subsequently entered.

The child lived with his mother for much of his life, but resided with the defendant for three years from 1995 through 1998. He also lived with the defendant from April 2001 through Christmas 2001. About then, the parties began to disagree about parenting time at Christmastime 2001. The mother then apparently told the defendant that he was not the child’s biological father. Thereafter, the mother and child disappeared for almost two years.

Toward the end of 2003, defendant filed a motion to revoke the acknowledgment of paternity. The child’s mother opposed the motion, as well as other motions filed by defendant relating to child support. During these proceedings, defendant took the child who was now 13. Rather than taking the child shopping, as had been intended, the defendant arranged for unauthorized DNA testing. The test results revealed that defendant isn’t the child’s biological father.

In possession of this new fact, the defendant re-filed his motion to revoke the acknowledgment and, concurrently, filed motions to vacate the existing child support orders.

The trial court denied defendant’s motion to revoke, holding that defendant had not shown, by clear and convincing evidence, that the “equities of the case” required setting aside the acknowledgment.

Child support and TANF payments

The New York Times today reported that up to 50% of the states collect child support from absent fathers and primarily use those collections to recoup the monies paid out to mothers and children through TANF grants (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families). According to the NY Times, nearly half of the states pass along none of the funds collected in child support to families on welfare.  Other states pay about $50/month to the custodial parent (usually a mother), despite the fact that the absent father may be paying hundreds of dollars per month.

Read Mothers Scrimp as States Take Child Support, New York Times, December 1, 2007. A one-time registration may be required.

New tool to help children cope with high-conflict divorce

If you’re a parent going through a tough divorce with custody and parenting time issues and you believe that your children are suffering from stress caused by the fighting, consider a new resource I learned about just today.

Mandatory joint custody | A Family Court judge's view

 I had the distinct pleasure to meet Judge Jon Van Allsburg of Grand Haven, Michigan at the recent  6th Annual Family Law Institute in Plymouth, Michigan. Judge Van Allsburg had emailed an extremely informative post to the State Bar of Michigan's Family Law Listserv on October 12th about the proposed HB 4564 dealing with a "presumption" of joint custody. I asked him if I could share his message with the folks who read Updates in Michigan Family Law and he graciously agreed. I appreciate Judge Van Allsburg's contribution and his wisdom. The following is his message:

"The discussion of proposed HB 4564 appears to be deteriorating, as recent posts seem to shed a lot more heat than light on the subject.

"However, in the interest of contributing something beyond anecdotes, I'll quote some relevant statistics from my statement read to the House Committee on Family and Children Services last December (with respect to former HB 5267, which is now reintroduced as HB 4564):

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.

Mandatory joint custody? Here we go again . . .

James P Ryan, family lawyer from Plymouth, Michigan reminds Michigan family lawyers that the push is on again for mandatory joint custody. He provides a link to pending legislation.

Here are comments from ranking members of the State Bar of Michigan Family Law Section:

From Scott Bassett: Family Law Appellate Lawyer:

The bill not only creates a presumption for joint physical (substantially equal time) and joint legal custody (decision making), but also provides that the presumption may be rebutted only by clear and convincing evidence of parental unfitness or unwillingness to care for the child, or where a parent moves out of the child's school district.  It isn't even a "best interests" test.  This would be a major change (for the worse) in the way we view child custody issues.  When the child's best interests are no longer paramount, aren't we treating kids as the property of their parents?   

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

Family Abductions: Hague Convention cases

Sometimes a non-custodial parent abducts a child and takes the child to another country, refusing return to the custodial parent. Many countries are signatories to The Hague Convention, an international compact that helps custodial parents recover children who are abducted and held in foreign countries. A valuable resource, a practitioner's guide   to litigating Hague Convention cases,  has been created and is made available to the public and to practicing attorneys by the International Missing Children’s Division of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. The manual, “Litigating International Child Abduction Cases Under the Hague Convention,” was prepared by the law firm of Kilpatrick Stockton LLP and is a valuable resource for all attorneys litigating Hague Convention cases in U.S. federal or state courts.

The manual provides guidelines and relevant case law relating to litigating a Hague Convention case for the return of or access to a child. Other valuable Hague Convention resources are available online at  www.missingkids.com.

Thanks to Diana Skaggs of Divorce Law Journal for bringing this to our attention.

Technorati tags:

parental kidnapping, parental abduction,

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.

Because I am the Mom!

We all need to lighten up on the topic of parenting. Parenting is a tough job. Some of us parent the way we were parented . . . and live to regret that.

Here's a video of a mom who has a handle on how hard parenting is and how to keep a sense of humor. She's condensed 24 hours of what a mom would say to her kids to 2 minutes and 55 seconds -- to the tune of the William Tell Overature, no less. I noticed that the audience laughed in the same places I did.

When parents cannot agree on schools

With more parents sharing custody today than ever before, when one parent moves -- even within the circumscribed 100 miles -- there may be disagreements about which school the children will attend. Sometimes the choice is easy -- a good small town school district vs. a  country district that is impoverished and has no busing for transportation. Other times the choice is more difficult. Increasingly, as the Detroit News reports today, family court judges are being asked to decide which school the kids will attend, because the parents cannot agree.

The Detroit News article is interesting and shows the difference between the school system in Howell and the school system in Grosse Pointe.

Did you know that you can compare schools when preparing a case for a client by using www.schoolmatters.com? This is a service of Standard & Poor, and compares schools based upon performance of students on standardized tests, teacher-pupil ratios, and other critical factors.

What Last Name Should Child Have? Biological Father's or Mother's Husband's?

Professor Barbara Glesner Fines has reported on the Family Law Prof Blog that the Supreme Court of South Dakota, in a 3-2 ruling, has held that the best interests of the child are paramount when deciding what the last name of the child should be.

The child here was conceived of an affair while the mother was married to another man and was born after the mother's reconciliation with the husband. Her husband's name is on the birth certificate and the child bears his last name. After the child's birth, DNA testing showed that the child was the biological child of the third party and a visitation schedule was established. Later, bio-dad filed a motion to change the child's last name to his name.

Obviously, unless the mother had failed to raise a standing issue, this case would never have proceeded to this point in Michigan since Michigan law provides that a bio-dad has no standing to sue to establish paternity of a child conceived and/or born during the mother's marriage to another man.

The South Dakota Court engaged in a best interest analysis, and it's worth your time to review this as issues related to the child's last name can arise in other contexts, as shown by the discussion this week on the State Bar of Michigan Family Law Listserv.

You can read the South Dakota case, In the Matter of Name Change of LMG here.

Prof. Barbara Glesner Fines summary of the case and analysis can be read on the Family Law Prof Blog here.

Education - Low expectations raise real concerns

 The New York Times reported on August 2, 2007 that many states have set extremely low expectations with regard to education of children with the state. Some  reported goals of graduating only 50% of the children who are enrolled in their schools. Few states report goals of 90% or higher. The full report and a map showing the abysmal data may be found on the New York Times website.

Read A Study Shows Some States Lagging on Graduation Rates

Technorati tags: Children, education, no child left behind

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

Health care for millions of uninsured children -

Although the purpose of this Blog is to keep my readers abreast of new issues in Michigan Family Law, from time to time, I write about social issues.

One important issue today is the lack of access to health care for children and their families, in addition to vulnerable and frail senior citizens. In my Traverse City Record Eagle Blog, I recently wrote about a 12-year-old boy living in Maryland who died in the Spring of 2007 of complications because his Medicaid coverage had lapsed and his mother was unable to get his abscessed teeth extracted. Before his death, he was finally admitted to a hospital, he had two operations, and he spent weeks in a rehabilitation unit. Ultimately, however, the infection that had begun in his teeth spread to his brain and killed him — all because his mother couldn't afford to pay a dentist about $80 to extract a tooth. Imagine the tens of thousands of dollars that were too late and were fruitlessly committed to cure!

In the wake of Sicko's box office success, Congress is debating the largest expansion of guaranteed health care coverage in over 40 years.¹ This is our chance to make progress on health care.
Democratic leaders want to offer free health care to millions of uninsured children. Who could be against that? But President Bush is afraid insuring kids is a slippery slope—opening the door to affordable health care for everyone.

You can add your name to a petition that will help garner enough votes to override President Bush's promised veto! It's easy and will take just a few seconds. 

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.

Transportation issues: Children flying alone

Many children travel in the summertime from a custodial parent's home for parenting time with a non-custodial parent. The summer of 2007 has presented new challenges to these children and their parents as a result of a greater number of delays and flight cancellations. It is recommended that parents meet these challenges in two ways. First, your "precious cargo" should travel as "unaccompanied minors." Airlines have special procedures for handling minors, but it costs a fee -- usually about $60 each way. Airlines typically will not transport children under the age of 5 as unaccompanied minors.

Another policy will help ensure that children are not stranded away from parents. Children should either be scheduled on a direct flight to their destination or they should be scheduled early in the day so that delays don't cause the children to be alone in a strange city.

As the Washington Post reports on July 21, 2007, these policies do not always ensure that a child's trip is without mishap. See The Young and the Stranded
A one-time registration may be necessary.
Technorati tags: parenting time, visitation, unaccompanied minor, airlines

One, two, three GO!

The Family Scholars Blog posted an Op-ed piece from the New York Times by Elizabeth Marquardt, published on July 17, 2007. The topic is "triple parenting." It seems that a court in Pennsylvania recently held that both lesbian mothers and also the sperm donor are the legal parents of two children and all are liable for support.

 

But the Court did not stop with the issue of support. It decided that each of the three parents was entitled to visitation. Most folks involved in family law matters understand that it's difficult for children to transition between two different homes. Imagine children having to transition between three homes! How often do we hear about the rights of children -- as opposed to parental rights which are claimed to be inviolate?

 

You can read Marquardt's New York Times editorial When Three Really is a Crowd on the Family Scholars Blog.

The case, Jacobs v Schultz-Jacobs, can be read here.

See also Stanley Kurtz's column Ma, Pa, and Ma in PA published in The Coner National Review Online.

Technorati tags: child support, child custody, visitation, parenting time, same-sex unions, same-sex relationships

Revocation of Acknowlegment of Paternity - what's a "mistake of fact?"

In People v Nugent, Docket No. 267069 For Publication, decided July 3, 2007, the Bay County prosecutor's office sought an order revoking an acknowledgment of parentage.

In this case, Nugent signed an acknowledgment of parentage claiming to be the biological father of a child born to Amy Dyjak despite the fact that he'd had a vasectomy a few years earlier. As they say, "truth will out." Eventually, it was established that Nugent's 14-year-old son was the biological father of the infant. Dyjak pled guilty to 2nd degree CSC. Her voluntary plea agreement required her to relinquish her parental rights to the child.

When Nugent refused to cooperate and revoke the acknowledgment of parentage, the PA--apparently on behalf of Alex--filed a petition to revoke the petition. Nugent contested the action because he wanted to remain the legal father of the child. Nugent's theory was that because he intended to be the child's father when he signed the acknowledgment and because he intended to remain the father after he learned that he was not biologically related, there was no mistake of fact that could be the grounds for revocation. The trial court denied the PA's petition and this appeal followed. There are two quite interesting things to learn from this case.

American attitudes about marriage, divorce, cohabitation, non-marital births, and same sex marriage

A new study of American attitudes about marriage, divorce, cohabitation, non-marital births, and same sex marriage was released on Sunday, July 1, 2007. The results of a national survey were published by the Pew Research Center.  A 91-page PDF copy of this study is available on the Internet.

Marriage. According to this survey, only 4 in 10 of those interviewed say that children are important to a successful marriage. As an illustration of how times have changed, in 1990, 65% of those interviewed felt this way.

The respondents were interviewed on their views of what makes a marriage work. 93% ranked faithfulness as important. [Well, I guess that eliminates a fair portion of Hollywood, if those tabloid headlines are right. No, no, I don't buy those things! But they scream at me when I stand in line at the grocery store!]

Only 12% said that agreement on politics was essential. Other ingredients to a successful marriage were adequate income, good housing, shared religious beliefs, and common tastes and interests. Not surprising, given an increase in the number of 2-income families in the U.S., satisfaction in marriage also depends upon how much a spouse shares in household chores.

Most respondents said that they want to marry. Married persons expressed greater satisfaction with their lives than those who are not married. [I suppose it  is handy not to wonder who's taking you to the ball.]

Other findings of the study mirror earlier research by Pamela Smock of the University of Michigan Institute of Social Research. There is wide divergence in attitudes regarding whether there is a stigma attached to non-marital births and shacking up.