Michigan Military Divorce

Child support | Termination of parental rights doesn't end obligation

In a case for publication, In Re Beck, decided March 4, 2010, the Michigan court of appeals held that the termination of parental rights arising out of a neglect or abuse case does not end a parent's obligation to pay child support.

The father whose parental rights were terminated argued that the trial court violated his due process rights by providing in the termination order that his “[c]hild support and other support for the children shall continue.” He did not appeal the termination order itself.

Court holds that hiding of abducted child is parental neglect

You may recall that in early September 2009 I wrote about the recovery of a child who had been abducted by his mother after the father was awarded custody by the trial court. Immediately after that court decision, the mother took the child and, with her mother’s help, hid him for nearly two years. The earlier post and details of the case are found here on the post “Parental Kidnapping | Effective response”. http://tinyurl.com/yjth6j7

An Illinois court has now decided that the mother’s hiding of her son for nearly two years in his grandmother's home, often in a crawl space behind a wall (in a space that was roughly 5 feet by 12 feet and about the height of a washing machine), amounted to neglect. The judge’s ruling, according to an AP report, was based partly on her agreement with a counselor's belief that the seclusion left the boy, now 7, with post-traumatic stress disorder. The judge’s ruling clears the way for a possible decision at a Jan. 8 hearing on custody or visitation arrangements for the boy, who now is in the temporary custody of a relative. The father, Michael Chekevdia, 48, is seeking custody.’
You may read the entire AP report here. http://tinyurl.com/yjv28kh

Social workers & qualified immunity from § 1983 cases

My guest blogger today is Daniel Pollack, MSSA (MSW), JD. Pollack is a full professor at Yeshiva University's School of Social Work in New York City and Senior Fellow, Office for Foster Care and Adoption, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA. His topic today is:

When qualified immunity protects social workers from 42 U.S.C § 1983 lawsuits

As social work has developed into an increasingly seasoned, mature, and specialized profession, the role of the social worker has also changed.  So too is the expectation that social workers will ensure that they are satisfying all legal responsibilities owed to their clients. Although many public sector social work administrators and practitioners are concerned about liability litigation and qualified immunity, no national studies of appellate cases have been published. This study explores when social workers are and are not successful in asserting qualified immunity when sued in civil court under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

Read the entire article here:

Social workers as expert witnesses in family and child welfare cases

My guest blogger today is Daniel Pollack, MSW, JD, professor of social work at the Yeshiva University in New York, New York.  He writes:

Lawyers are increasingly calling upon social workers to serve as expert witnesses in cases involving children and families. Roles for social workers are emerging in the courtroom as social work expert witnesses in such areas as guardianship, forensic issues, child abuse and neglect, wrongful death, commitment hearings, education, family custody evaluation, child welfare, adoption, and foster care.

As society gets more specialized and complicated, the courts are using the testimony of expert witnesses (such as social work expert witness, foster care expert witness, social worker malpractice and child welfare worker malpractice) to help resolve cases. Whether defending social workers or agencies, or litigating on behalf of a client, having the right experienced expert witness can make the difference between winning or losing an important case.

Rights regarding custody & parenting time | Unmarried parents

Recently, the following issues were raised concerning the custody and parenting time rights of an unmarried father after a breakup with the mother.

After the breakup, the father was able to file for custody and parenting time because he and Mom had signed an Acknowledgment of Parentage. His status as a legal father was thus already established. Dad requested joint legal and joint physical custody.

Mom objected to his proposal and asked for sole physical and sole legal custody. She claimed that Dad had a history of domestic abuse, of being an absent and uninvolved father. In her opinion, Dad posed a risk to the young child as demonstrated by earlier incidents.

While Dad's motion is pending and before any order for custody or parenting time was issued, Mom allows Dad to have parenting time on the condition that the paternal grandmother would be there to supervise. Dad promises that he will exercise his parenting time at his mother's house. However, during one of the parenting times, the grandmother leaves to run errands. Dad and his girlfriend then put the 2 1/2 year old child in Dad's car without any proper car seat or proper child restraints.

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.

Significant increase in unwed births reported by CDC

An alarming statistic was revealed on May 15, 2009. According to the Center for Disease Control, about 40% of all babies born alive in the United States are born to unmarried mothers.

The CDC report highlights are these:

• Childbearing by unmarried women has resumed a steep climb since 2002.
• Births to unmarried women totaled 1,714,643 in 2007, 26% more than in 2002. Nearly 4 in 10 U.S. births were to unmarried women in 2007.
• Birth rates have risen considerably for unmarried women in their twenties and over, while declining or changing little for unmarried teenagers.
• Non-marital birth rates are highest for Hispanic women followed by black women. Rates for non-Hispanic white and Asian or Pacific Islander women are much lower.
• Most births to teenagers (86% in 2007) are non-marital, but 60% of births to women 20–24 and nearly one-third of births to women 25–29 were non-marital in 2007.
• Teenagers accounted for just 23% of non-marital births in 2007, down steeply from 50% in 1970. [This is significant because it means that the initiatives to reduce teen pregnancy are really working!]

Parents, children - falling through the cracks?

The economy is having a profound effect on families - especially single-parent families struggling with survival. Today's news brought me the story of an Albuquerque, New Mexico mother who suffocated her adorable 3-year-old child. She then buried him in the sand on a playground. The mother and child were homeless and had been sleeping in a park after having been thrown out of two homes. The sad story is found here on Albuquerque's's Channel 9 & 10 News
It is so important if you know someone skating on the edge of disaster that you call child protection services. The Michigan contact numbers are here. If you live outside of Michigan and cannot find the number, call your local police agency and ask.

Child sexual abuse | High quality tools for use in detection & proof

Do you believe or does your client believe that a child has been sexually abused? A most important first step is to seek out capable, qualified and highly trained professional help. Your first call should be to Child Protection Services. [NOTE: The contact information for the agency near you in Michigan can be found here.] You should not attempt to elicit the details from the child yourself. This may seriously compromise prosecution of a child molester. There are many links below to resources that may be found online dealing with the tools used by experts to determine whether the abuse alleged has actually occurred.

Child abuse & neglect | Effect of worsening economy

Today's economy and growing unemployment put huge strains on families. Some of these families may have been under pressure before the economic slowdown. Increasingly, family practitioners are seeing more cases involving domestic abuse and neglect of children. It's important that services be made available as quickly as possible. As Dr. Robert Sege and Barbara Talkov wrote in an Op-ed piece in today's Boston Globe: