Child Custody | Pennsylvania Family Law Blog - The Law Offices of Sheryl R. Rentz - Part 7
Britney Spears and Kevin Federline Reach Final Custody Agreement
On July 25, 2008, Britney Spears filed a settlement at the Superior Court in Los Angeles to finalize her child custody agreement with ex-husband, Kevin Federline. A week prior, Spears had consented to give her ex custody — both physical and legal control — of Jayden James and Sean Preston, their two children. Per the agreement, Spears would retain the right to visit her children. According to sources like E! and TMZ.com, Spears has had to pay out more than $2.5 million in legal fees in 2008 — nearly ¾ of a million of which went to Mark Kaplan, a lawyer representing Kevin Federline. She also had to pay nearly the same amount to assemble a team to hammer out the conservatorship of her estate. In February, 2008, Spears’ dad and her lawyer, Andrew Wallet, were named co-conservators of the pop star’s assets and estate, and according to arrangements made on July 25, 2008, that conservatorship should be extended at least another half a year. On October 28, 2008, a hearing was held to review the progress of the conservatorship. Read the rest »
Los Angeles Times Article Features Compelling Immigration and Child Custody Battles
On June 30, 2008, the LA Times featured an article about an unusual child custody battle between a Mexican national named Carlos Alvarado and his ex-wife, Marla Campo, a US citizen. Alvarado arrived on US soil in early 1990s and later met and courted Campo. In 1997, Campo gave birth to their son, Michael. The couple then split up a few years later. A court decreed that Campo would retain primary custody of Michael. However, in 2003, the situation dramatically changed when Campo absconded with their son because — she claimed — Alvarado was not paying his fair share of child support costs. The parents went back into family court, where a judge ruled that Campo and Alvarado had to share custody. Complicating this relatively ordinary seeming custody battle, however, was the fact that Alvarado was doing battle in another court — Immigration Court. Read the rest »
Article on 2005 Child Shooting Angers Chief of LAPD
On January 7, 2009, LAPD Police Chief Bill Bratton lashed out against the Los Angeles Times for implying that Bratton’s department had been unethical while investigating the 2005 shooting of a 1-year-old girl, Susie Pena. Bratton’s tirade against the Times came on the heels of an article that suggested that the department had made both scientific and ethical lapses during an autopsy investigation for this tragedy, which started with a family dispute. Read the rest »
Pennsylvania Dad Says Courts Should Automatically Award Joint Custody
A Pennsylvania father, who spent four years and most of his money to fight a child custody battle, is lobbying for House Bill 2825 that would award joint custody to couples unless the court finds that such joint custody would not be in the child’s best interest. A report says that Jesse Storm thinks parents should not have to “go through a divorce and split your property and assets up 50/50 between mom and dad” and still end up spending an additional $20,000 to $80,000 on a child custody battle. Storm says he should have spent that kind of money on his child’s college tuition rather than battling to spend a weekend with his child.
Storm has started a group called Pennsylvania Families Association to fight the court system, which he says benefits only one parent. It is an unfair system, he says, where 91 percent of child custody cases are settled with a primary custodian where one parent has the majority of the custody of the child. Read the rest »
Pennsylvania Child Custody Issues Can Be Complex For Same-Sex Couples
Same sex custody cases have been rare in Pennsylvania but they do occasionally come up from time to time. This article in the Sharon Herald talks about the one such case that has garnered public attention in Mercer County. This case involves Lisa Lewis, a non-biological parent who is seeking custody of a child she helped raise with her same-sex partner.
The article quotes former longtime Common Pleas Judge Michael J. Wherry, who says he has never had a same-sex custody case, but has dealt with non-biological parents like Lewis who seek an “in loco parentis” status for visitation and custody reasons. The term “in loco parentis” is Latin for “in the place of a parent” or “instead of a parent” and refers to the legal responsibility of a person or organization to take on some of the functions and responsibilities of a parent. A same sex custody case would be handled the same way as when a non-biological parent would seek an “in loco parentis” status. If it is in the best interest of the child, the parent will end up getting some measure of custody but they will need the help of a skilled child custody lawyer.
Pennsylvania’s New Rules Will Put Cases Involving Children on Fast Track
Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court has adopted new rules that are designed to speed up court action on the most serious cases involving children. According to this Associated Press news report, these new rules will help children who are involved in cases that concern dependency, custody, adoption, paternity and termination of parental rights. These cases will be stamped “Children’s Fast Track” to make sure that appeals from county courts to state appellate courts are processed quicker.
These rules were apparently developed by a panel with the hope that the changes will help improve the public’s confidence in the judicial system. Cases that involve visitation, child support and delinquency will not be affected by these changes. Read the rest »
New Online Reporting System to Report Child Custody Violations
The District Attorney of Santa Clara County in California has announced the launch of a new online reporting form for those who want to report a violation of a child custody or visitation court order. This is a big change from the time when parents or guardians had to make a report in the lobby or a public counter at the local police department or wait to have an officer come to them and take a report, according to a recent news article.
However, officials emphasize that this form is only for non-emergency matters. In case of child abduction or a similar criminal matter, families are asked to call their local police departments right away to report the crime. Read the rest »
Pennsylvania Child Custody Tax Hurts Parents, Kids Financially
A recent article in the Patriot News discusses the Pennsylvania state tax fee of $25 that is being charged to custodial parents on an annual basis. That’s right, the Pennsylvania statute actually taxes the parents that HAVE custody of the child in the case of divorce annually.
The Pennsylvania Legislature decided to charge custodial parents $25 annually for each child, provided they collect at least $2,000 a year from the noncustodial parent and have never received cash assistance from welfare. The fee started when a federal law that required states’ help in recouping some of the costs for providing child support enforcement services went on the books. States like Pennsylvania were given the option of collecting the money from one of the parents or paying it themselves. Pennsylvania decided to collect it from parents that had custody of children from broken homes. Read the rest »
Britney Spears Finalizes Child Custody Agreement With Ex-Husband
Pop star Britney Spears and her child custody lawyer has finalized her much-publicized child custody settlement with ex-husband Kevin Federline, according to a recent news report. The article states that Spears will fork out a $5,000 a month increase in child support to Federline. Spears’ payments to her ex-husband will go from $15,000 to $20,000 a month, backdated to July 15. Spears has also agreed to pay Federline’s lawyers a single payment of $250,000. Earlier this month, both parties told the media that they had finally come to terms on child custody issues relating to the couple’s two young children.
Child custody is one of the most contentious, if not the most contentious issue, in a divorce. Finding an experienced divorce lawyer will help you save a lifetime of problems. It is always important to have your lawyer draw up a comprehensive settlement plan before filing your divorce papers, which can include a custody schedule. In Pennsylvania, there are two main types of child custody. There is legal custody, which means you have the right to make all decisions relating to your child’s upbringing. And then, there is physical custody, which dictates where your child can reside and when. Read the rest »
Christie Brinkley’s Nasty Divorce Involves Child Custody Issues
Divorces are an everyday occurrence in the United States and in the rest of the world. But at no time do they get media attention unless it is a nasty celebrity divorce. The Associated Press reports that model and actress Christie Brinkley and her estranged husband Peter Cook are in the thick of a contentious divorce trial in New York, at the center of which is a custody battle for their two children ages 13 and 10. Read the rest »
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