Michigan Father allegedly owes child support.
$215,000 worth in fact.
For five different children with five different mothers.
And now Father is under arrest on five separate felony counts of nonsupport of children.
Read more in this Detroit Free Press news article: Detroit dad who owed more than $200K in child support involving 5 families arrested.
Once upon a time, divorce was caused by things like one spouse’s affairs … with other people.
But times have changed, thanks, in large part, to technology.
A newly released study, perhaps not conducted with strict scientific rigor, finds that a whopping fifteen percent of divorces are caused by one spouse’s … compulsion for video gaming.
That represents a ten percent escalation in just one year.
The spike is speculated to be the fallout of the recession, specifically high unemployment and reduced outside-entertainment budgets.
Or of a veritable addiction, allegedly more powerful than the drug cocaine.
Particular games taking the blame are reportedly World of Warcraft, Call of Duty and Halo.
At the heart of the matter is the nongaming spouse’s belief that the gaming spouse cares more about their gaming than their spouse.
Video gamers defend their hobby and point to preexisting relationship problems that may stimulate excessive gaming.
In other relatively recent studies, virtual cheating through social networking websites, such as FaceBook, has also been blamed for a statistically significantly percentage of divorces. See my previous post, That Cheatin’ Internet Social Network.
Read more in this [Salt Lake City] Deseret News article: Video-game addiction blamed for 15 percent of divorces and this [UK] Daily Mail article: Video games being blamed for divorce as men ‘prefer World of Warcraft to their wives’.
Kentucky Wife cheats on her husband. Wife gets pregnant and has Baby.
Wife’s Boyfriend seeks parental rights and responsibilities, including timesharing and visitation with Baby.
Under long-settled legal precedents, where a mother’s marriage is intact, in the eyes of the law, the mother’s husband is (conclusively) presumed to be the father of the mother’s child.
The Kentucky Supreme Court overturns that precedent in favor of a more scientific and pragmatic approach looking to DNA testing rather than blind rules of law.
Read more in this Wall Street Journal piece: Kentucky Supreme Court Wades into Extramarital Affairs and this Courier-Journal article: Kentucky court says fathers of children conceived during affairs have parental rights.
Each year, 200,000 children in the US are abducted by relatives.
Last year, two thousand children were abducted into and out of the US.
These and similar statistics are only on the rise.
The Office of Children’s Issues in the Department of State is responsible for resolving child custody jurisdiction cases under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.
Read more in this Briefing on National Missing Children’s Day.
Tennessee Husband and Wife have three Children together.
Husband and Wife divorce.
Husband is court-ordered to pay child support for Children, including thirteen percent of his overtime pay.
Husband’s employer offers its employees the option of receiving compensatory time off for overtime in lieu of overtime pay.
And Husband has opted to forego overtime pay for compensatory time off.
Wife feels that Husband’s election is an effort to circumvent court-ordered child support.
So Wife reports Husband to her local district attorney’s office, which is responsible for enforcing child support where she lives in Tennessee.
And the district attorney’s office advises Wife that Husband is not violating the law … or the court child support order by electing to take compensatory time off instead of overtime pay.
Certainly, it is evident that Husband’s election is not illegal.
But, just as certainly, Husband’s election to take compensatory time off in lieu of overtime pay does violate the spirit and intent of the court order for child support.
Would the outcome be different if the child support court order specifically addressed the possibility of Husband electing to take compensatory time off instead of overtime pay, perhaps by expressly imputing to Husband his voluntarily foregone income and explicitly requiring him to pay child support on it? Wife must be wondering.
Read more in this [Nashville] WSMV NBC 4 TV news article: Mom: Dad Avoids Child Support By Choosing Comp Time.
The most recent census reveals that more and more people live alone.
For example, all but one of Colorado’s counties saw an increase in the percentage of their population which is living alone.
Statewide, twenty-eight percent of households are occupied by a single person. In Denver, more than a whopping forty percent of households are occupied by a single individual.
The rate of growth of single occupant residences outstripped growth in households consisting of married couples, families with minor children and even cohabitants, romantic and not.
Nor is Colorado unique. Quite the contrary, it mirrors the nation.
Whether due to death of a spouse, divorce, delayed marriage or a choice not to marry, single-occupant households are clearly a rising trend throughout the US.
Read more in this Denver Post article: 2010 Census: Colorado households of one have grown in past decade.
Have a so-called smartphone? Then, it now seems, you probably don’t have too many secrets from your cell phone service provider.
Probably right down to precisely where you are at pretty much any particular moment. All of them. All the time.
And it’s all reportedly saved in files.
Just waiting for subpoenas to be served.
So the information can be used against you in, among other places, a divorce case or a child custody case in family court.
With, potentially, great impact on your case, and your life.
Something to keep in mind next time you reach for your cell phone.
Mother and Father, a member of the Seneca Indian Nation tribe, have Daughter together. Father works for the Seneca Indian Nation, in security for one of its casinos.
During the first year after Daughter’s birth, Mother and Father amicably address Father’s timesharing and child support privately.
In time, Mother and Father’s relationship becomes more strained and Mother files for child support through the state family court of Pennsylvania. No challenge is made to the jurisdiction of the state family court of Pennsylvania.
Later, Father files for custody of Daughter through the Seneca Nation Peacemakers Court, the Indian tribal courts.
Father makes various unsubstantiated allegations of child neglect, which are refuted by a written statement filed with the Seneca Indian nation court by Daughter’s pediatrician. Father also accuses Mother of kidnapping Daughter in the past.
The Seneca Nation Peacemakers Court then gives Father custody of Daughter … and awards Mother, Daughter’s primary caregiver until then, absolutely no visitation or timesharing. Since 2008.
Indian nation courts may exercise child custody jurisdiction over Indian nation member children.
But, under the laws of the Seneca nation, Daughter is not a member of the Seneca Indian nation, because only her father and not her mother is of Indian heritage.
And so a Seneca nation appellate court reverses a lower Seneca nation court ruling that Daughter is a “Seneca minor”.
That reversal should strip the Seneca Nation Peacemakers Court of child custody jurisdiction over Daughter.
Yet the state family court still has not exercised child custody jurisdiction over Daughter, and Mother still has no access to or contact with Daughter. Even her letters are returned to sender.
And the Seneca Nation Peacemakers Court also allows Daughter no contact with her half-sister or her maternal grandparents.
Mother’s lay advocate, a member of the Seneca Indian nation and a highly experienced lay advocate in the Seneca nation courts, contends that the Seneca nation courts have favored Father out of bias.
The case continues in the appellate courts of the Seneca Indian nation. Mother refuses to give up on having contact with Daughter.
California Husband and Wife have an argument.
Husband wants to drive off in his van.
Wife stands in front of the van to block Husband’s way.
Husband drives forward anyway, forcing Wife onto the hood of his car … and then Husband continues driving … 51 miles … with Wife hanging on for dear life.
Husband blasts music to drown out Wife’s yelling.
Husband lurches on highway in his effort to knock Wife off van.
Husband is charged with attempted murder and spouse abuse.
Husband enters a plea and Husband’s’ charges are reduced.
Husband will serve five years’ incarceration.
Read more in this Fox News article: Man admits driving 51 miles with wife on van hood.
I’ve posted before, in
Florida Public Defenders Seek Freeze and Lien for Attorney’s Fees on Marital Assets of Wife Who Allegedly Murdered Her Two Children With Husband, about a sad and fairly high profile case here in Florida where the Wife allegedly killed Husband and Wife’s children.
Husband just got his divorce … without any discussion of property division, although their assets are substantial.
How can that be?
Well, the above is a little misleading. It’s not that property division is eliminated. It’s just bypassed, for the moment.
A procedure called bifurcation literally allows the Florida family court to split the entire divorce case into two smaller components. Each component can be heard and ruled on at different points in time.
So, here, the bare divorce that made each spouse a single person again happened first. Property division will happen, but it will happen later.
Bifurcation doesn’t happen often, but it is used in certain kinds of circumstances. One of the most common is where one spouse is dying and wants to be divorced before their death.
There can be strategic reasons for seeking or opposing bifurcation, and bifurcation can create twists in property division.
Read more in this St. Petersburg Times article: Judge grants Parker Schenecker immediate divorce and this WTSP News 10 article: Parker and Julie Schenecker officially divorce.
