DC Collects Child Support for Less than Half the Children
On Tuesday, the District of Columbia will elect an Attorney General. Judy Berman and Marc Efron report in the Washington Post that the largest division of the office of Attorney General is the...
View ArticleHey, I’m Not Headed to Vegas with Your Child Support, Buddy
Marye has written an interesting view of child support from her perspective as a mother of three at First Wives World.
View ArticleHomework
My youngest son is in the sixth grade. He asked me to help him with his math homework last night. I took a look at the problem. Er…how do you divide exponents? I’m not exactly a slouch at math. I...
View ArticleChild Support Scam
T.K., who lives in a Minneapolis suburb, met Jhona Vandemore on a dating website in 2007. Shortly afterwards they arranged to meet in person Two or three months after Vandemore told T.K. she was...
View ArticleThings I Want to Teach My Children
Growing up, my brother and I could never figure out why our dad was so obsessed with us putting our shoes away in the closet instead of leaving them by the door. He also seemed similarly obsessed with...
View ArticleMedical Pot And Custody
Jeanette Daggett and Dustin Sternick became involved in a custody struggle over their daughter after Jeanette decided she wanted to move from Maine to Florida. There was evidence at trial that the...
View ArticleThose Winter Sundays
by Robert Hayden Sundays too my father got up early and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold, then with cracked hands that ached from labor in the weekday weather made banked fires blaze. No one...
View ArticleA Lesson from The Walking Dead
My son and I watched The Walking Dead together last weekend. We both looked at each other after it was over because we were still trying to figure out the ending. We rewound and rewatched it several...
View ArticleAppeals Court Reverses Custody Award to Mother
In 2014, a judge in Talbot County, Maryland, gave custody of a 14 year old girl to Mrs. Hostetter, writing in his memorandum opinion that as “an adolescent female, this may be the most important time...
View ArticleAbraham Lincoln’s Letter to His Son’s Teacher
He will have to learn, I know, that all men are not just, all men are not true. But teach him also that for every scoundrel there is a hero; that for every selfish Politician, there is a dedicated...
View Article50 Rules
I found 50 Rules for Dads with Daughters by Michael Mitchell on Pinterest. Then I found 25 Rules for Moms with Sons by Tabitha Studer on Twitter. Both have excellent ideas for parents with children no...
View ArticleQuote of the Day
“We never know the love of our parents for us until we have become parents.” – Henry Ward Beecher
View ArticleCo-Parenting Improves After Divorce
University of Missouri Professor Marilyn Coleman and Dr. Mindy Markham interviewed 20 women who shared physical custody of children with ex-partners. Half of the women reported amicable relationships...
View ArticleWhy I Ask Parents to Bring Pictures of the Children to Mediation
Children are the highest stakes in a custody battle. People fighting over the children will frequently engage in hostile, angry and vengeful behavior against each other. Emotion overwhelms judgment....
View ArticleCustody Fight Over Toddler Dressed Like Dolly Parton
In a child custody battle in Kentucky, Bill Verst is seeking custody of his six year old daughter, Madisyn “Maddy” Verst, from her mother Lindsay Jackson. He says he should have primary custody because...
View ArticleUsing Technology to Co-Parent
Technology is a tool that can enhance or frustrate co-parenting by separated or divorced parents, depending on how you use it. Emails, web calendars and texts can be very helpful to keep your kids...
View ArticleMarbles
This morning on the way to the bus, my 12 year old son was telling me about an app on his iPhone that allowed him to listen to NFL games. “When I was your age, we didn’t have the Internet,” I told...
View ArticleThe Prospective Client
Danny Carr, Counselor and Attorney at Law, punched the button on his phone this morning to listen to messages left last night on his voice-mail. “I need to hire you for a custody case. This is Ken...
View ArticleCountry Songs We Wished We’d Written
I’ll Keep the Kids by Montgomery Gentry You don’t have to holler, And we don’t have to fight. We can settle all this, right here Right now, tonight No need to call no lawyer You don’t have to pack no...
View ArticleChildren Spending More Time with Fathers
A study by an Australian College has found that divorced and separated fathers are spending more time with their children than the traditional every other weekend visitation schedule. Dr. Bruce Smyth...
View ArticleFree Online Tools for Divorced Dads
Steven Small and Shelly D. Mahon are conducting a survey of divorced fathers at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. They are looking for fathers of children, ages 8 and 16, who have been divorced or...
View ArticleSesame Street Tackles Divorce
More than a million children have parents who divorce or separate each year. Many of these children are pre-schoolers. Yet resources for pre-schoolers with divorced or separated parents are hard to...
View ArticleFacebook Photos May Be Used in Child Support Case
Facebook photos may be used in a child support case in Wisconsin according to Kristal Roberts writing for ABC Action News. The pictures show the father, who is behind in child support, holding wads of...
View ArticleDivorce Can Make You a Better Dad
Thomas Matlack writes in the New York Times today about how his painful divorce taught him to be a better dad to his children. “My time with Kerry and Seamus was limited to trips to McDonald’s and a...
View ArticleHow to Lose a Child Custody Battle
Sometimes celebrities can teach us what not to do. TMZ reports that an Atlanta family court judge has awarded Tawanna Iverson custody of her five children with NBA basketball star Allen Iverson. The...
View ArticleDeion Sanders Wins Custody
In the child custody fight between football start Deion Sanders and his wife Pilar, a Texas jury has awarded full custody of their two sons, ages 11 and 13, to Deion and shared custody of their...
View ArticleFathers and Stepfathers
Two of my friends called for some advice this week. One is a father who is separated from the mother. That have a little girl. The mother has remarried and her new husband and my friend are in...
View ArticleMarital Status and Child Support
Guest post by Lauren Williams, staff writer at King Law Offices, Family Law Attorneys in NC & SC. In Maryland, a child’s entitlement to support does not depend upon parents’ marital status. Every...
View ArticleTaking the Children Out of State
Someone asked today for the Maryland case that prevents a parent from relocating to another state with the minor children before a custody order is entered. Surprise! In Maryland, there is no case and...
View ArticleReady, Fire, Aim
“My client was shocked to learn that your client has enrolled their 5 year old son in the swim team at the community pool,” the letter from the mother’s divorce lawyer started. The father’s lawyer...
View ArticleA Father’s Poem
Lost Love, Lost Child by Garrett W. Wheeler ______________________ I wonder what you’re doing and how you’re living life what new things did you learn today and how did you sleep last night did you...
View ArticleBode Miller Custody Battle
Bode Miller, 36, Olympic skier, met Sara McKenna, 27, former marine, through an online dating service in April, 2012. They dated briefly and she became pregnant with his child. They were both living...
View ArticleAll I Want for Christmas
‘Tis the season for spending excessive amounts of money on consumer goods for your children. You may be trying to show you love them. Or maybe you are trying to make up for a disappointing Christmas...
View ArticleNegative Effect of Divorce on Children
A new survey by Netmums.com, that included 1,000 parents and 100 children in the U.K., found the following results about the impact of divorce: Children 39% hid their feelings from their parents 20%...
View ArticleNew Divorce Documentary
A documentary, “Divorce Corp.”, narrated by Dr. Drew Pinksky, opens in 16 cities this month. The movie exposes some unethical and corrupt practices in the $50 billion divorce industry. Some women’s...
View ArticleKansas Sperm Donor Sued for Child Support
William Marotta of Topeka, Kansas, answered an ad on Craigslist to be a sperm donor for a lesbian couple who wanted a child. He signed a contract saying he would have no parental rights nor...
View ArticleStates Consider Shared Parenting Laws
Arkansas passed a law last year providing for “approximate and reasonable equal division of time” of children between parents in divorce proceedings. The Connecticut General Assembly has created a...
View ArticleHow I Got My Son to Do His Homework with a Poem
Today is my day to take my 10 year old son to school. I told him his mom left instructions for me to make sure he does his spelling. “Why?” he said. “The test is four days away.” “Theirs not to reason...
View ArticleCustody of Children
Guest post by David Williamson Mothers Obtain Child Custody More Often than Fathers In 82% of cases, mothers get custody of the children. One reason for this may be, that On a purely statistical stand...
View ArticleMan Jailed for Child Support that Employer Failed to Pay
Clifford Hall, 43, of Houston was sentenced to six months in jail for failure to pay child support. After exhausting his appeal rights, he turned himself in and began serving his sentence last week....
View ArticleIt Costs a Quarter Million to Raise a Child
The average cost of raising a child to age 18 is $245,340 for a two-parent, middle-income family, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. And that doesn’t include costs for giving birth or...
View ArticleJobs Over Jail-Time
Clermont County, Ohio, has found a more practical solution than putting parents who can’t pay child support in jail. It finds them jobs. Ohio was hit hard by the recession. The jobs program, called...
View ArticleGambling Intercept
Since 2011, Louisiana has collected more than $2 million in child support from intercepting the winnings of non-custodial parents at the state’s 19 gambling casinos. Other states with similar laws...
View ArticleLottery Intercept
When lottery winners in Arkansas owe child support, they will find that amount deducted from their winnings. Arkansas passed a law in 2009 that requires the lottery to cooperate in identifying debtors...
View ArticleEnforcing Visitation Schedules
If a parent is withholding visitation in Maryland, DC or VA, and there is a custody order in place, we have to file a motion to show cause why that parent should not be held in contempt of court. Many...
View ArticleChild Support Collection Scam
Stuart Cole and Mark Simpson set up several businesses including “Child Support Services” to collect child support payments, according to Howard Ain of WRKC in Cincinnati. Their business would come up...
View Article“Deadbeat” TV Show
“Deadbeat” is a new reality tv show filmed in Jefferson County District Court in Louisville, Kentucky. It will feature child support hearings with parents who are more than $1,000 behind in child...
View ArticleJobs Not Jail
A report by attorney Lisa Lane McDevitt on the Law Firm Newswire describes a Virginia program that puts noncustodial parents to work instead of in jail for nonpayment of child support. The Intensive...
View ArticleBetter Relationships with Children Ups Child Support Collections
Emily DeVoe at WECT.Com describes the success of a program in New Hanover County, North Carolina, called Partnership for Fatherhood. “We found out that a lot of fathers weren’t paying their child...
View ArticleParents Spend Two Million Dollars Fighting Over Custody
“How much will my custody case cost?” is a question I hear over and over. I don’t know is the answer. If things go well, if both parents and attorneys are reasonable, and you are lucky, the cost may...
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