Los Angeles Family Law Blog

The Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act ("UCCJEA") governs many international child custody disputes involving California (or any state within the United States) and a foreign country. In addition, the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction ("Hague Convention") as made effective in the United States by the International Child Abduction Prevention Act ("ICARA"), which is a federal law, governs international custody disputes between countries that have both signed the Hague Convention treaty. Whether the foreign country has signed the Hague Convention or not determines how the California court can proceed as a matter of law and this determination in turn

Continue reading "UCCJEA and International Child Custody Jurisdiction" »

Attorneys who either want to churn fees or who are afraid their client will not do well on a psychological/custody evaluation will oftentimes resort to litigating a psychological/custody evaluation during the evaluation. Their purpose in doing so is to unfairly influence the outcome of the evaluation. Unfortunately, they oftentimes succeed and the family is forced to endure a custody arrangement that is not based on the best interests of the children.

In California, the better practice is to wait until the psychological/custody evaluation is competed and distributed to the respective attorneys and the court and then, if you believe the evaluator’s methodology is problematic, challenge it by either impeaching the evaluator or by hiring another evaluator to perform a “unilateral” evaluation and to critique the first evaluator’s work. (Some states like California allow parties obtain “unilateral” evaluations without a court order; other states require permission from the court.) A “unilateral” evaluator is an evaluator hired by

Continue reading "Pre-maturely Litigating Psychological & Custody Evaluations" »

WARNING: Never attempt to litigate a "move-away" case on your own. As every divorce attorney in California who has filed or defended a "move away" case will tell you, this area of law is fraught with fatal technicalities and a single innocent mistep can cost you your relationship with your children.

The Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act ("UCCJEA") is the controlling law. This statute has been adopted, with some minor modifications, in every state. We have litigated a number of "move-away" cases with great success.

One recent case involved a Nigerian couple residing in New Jersey. (Foreign nationals living in the U.S. are subject to the UCCJEA. Custody disputes in which one parent resides in the United States and the other parent resides in foreign country may be covered by the Hague Convention.) They had one young child and Mother decided she wanted to move to California. Father had to stay in New Jersey. Mother moved without Father's consent and Father retained us.

At the hearing on jurisdiction, the New Jersey court and the California court conferred with each other telephonically, which is what the law requires courts to do when determining which state has jurisdiction. We were present in Pasadena and were able to satisfy the court that New Jersey had jurisdiction. Producing this result "tipped" the case in Father's favor and within a month, Father was able to secure substantial custody rights in New Jersey.

Continue reading "Divorce "Move-Aways" from Los Angeles" »