Orange County Divorce Lawyer Blog

An Associated Press article that has been republished throughout the national media this week notes a growing trend in custody cases here in California and elsewhere: claims by one spouse/ex-spouse that medical marijuana use by the other renders that person an unfit parent.

Though focused mainly on Washington state, the piece quotes a representative of a California group, Americans for Safe Access, saying "her organization has received calls about 61 such cases" over the last four years.

Southern California child custody and visitation cases are often contentious. Parents play hardball with one another over Orange County, Los Angeles County and San Bernardino child custody issues. It is often only through aggressive legal representation that accused parents can avoid situations that rise to the level of California parental alienation and maintain the kind of relationship with their children that they want and deserve. The AP article cites several instances of fathers or stepfathers reduced to limited or supervised visitation with their children because they are medical marijuana patients. These court rulings have been issued despite a specific provision in Washington's medical marijuana law mandating that authorized users "shall not be penalized in any manner, or denied any right or privilege."

As the article details, these California and other state child custody disputes tend to turn on two issues: potential substance abuse and federal versus state law. Just as a judge can take alcohol abuse into account when determining custody, despite the fact that alcohol is a legal substance, so judges in states where medical marijuana use is permitted have the ability to consider accusations by one parent that the other is abusing the drug. Beyond that lies the fact that whatever various states say, marijuana use remains a crime under federal law. Though the feds have largely chosen not to pursue such prosecutions, this fact that marijuana use remains forbidden can leave parents involved in California custody disputes in a legal grey area if they are also medical marijuana patients.

These difficult issues are the kind of problems best addressed with the assistance of an experienced Orange County family law attorney. Medical marijuana and other potential substance use/abuse issues can be complicating factors in any Southern California child custody dispute. The best way to address them is with the help of an Orange County child custody lawyer who can defend your interests aggressively and, in doing so, help you maintain the substantive, loving relationship with your children that you deserve and they need.

AP: Medical pot can cost parents in custody disputes

NBC Bay Area: Medical marijuana weighing on child custody disputes

The latest round in the continuing struggle over parental alienation and father's rights is being fought on Long Island, but contains lessons for Orange County parents battling California parental alienation.

According to a report by WCBS-TV, a Long Island judge has sentenced a woman to alternating summer weekends in jail for alienating her two daughters from their father, in the process denying him child visitation rights. On one occasion the mother also falsely accused the father of molesting one of the girls. "Right now, the children want nothing to do with me," Ted Rubin told the New York Post. According to the paper, Rubin's ex-wife Lauren Lippe was found guilty of numerous violations of the couple's joint custody decree.

The victory for this long-suffering father can be taken to heart by other fathers dealing with difficult, sometimes impossible, divorce situations. According to WCBS, Rubin and Lippe divorced in 2003. Rubin says the problems began almost immediately (the couple's girls are now ages 13 and 15), and has reached a point where they now tell him their stepfather, is their "real father".

According to the Post the judge blamed the mother for "deliberately alienating" the girls from their father. One has to ask, however, whether six summer weekends in jail is really going to change this pattern of behavior. News reports indicate that Rubin will take care of the girls while their mother is in prison, but they also create an impression of damage that runs so deep that it can hardly be undone over the course of a few summer weekends.

Here in California, where parental alienation and father's rights were debated by the legislature earlier this year, the New York case can serve as a reminder of the difficulties Orange County fathers can have obtaining justice from the court system. A Southern California father's rights attorney can be one of your most important allies in your fight for justice and the relationship with your children that you want and deserve. The court system can often seem to be stacked against fathers. An Orange County parental alienation lawyer can help you fight the system.

WCBS-TV: Ex-wife gets jail for alienating kids from dad

New York Post: Shrew ruined dream life

A recent news item from Utah presents one of the odder cases of child custody fraud in recent memory. According to the Salt Lake City Tribune, a couple are in custody after allegedly forging documents to gain legal custody of their two grandchildren: a two year old and an infant, aged only four months.

According to the Tribune, the children's parents are separated. The accused couple are the paternal grandparents. The case began to unfold in mid-February when the children left home for what their mother thought would be an overnight visit to the grandparents. She could not, however, reach them the following day. Upon contacting the police she discovered that, unbeknownst to her, a court had awarded custody of her children to the grandparents. The children continued to live with the grandparents for the next several weeks. During that time the grandparents did not allow the mother to see them. Reviewing court papers associated with the child custody decision, the mother's attorney found a document supposedly signed by the mother in which she relinquished her parental rights to the grandparents. The document was a forgery and the paper reports that the court then moved swiftly to reverse its earlier decision. In the meantime, the grandparents took the children, closed up their house and left Utah, telling neighbors they were moving to California.

Police eventually located the couple in Las Vegas where, the newspaper says, the grandmother "told investigators they would not return the children." Police eventually convinced her to reveal her location, after which Nevada child services took custody of the kids. The grandparents returned to Utah and turned themselves in.

Aside from a number of obvious How-Could-This-Have-Happened questions (such as: how did the Utah court wind up accepting a forged document concerning something as serious and unusual as a mother surrendering her parental rights to two small children?) this case - though highly unusual - is a useful reminder for all of us here in California of the importance of careful, detail-oriented representation by an Orange County child custody lawyer at the earliest stages of any Southern California child visitation and custody dispute.

An Orange County custody and visitation attorney can help you make a clear-eyed assessment of your circumstances, determining whether a developing separation or California divorce runs the risk of child abduction or California parental alienation. The earlier in the process you seek legal advice, the better the chances are that potential problems can be identified and addressed before they reach a critical stage.

Salt Lake City Tribune: Grandparents accused of forging papers to get custody of grandkids

A bill currently being considered by the Tennessee state legislature has attracted the attention of father's rights advocates nationwide, and promises to add new vigor to the debate over California father's rights.

According to a recent article in USA Today, as well as local Tennessee media reports, the proposed legislation would require judges hearing contentious child custody cases to split custody evenly between the mother and father if the parents are otherwise unable to resolve their differences. Father's rights groups across the country have hailed the initiative while, according to USA Today, "an alliance of women's groups, some judges and the Tennessee Bar Association... say the change would make divorces tougher to settle and give abusive ex-husbands leverage they shouldn't have."

The Tennessee controversy echoes the father's rights debate we are currently having here in Orange County and elsewhere in California as our own legislature considers California parental alienation legislation. It is unfortunate that some partisan voices are skewing these legislative debates by implying that Orange County or Los Angeles father's rights advocates are, by definition, attempting to protect the rights of abusers. According to a University of Memphis law professor quoted by USA Today, the proposed law would make Tennessee unique in the nation in "requiring clear, convincing evidence that one parent is unfit before dividing child custody unequally."

The immediate controversy generated by measures like these, be they in California or Tennessee, highlights the importance of having a strong California father's rights lawyer on your side during any Orange County child custody and visitation dispute. It is unfortunate, but sadly true, that many spouses will attempt to paint a biased and unfair picture of the other during an Orange County divorce proceeding. Effective and experienced Orange County legal representation is your best defense in such a situation, where a spouse or ex-spouse may be trying to press a California parental alienation claim against you.

USA Today: Tennessee moves to split custody evenly in messy divorces

WPTY/WLMT Memphis: Bill seeks to evenly split child custody in messy divorces

California parental alienation has been the subject of competing columns in recent issues of the Sacramento political newspaper Capitol Weekly. Interest in the issue has been spurred by the introduction of a bill in the State Assembly, AB 612. The bill declares California parental alienation to be an "unscientific theory" and, if adopted, would bar California family courts from considering parental alienation as part of custody hearings.

AB 612 was originally introduced early last year and began making its way through the legislative process before being set aside over the summer. According to the legislature's online bill tracking system, the first hearings on the measure were cancelled last July at the request of the measure's sponsor, Assemblyman Jim Beall (D-San Jose). The bill is not, however, dead and is scheduled to be considered by the California Senate's Judiciary Committee later this spring.

The competing articles in Capitol Weekly lay out the two sides of the issue in forceful language. The measure's supporters reject the entire idea of parental alienation seeing it, in essence, as a legal fig leaf designed to return battered children to the custody of an abusive parent.

California parental alienation advocates, however, oppose the measure. They argue that while no one favors child abuse, it is ridiculous to suggest that parents involved in contentious California divorce proceedings do not sometimes attempt to poison their children's attitudes toward the other parent.

The anti-AB 612 column in the Weekly also notes that a number of legal and judicial professional organizations have expressed opposition to the measure, including "the Judicial Council; the California Judges Association; the Family Law section of the State Bar; the California Psychological Association; the Association of Certified Family Law Specialists; the Association of Family Conciliation Courts; and numerous others." Legal and judicial organizations have voiced concerns over any measure that would limit the scope of information a judge is able to consider during a California custody hearing.

Continue reading "California Parental Alienation Emerging as Issue in Legislature" »

Another tale of an international child custody battle now focuses on the case of Orange County's own Andrew Ko and his 9 year old twins.

In August of 2009, the divorced father tossed around a football with his 9-year-old twins, Christopher and William, after visiting their grandmother in Newport Beach, California.
The next day, Aug. 30, he played basketball with them before their piano lesson. Their mother, Mei Wang, came by at 6 p.m. that Sunday to pick them up. Ko did the "1, 2, 3" routine with his sons: a tap of foreheads, kisses, and then hugs. "See you Wednesday!'' he told them. He didn't.

On Aug. 31, 2009, when the twins' mother was supposed to take her sons to school, Wang, 45, instead put them on a plane and fled with them to her native Singapore - defying a court order and launching her ex-husband on an international crusade to get them back.

Continue reading "Custody Battle surrounds Orange County's Andrew Ko" »

A growing international custody battle involving a New Jersey police officer and his ex-wife, a native of the Persian Gulf island nation of Bahrain, includes a Southern California custody aspect. According to a recent report in the Philadelphia Daily News Jeff Walding's ex-wife, Deana Jahani, was living in Southern California until last summer when she traveled to Bahrain with the couple's 8 year old daughter.

International custody battles can be among the most complex, and emotionally draining, California child custody disputes. A recent high profile case pitting an American father against his Brazilian former in-laws took five years to resolve. In Walding and Jahani's case, the Daily News reports, the couple had been awarded joint custody with their daughter residing with her mother and attending school in Southern California. Last summer, Jahani took the girl to Bahrain for a vacation. Walding told the paper that his ex made repeated excuses (such as flight delays) for failing to return to the United States, before emailing him at Christmas to announce that she planned to stay in the Gulf. Both Walding and Jahani have set up facebook pages seeking to enlist supporters for their respective sides in the custody dispute.

Walding has filed a family court petition to be declared parent of primary residence. The petition also seeks to bar his ex-wife from traveling overseas with their daughter without his permission - a stipulation that, of course, would only be enforceable were Jahani to return to the United States in the first place. The paper reports that New Jersey courts denied a similar request at the time of the couple's divorce in 2007, despite Jahani having already, at that time, taken the girl to Bahrain for 10 months on one occasion. As the Brazilian case highlights, however, even winning such a judgment can be only the first step in an exceedingly long and complex legal process for a parent to win and obtain custody of a child abducted by an ex-spouse.

If you are a Southern California parent who finds him or herself in this tragic position (or fears that as a marriage dissolves you may), consulting with a Los Angeles or Orange County child custody lawyer at the earliest opportunity is imperative. Fighting for your rights in California family court can be difficult, especially for fathers. A Costa Mesa father's rights attorney is an essential ally as you navigate our complex, and often confusing, legal system. With international custody cases sometimes taking years to resolve, it is important to have a California custody attorney who will fight for you working on your behalf from Day One.

Philadelphia Daily News: N.J. dad fears custody battle is at point of no return

A recent commentary in the Glendale News-Press spotlighted what the author, Kathie Mathis, identifies as a series of shortcomings in the California family court system. Mathis, a former director of domestic violence programs at the Glendale YWCA, says a "conservative estimate" holds that 58,000 children each year are ordered into unsupervised contact with predatory or abusive parents and notes several California family law remedies currently being considered by legislators in Sacramento.

Whether or not you agree with Mathis' positions on these issues (a link to her column can be found at the bottom of this post), her concerns highlight the necessity of top-notch legal representation for anyone faced with Orange County family law issues. Orange County custody and visitation disputes often arise during divorce proceedings. In the months and years after divorce an unequal settlement can lead to claims of parental alienation. In our adversarial justice system the assistance of an experienced Orange County child custody lawyer is critical when confronted with the complexities and stress of the California family courts.

Mathis' commentary offers a checklist of actions one can take to help improve protections for children in Orange County family court. One particular suggestion bears repetition: her call to voters to do some research and to begin taking judicial elections more seriously, rather than simply picking "one (name) to fill in your ballot."

An Orange County family law attorney can be a critical ally in guiding you through our court system and protecting your rights as a parent.

Glendale News-Press: Community Commentary - A Crisis in Family Courts