New York Family Law Blog

Published on: May 14, 2012

Parent’s Visitation Rights Suspended

by Stephen Bilkis

A husband and wife had two children of their own and the wife had a child by a former partner. All of the children are minors. The ACS filed petitions in family court alleging that the eldest child, the wife’s child by another former partner was neglected. ACS alleged that the husband and wife inflicted excessive corporal punishment on the child resulting in bruises on the child. The mother beat the child using an extension cord while her husband punched the child.

A New York Family Lawyer said the ACS also filed a petition of derivative neglect upon the two younger children of the couple alleging that since these two minors witnessed the abuse of the eldest minor child, they were considered derivatively neglected as well.

After a hearing at the family court, A Nassau County Family Lawyer said the children were ordered removed from the home of their parents. The eldest child was placed with his great grandfather on the mother’s side, his nearest relative.

Published on: May 12, 2012

Court Decides Custody Dispute

by Stephen Bilkis

A husband and wife separated in 1982. In their separation agreement, the former spouses agreed that the mother would have child custody and the father would have reasonable visitation rights upon 48 hours’ notice. A New York Family Lawyer said the mother also agreed that the mother would not remove the children more than 200 miles away from New York without their father’s consent. The separation agreement was entered into as a stipulated agreement of a custody petition filed by the father in the family court of New York. The father’s visitation rights were specified to be weekdays and weekend visitation on his days off from work up to a maximum of ten days per month.

A year later, the father applied to the family court to vacate the stipulated agreement because the mother had moved his children to California without his knowledge or consent. The father also moved for child custody be removed from his wife and to be given to him instead.

The mother opposed the motion stating that her husband agreed for her to move to California with their children. She also alleged that her husband who was a New York police officer often threatened her and her children with violence. She also alleged that the father did not frequently visit his children. A New York Custody Lawyer said he visited them for only ten days within a one year period. She also states that in California, she lives in the same house with her two brothers who help her take care of her children. Her parents also live nearby and see the children often.

Published on: May 11, 2012

Court Unravels Money Laundering Scheme

by Stephen Bilkis

Seven insurance companies are the plaintiffs in this case and they are appealing a decision that was made in favor of the defendant, Dreyfus Service Corporation granting a summary judgment dismissing the case. A New York Family Lawyer said that throughout the decade of the 90s, the insurance companies were looted by a fraud scheme that was perpetrated by Martin Frankel. The insurance companies (the receivers) in the original case at hand were seeking to impose civil RICO liability and tort on Dreyfus Service Corporation as they were the investment company that was used by Frankel to funnel money through the funds of the insurance companies.

The district court heard the case and reviewed the federal and New York laws in the manner granted a summary judgment that was in favor of the defendant for each claim made by the insurance companies. For the court came to the conclusion that there were 8 accounts where no duty came to the seven insurance companies and the receivers failed to exhibit causation for the other 5 accounts regarding the tort claims. The court decided that there was no way to find anyone at Dreyfus Service Corporation who deliberately ignored the money laundering activities of Frankel in regard to the RICO claim.

A Nassau County Family Lawyer said the plaintiffs are appealing this initial verdict of a summary judgment in favor of the defendant.

Published on: May 11, 2012

Court Rules on Custody Battle

by Stephen Bilkis

Sometime in January 2004, the parties in the herein case got married. On 13 July 2006, about a year and a half later, the parties were separated and got divorced. They are the parents of a now six-year-old boy born on 17 May 2004. The stipulation settling the divorce case granted the mother legal and physical custody of the child. The father had visitation every week from Monday at 8:00 p.m. until Wednesday at 6:00 p.m. The stipulation allowed relocation within 25-miles of the father’s house in the Bronx.

A New York Family Lawyer said the father has had a history of irregular employment and is currently not employed. While at the time of trial, the mother, who is remarried, cared for her younger child from her second marriage, full time.

After the parties separated, the mother remained in the marital apartment in the Bronx with the child for two years. In the fall of 2007, she began working as a project administrator in the construction field. In 2007, she moved with the child and her boyfriend to Connecticut. The mother testified that she always wanted her son to be in a suburban environment. However, the relationship in Connecticut ended when the boyfriend returned to his native country, New Zealand. Hence, the mother then returned to New York with the child and moved into an apartment in Harlem.

Published on: May 10, 2012

Court Decides on Relocation of Child

by Stephen Bilkis

In the instant proceeding, the petitioner/father seeks to modify custody and enjoin the parties’ six and half year old child (“the child”) from relocating with the custodial parent, the respondent/mother to the Aramco compound in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.

A New York Family Lawyer said the respondent opposes the petition to modify custody and requests permission to allow their child to permanently reside in Saudi Arabia with respondent, respondent’s husband or the child’s “Step-Father” and the child’s two half-siblings.

Is it in the child’s best interest to award petitioner custody and compel the child to remain in New York with petitioner or to maintain custody with respondent and allow the child to relocate to the Aramco compound in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia?

Published on: May 9, 2012

Appellant Contends Court Lacked Jurisdiction

by Stephen Bilkis

A lawsuit appeal arises out from a family court decision that the court has lacked authority in a custody modification proceeding after a mother fled with her five-year-old son to another country in the middle of the proceeding. A New York Family Lawyer said the court however reversed the said decision.

A complainant father is a United States citizen and his wife as an Italian national who is also a United States citizen and has one child, born in Italy and has dual citizenship.

Apparently, a decision of the divorce was entered in New York. The court finds that it had no authority over custody issues of the child because the boy had lived in New York for only 9 out of his 27 months since birth. As a result, there were no court orders in New York with regard to child custody, visitation or maintenance. Subsequent in filing of the proceedings, the mother filed same proceedings in Rome and the father was permitted to the court in Rome to enter orders for child custody and visitation.

Published on: May 8, 2012

Court Determines Custody Issue

by Stephen Bilkis

A former husband filed a petition to modify a divorce decree order made by another court and seeks a sole custody of his son. A decree of divorce was filed and was made by the Supreme Court. The basis of authority for the decree was a separation agreement entered into between the couple which had been adhered to by them for one year prior to the commencement of the proceeding. A New York Family Lawyer said the separation agreement entered into between the husband and his wife was filed in the county clerk’s office. The terms of the separation agreement were included but not merged in the decree of divorce.

The decree ordered that all matters arising in the future pertaining to the enforcement of the decree or to requested modifications of any provision whether pertaining to child support, visitation or child custody, be and the same are referred to a family court or to the appropriate court having authority to the issue. A Nassau County Family Lawyer said the separation agreement indicates that the couple was married and lived in New York and the wife shall have custody of the children of the marriage. The husband’s visitation rights were outlined in some detail.

The issue came on for a proceeding and the father appeared by counsel but the mother failed to appear. The court was informed that the child who is the subject in the proceeding lives in Connecticut but runs away and is in New York with the father.

Published on: May 7, 2012

Defendant Contends 14th Amendment Rights were Violated

by Stephen Bilkis

A trained undercover state police officer has purchased heroin from a seller (herein respondent) through the open doorway of an apartment. Subsequently, the police undercover described the seller to another police officer as being a colored man, approximately five feet eleven inches tall, dark complexion, black hair, short Afro style, and having high cheekbones, and of heavy build. A New York Family Lawyer said such other police officer, suspecting from the description that respondent might be the seller, then left a police photograph of respondent at the office of the police undercover, who viewed it two days later and identified it as the picture of the seller.

Consequently, respondent was charged with possession and sale of heroin, a drug crime in violation of the criminal law.

At trial, the aforesaid photograph was received in evidence without objection and the police undercover testified that there was no doubt that the person shown in the photograph was respondent and also made a positive in-court identification without objection.

Published on: May 6, 2012

Mother Takes Child Out of State Due to Abuse Suspicions

by Stephen Bilkis

The father, who is thirty-two years of age, and the mother, who is thirty years old were married in New York. A New York Family Lawyer said while married, the father worked as a first grade teacher and the mother worked as a mandarin interpreter. The couple knew each other for only a short time prior to their marriage, at which point, the mother became pregnant with their child. The mother gave birth to a son and at the time of the son’s birth the couple was living separately. However, during the early days of the marriage, the couple lived at the mother’s relative’s residence in Brooklyn. A great amount of the couple’s marriage can be characterized as tumultuous and there were incidents of domestic violence.

The father commenced a divorce action alleging cruel and inhuman treatment. Initially, the mother appeared without a counsel but later retained one. The mother was allegedly served with the summons with notice in an action for divorce at a Family Court.

In support of her request that she be awarded full legal child custody, the mother alleges that the father is merely trying to avoid paying child support and that he does not really care about child custody. A Nassau County Family Lawyer said she argues that, until recently, the father lacked involvement with the child since the child was conceived. The mother contends that the father demanded a paternity test to prove his relationship to the child, but even after paternity was established, the father had little to do with the child. The mother avers that, as recently as 2005, the father was willing to forego child custody, in favor of the mother.

Published on: May 5, 2012

Court Rules of Visitation Issue

by Stephen Bilkis

A man and his wife were residents of California and were married in California in October 1975. Their daughter was born also in California on January 29, 1977. Two years after their marriage and not soon after their daughter was born, their marital problems drove them to a trial separation.

A New York Family Lawyer said the mother and the daughter came to New York. The father joined them in New York and stayed with them for six weeks but he returned to California. A year after that, in 1978, the mother and her daughter returned to California. They stayed there until 1979. After this, the mother and her daughter returned to New York and continued to live there.

The husband who stayed in California filed a divorce proceeding in the Superior Court of California. A New York Custody Lawyer said the judge there ordered their divorce and awarded sole child custody of their daughter to the mother and gave the father reasonable visitation rights.