New York Family Law Blog

Published on: June 14, 2011

Same-sex Nebraska City couple denied divorce

by Stephen Bilkis

A Nebraska district court judge denied a divorce to a same-sex couple on Tuesday. The couple got married in 2003 when they lived in Vermont.

The judge said that according to Nebraska Constitution, Nebraska does not see them as a married couple, a New York Family Lawyer stated. According to the constitution, “only marriage between a man and a woman shall be valid or recognized in Nebraska,” the judge said.

Nebraska does not see the marriage as validate and he cannot dissolve the union. Nebraska is not the only state that does not recognize same-sex marriages. Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Texas and Rhode Island also have similar constitution.

Published on: June 13, 2011

Bill Reintroduced to Congress: Same-Sex Couples to Sponsor Foreign Partners

by Stephen Bilkis

About two months ago, the Obama Administration announced that it would not defend the Defense of Marriage Act, the controversial act that restricts federal benefits for heterosexual couples. Since that announcement, Immigration Equality, a nonprofit based in Washington and New York that advocates in favor of gay immigrants, announced its plans to challenge the immigration law affecting same-sex couples.

As a New York Family Lawyer relates, gay couples face a conundrum when one of the two is a foreign national. They have to make hard decisions. Either the immigrant partner has to live in the shadows of America, hiding and becoming paranoid, or both have to move to a more accommodating country. The decision to leave your country of birth is a monumental leap, and some wonder why it should even have to be considered.

A NYC Family Lawyer shares that under current legislation, heterosexual couples can sponsor their spouse for visas or green cards. Recently, however, U.S. lawmakers reintroduced a bill that will allow gay Americans to do the same with their same-sex partners. The Uniting American Families Act was introduced in both the House and the Senate, and has the largest number of supporters it’s had since 2000 when it was introduced. While the bill has remained stagnant for the last decade, now there are 98 cosponsors of the bill in the House and 18 in the Senate. If passed, UAFA will allow Americans to sponsor their gay “permanent partner,” who is defined as someone who has the intention of maintaining a lifelong intimate relationship with his or her partner. Same sex marriage is on the agenda in counties like Brooklyn and The Bronx.

Published on: June 12, 2011

Charlie Sheen’s Twins not in His Custody

by Stephen Bilkis

Actor Charlie Sheen has stumbled into a mess of recent struggles. The latest rebuff came when his petition to take custody of his twin sons from his estranged wife, Brooke Mueller, was shot down in court. The custody is to remain as an earlier custody agreement outlines. According to a New York City Family Attorney, those records have so far been kept confidential.

Both Sheen and Mueller were at the hearing. It is public knowledge that both have been struggling with sobriety for quite a while. In fact, Mueller just recently returned to rehab.

After the hearing, Sheen left the courthouse surrounded by his security detail and flew straight out to Washington D.C. to perform his stage show. When Mueller left the courthouse she was smiling and even hugged her attorney. She declined to comment, however.

Published on: June 11, 2011

16-Year-Old Mother Arrested After Taking Own Child

by Stephen Bilkis

Daytona Beach police told of a 16-year-old mother who was arrested after taking her baby from a foster home agency that worked with abused and neglected children to give them new homes.

The girl and her baby had been taken to Community Partnership for Children in Daytona Beach, Florida. She was brought in by a caseworker from Jacksonville.

Once the girl understood she and her child were going to be separated, she sent texts to two of her friends, asking them to come pick her up, investigators told NYC Family Lawyers. According to police, she took her baby and ran to the car.

Published on: June 8, 2011

Stepmother accused of murder and severe abuse

by Stephen Bilkis

Authorities continue to search for the missing head of 10-year-old disabled girl, Zahra after a long search revealed her desecrated body, said New York Family Lawyers.

Elise Baker, 42, is accused of abusing, murdering and dismembering the girl’s body, according to NYC Family Lawyer reports. Coroner reports said Zahra died “as a result of undetermined homicidal violence.”

The child’s remains were found spread between two different locations with two different types of tool marks on her bones. The coroner concluded she had died before she was dismembered and that animals had eaten her flesh. There are many cases of abuse which arise in Brooklyn and The Bronx but none as gruesome as this one.

Published on: June 7, 2011

Same-Sex Married Couples Present Tax Complications

by Stephen Bilkis

Most people can just visit a tax consultant or fire up a computer to easily figure out their taxes. Married same-sex couples in California don’t have it quite that easy. Such marriages aren’t recognized by the federal government, which makes legal issues regarding them murky, to stay the least.

“So many people don’t know what the new federal tax requirements are and they affect 2010,” a tax attorney stated.

The tax attorney noted that, for the first time, registered same-sex couples in California must have a combined income on federal tax returns. This means if one partner makes $25,000 and the other $45,000, for a total of $70,000, they each have to file as if they made $35,000. The federal government does not recognize their marriage, so they have to each file $35,000 on separate federal returns.

Published on: June 7, 2011

A new law would require counseling before be granted a divorce

by Stephen Bilkis

There has been a lot of debate concerning this new law that would require couples to get professional counseling before being allowed a legal divorce. There would be a few exceptions to this new rule. Domestic abuse would be one of the exceptions, according to a New York Family Lawyer. People are upset and they don’t want the government to have the right to get that involved in their marriages.

About half of all marriages end in divorce and some law makers are doing their best to lower that number. Once divorced, if you remarry that percentage of divorce goes well over fifty percent.

Vince Lindgren stated, “Coming to a marriage counselor can give them some ideas about things that they haven’t thought about that they can start thinking about breaking some patterns that might be destructive.”

Published on: June 5, 2011

Jury finds man guilty after he killed a young child while driving under the influence of alcohol,

by Stephen Bilkis

A man and his girlfriend made a crucial and deadly mistake when they made the decision to let the man drive her young son home after she was arrested one evening, revealed a New York City Family Lawyer. In Manhattan and Long Island this crime is considered the ultimate in Child Abuse.

After his girlfriend left with police, the drunken man got behind the wheel, and shortly after while driving too fast, he hit a tree, slammed into a cyclone fence and killed the 5-year-old boy who was in the back seat.

When police arrived on the scene the boy was already dead and after some testing, they concluded the man’s blood alcohol level was twice the legal limit.

Published on: June 3, 2011

A mom shoots her two children after they talk back

by Stephen Bilkis

A mom has been charged with shooting and killing her two children, a New York Family Lawyer has indicated. She is being held without bail until the trial.

Month’s earlier police went to her house after being called about a physical abuse incident. The mom had been fighting with her teen daughter. Her 16 year old daughter claimed she was slapped in the face multiple times after arguing with her mother. No physical injuries were seen so the mom was not arrested at that time, according to a New York Family Attorney. This was the first time police ever had a call concerning the mother.

“It appeared to just be typical tensions that parents have with teenagers,” police spokeswoman Laura McElroy said. “The daughter had talked back; the mother slapped her for it. The daughter was upset that she had been punished and then she also expressed regret for the things she had said to her mother, and she knew that she was wrong. Certainly none of that would be an indication that it was going to rise to the level of a mother killing her children.” The police feel that they did everything according to the law and no action could have been taken against the mother that would have prevented this horrible action.

Published on: May 3, 2011

Judge denies woman the rights to half of her husband’s virtual assets,

by Stephen Bilkis

Technology and gaming has come a long way in the last few years. It is ironic that people will spend real world money to acquire virtual world goods, as in things that do not really exist. People who take their gaming life seriously place an extreme amount of value on virtual acquisitions, even though realistically they have no monetary value, reports a New York Family Lawyer.   Now the two worlds have collided, as a married couple who is seeking divorce have begun arguing over, in all seriousness, virtual assets, such as points, levels achieved in the various games that they play online, keys to virtual castles and perhaps even virtual plants, tells the New York Family Lawyer. While it may seem ridiculous to haggle over who gets the virtual dog, apparently such arguments are necessary when two gaming geeks go at it.   Reports by the New York Family Lawyer follow the case of this couple who actually took the argument to court. When the couple married, all of the virtual accounts for the games that they played together were put into the husband’s name. The couple must have amassed a veritable illusory fortune in gold nuggets and healing crystals; enough that the woman was not about to start over in her quests and begin at point zero once the marriage had been dissolved. The judge ruled in favor of the husband, and the wife, who in all honesty was going after an intangible nothing to begin with, will get exactly that. It makes the case for keeping ones gaming accounts separate in instances where such a dispute could become an issue in the future.   Division of assets after a divorce can be a tedious process.

A New York Family Attorney can assist in the amicable and fair distribution of assets once a marriage has been dissolved. Call a reputable New York Family Attorney today if separation or divorce is becoming a factor in your marriage.