Recently in Child Custody Category

Many of our laws and statutes are based on centuries-old English customs and are known as common law, such as those forbidding murder and theft, as outlined by LawBrain. But others take time to develop, often through the court system, and often can be traced back to specific stories.

The divorce and custody dispute of a New York couple married in 1804, for example, set the groundwork for U.S. child custody law, according to a St. Louis Post-Dispatch article. Quite a bit has changed in the 200 years since, but the story provides a glimpse into the origins of current custody law.

Several states are considering various pieces of legislation, according to the Christian Science Monitor, including a Massachusetts "father's rights" bill seeking to create the presumption of joint custody. Other states are mulling laws that would limit the duration of alimony payments.

And yet, as Chicago family law attorneys also would point out, the article highlights three fundamental problems unlikely to be addressed by new legislation that usually cause the most tension for families going through divorce:    

1. Litigation costs of child custody and alimony disputes
2. Deferring control of child care and financial decisions to the courts
3. Extra stress placed on the children as a result of the antagonism caused by litigation

A Seattle-area court denied prosecutors' request for an order to prevent a pregnant woman convicted of starving her infant child from having contact with her newborn, due in less than one month, the Seattle times reported. Brittainy and Samuel Labberton's two children were removed from the couple's custody after their infant was found starving; the mother also had threatened to kill their older child.

Prosecutor Sean O'Donnell told the court that Brittainy Labberton starved her baby because she thought the dangerously underweight child was getting fat. The homeless couple hopes to get their children back as they await the birth of their third.

Typically, courts base such decisions on the best interests of the child, as an Illinois family lawyer also would say.

Orange County Superior Court Commissioner Thomas Schulte ruled that celebrity mechanic and former Sandra Bullock hubby Jesse James is entitled to physical custody of daughter Sunny and can take her from California to his new home in Texas, according to the Long Beach Press-Telegram.

Six-year-old Sunny's mother, former porn actress Janine Lindemulder, was granted extended time with her daughter when the girl is on vacation from school. She had been granted shared physical and legal custody two years ago, but modified the order after she was convicted of tax evasion.

Richard Masson, Janine Lindemulder's attorney, asked the judge if he'd reconsider if his client also moved to Texas, prompting her to shout, "I'll move, I'll move!" Commissioner Thomas Schulte said he'd reconsider.

Divorce and child custody proceedings are stressful, anyone who's gone through the process would tell you, and this stress often carries over into the workplace. But workers can't afford to risk losing their jobs in the current economy, especially when considering the costs associated with a divorce and custody case, as a Kansas City Star article explores.

Fortunately it seems as though the legal community is paying attention.

Mitchell Karpf, who chairs the American Bar Association's Section of Family Law, organized a Families Matter Symposium last month as a way of addressing workplace stress and other concerns. It's likely that a few Chicago family law attorneys were in attendance.

An article by the Maryland Daily Record (subscription), republished by the Family Law Prof Blog, tells the "shaggy dog" story of a divorced couple that was granted joint custody of their Lhaso Apso, Lucky. Usually, as explained by FindLaw, the law treats family dogs much like "a table or a lamp" when divorcing couples divvy up marital property.

So this is quite an unusual case.

You'd be hard-pressed to find a similar court order among Illinois' family court records, but Chicago family law attorneys might have a better handle on how the state's courts deal with family pets.

Mel Gibson, the actor and director famous for the "Lethal Weapon" series, is under investigation by the Los Angeles Sheriff's Dept. on allegations that he physically abused ex-flame Oksana Grigorieva, Fox News reported. He could serve as many as four years in prison if charged and convicted for felony assault.

The two have an 8-month-old daughter, Lucia Gibson, and are in the middle of a bitter custody battle. And as any Illinois family lawyer would attest, a domestic abuse conviction (especially on felony charges) would not exactly help the "Passion of the Christ" director's odds of gaining custody of his daughter.  

A child custody battle pitting an adoptive Southern California woman against an Ohio man she claims doesn't have a relationship with the child shows how messy interstate family law issues can be, as covered by the Associated Press. Judges and attorneys in Orange County, California and in Montgomery County, Ohio hashed out the details via teleconference.

After much debate and discussion, it was decided that Ohio's jurisdiction takes precedence. An Illinois family law attorney can fully explain how interstate custody disputes are handled, although each one is unique.

The unnamed biological father of the 2-year-old child is seeking custody but allegedly has not made an effort to be an involved parent. Adoptive mother Stacey Doss has been raising the girl ever since she was an infant and believes the child would be better off with the only parent figure she has ever known.

More than 200,000 children under the age of 18 are living in households headed by their grandparents, according to the Illinois Dept. on Aging. Milly Kaiser, a life educator with the University of Illinois Extension, told Suburban Journals that this number has increased by more than 50 percent in Illinois over the past 13 years.

Older adults find themselves in the position of raising their children's children for a variety of reasons and circumstances. In order to ensure the child's needs are properly taken care of, it helps to contact an Illinois family law attorney and establish legal guardianship.

The Dept. of Aging lists the following reasons why grandparents often find themselves raising their grandchildren: Abuse, neglect, substance abuse, unemployment, incarceration and death.

An international child custody dispute involving a Frankfort man, his 15-year-old son and the boy's mother, as reported by the Southtown Star, has few easy answers.

The state of Illinois wants Gerardo Serrano to pay back child support in honor of a Polish court order, but he insists that his son was kidnapped a decade ago and that he is the custodial parent of the child.

Making matters even more confusing, the father has Cook County court orders saying his son was "unlawfully removed" by his mother and that he does not owe child support.