Once you’re divorced, you and your ex-spouse need different car insurance policies. If the two of you have a teenager who needs car insurance, it may be a little confusing to decide whose insurance policy (yours or your ex-spouse’s) your teenager should be covered under. We’d like to help clear this type of situation up.
If you have primary custody of your teen, it’s likely best that you place your child on your own insurance. If, however, they have access to a car at your ex-spouse’s home, your ex-spouse should check with their insurance carrier to see if they need to have your teenager on their policy as well.
If you and your ex-spouse share joint custody, and your teenager has access to cars at both homes, it’s best to add them to both of your policies.
If your teenage driver spends most of their time at your ex’s home, they should be listed under their policy. If, however, they do drive a car at your home, you should ask your insurance carrier if they need to be covered under your policy as well.
According to studies by The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and State Farm, setting clear rules can cut the potential of a teenager having a car accident in half. Parents should also pay attention to where their kids are driving and with whom. It’s also important to have rules about when your teenager can borrow your car. They should be required to request permission to use your car, and research says controlling access to your car keys, “at least for the first six to 12 months after a teen gets a license, is one of the best things parents can do to keep their kids safe.”
According to research, the way in which you set the rules is just as important as the rules you set. Your teenager needs to know that your rules are set in place for their own safety, and not just to control them.
With that said, it’s important that you and your ex-spouse, even if there is resentment, come to an solid agreement regarding the rules you set for your teenager’s driving privileges and that you both stick to those rules.
While no divorce is ever easy, some divorces are the epitome of divorce gone wrong. Rational thinking is absent and emotions become explosive. As the crazy side of yourself and your partner emerges, you find yourselves arguing over the “kitchen sink.” Maintaining a rational perspective can be difficult, and for this reason it is vital to hire a seasoned divorce lawyer. A divorce attorney will protect your interests and advise so you can listen to a voice of reason.
It is important to consult with a lawyer early on in a divorce case to avoid unnecessary entanglements. Don’t allow your emotions to get the best of you. Attorney Chris Palermo offers compassionate legal help and can help you protect their rights.
In 1989 People magazine reported about a network called “Children of the Underground.” Faye Yager emerged as the movement’s leader. This movement helped men and women hide their kids as a way of escaping partners they alleged were abusive, but to whom the courts granted custody.
Newsweek reported that the United States Department of Justice estimates family members abducted 203,900 children in 1999, which is the most recent year for records estimating child abduction. By comparison, this is more than triple the number of stranger abductions. In family abduction cases, 21 percent of the time, children are gone for a month or longer. However, only 28 percent of children abducted by family members are reported as missing to law officials.
In a New York Times interview in 1992, Yager said she assisted some 2,000 families in hiding children. Reports describe the network as consisting of ministers, homemakers, people involved in domestic violence shelters, women’s groups and everyday people. They have used birth certificates of deceased people for new names to hide the runaways. The underground network’s purpose was to disclose the fact that courts had failed to protect abused children and running became the last resort. The movement forged ahead as child abuse became increasingly an issue during the late 20th century. As lawsuits mounted against Yager, she disappeared.
Even so, the network still exists, only Yager flies under the radar more evasively today and the movement isn’t publicized.
In the Minnesota case where the Rucki girls disappeared, the couple that harbored the girls at their ranch face felony charges of parental alienation for helping hide the girls for two and a half years. The couple’s lawyers deny their involvement in any formal network.
In September 2016, Dede Evavold was prosecuted for deprivation of child custody in the Sandra Rucki Teenager Family Abduction Case and found guilty. She was associated with the underground network.
Whether you feel the courts ruled unfairly about abuse or your child has been abducted, going the legal route and hiring a competent attorney is your best recourse for the issues involved.
Attorney Chris Palermo is diligent about providing you with sound legal help and protecting your rights.
The divorce between Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie has become high profile in today’s news. It’s not often that a celebrity divorce earns its own nickname. In this case, the press is calling it the “Brangelina Split.”
Even though each parent is worth many millions, the main contested divorce issue is child custody of their six children.
As in many divorces, if the couple can reach a settlement outside of court, they have better chances of making their divorce more amicable. It remains to be seen how they will resolve the custody issue, but here are some benchmarks along the road of their divorce.
Angelina Jolie filed for divorce at the end of September 2016 and sought sole child custody. Allegations of abuse emerged against Brad Pitt shortly after she filed.
In October, USA Today published an article that disclosed the temporary custody arrangement was for Angelina to have sole custody and Brad to have visitation. They worked out the agreement through the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). The agreement included terms of Brad submitting to random drug/alcohol testing and both parents undergoing separate and family counseling. Brad’s first visit with the children was to be monitored by a therapist, but that stipulation was not necessary an ongoing requirement for later visits.
On November 9, USA Today reported that the LA County DCFS cleared Brad Pitt after exhaustively investigating charges of Pitt’s alleged abuse against his 15 year old son. Brad Pitt subsequently has filed for joint custody of the children.
Their divorce case is being heard in California, and under state law, courts favor awarding joint custody whenever possible. Generally, parents enjoy a 50/50 parenting time arrangement so both parents can spend time with their children. Children over 14 years of age typically can state their preference during custody proceedings and the court takes their view into consideration.
Attorney Chris Palermo offers compassionate legal help for individuals seeking divorce to help protect their rights.
When relocation is a considerable distance, it affects a number of things — parenting time with the children, the children’s school, extended family, friends and community involvement.
Various cases have come before the New York Appellate Court and rulings show there are no one-size-fits-all factors in deciding cases. Two cases the New York Court of Appeals decided in 1996 established the precedent that each case must be considered individually without “formulae and presumptions.”
In the case Tropea v. Tropea, the original custody court order prevented either parent from moving outside of Onondaga County without judicial approval. The mother became engaged to an architect with an established firm in Schenectady. She was expecting a child and wanted to relocate. She offered a liberal visitation schedule, providing frequent and extended contact and driving the children to and from the father’s Syracuse home. The father contested based on his involvement —coaching the children’s football and baseball teams, participation in religion classes and academic education involvement. The lower court denied relocation. The Appellate Court reversed the decision, finding the move to be in the children’s best interests and that the father would retain regular and meaningful access. The scheduled awarded the father substantial weekend, summer and vacation visitation with the children.
In the Matter of Browner v. Kenward, the Appellate Court also reversed a lower court’s decision, finding in favor of a mother moving to Pittsfield, MA where her parents were moving, which was 130 miles from the father’s Westchester County home. The court based its decision on the children’s best interests. The grandparents provided the children with significant support and would enhance the emotional well being of the child. The move would also reduce bickering between the parents.
Relocation can often be complicated. Suffolk County Divorce Lawyer Chris Palermo provides you with compassionate legal guidance and can help you make the right decisions.
Whether you call it joint child custody, co-parenting, or shared parental responsibility, when parents can raise their children together without a high degree of conflict, statistics show this type of parenting is best for the children.
Or course, parents divorce because they are unable to resolve issues in their marital relationship. Naturally, barriers exist in getting along with each other that they must overcome for joint child custody to work.
What Children Prefer
An article in Psychology Today lists reasons why co-parenting is the preferred arrangement. The article promotes considering what is in the child’s best interests from a child’s perspective. It offers arguments for shared responsibility, stating that shared responsibility does the following:
When violence and high conflict aren’t an issue, children typically want both parents in their lives and want to have meaningful relationships with both parents.
New York courts weigh a child’s preference on custody more heavily when the child is 13 years or older, and this is true even when they do not rule as a child would want. Courts also try not to separate siblings from each other whenever possible.
Do You Have Questions about Child Custody?
Attorney Chris Palermo is glad to answer your questions, help you consider all the aspects of child custody and to protect your rights as a parent.
With same sex couples and surrogate mothers, the landscape of family law is changing. Now that same sex couples can get married in any state, many are looking at having children. Surrogacy is a modern day alternative to adoption. In New York, a recent case involved a gay male couple and lesbian couple that had a child through surrogacy. The two couples wanted to raise the child together.
According to Business Insider, the two couples devised an elaborate plan that rotated custody every quarter. They even decorated their apartments to look identical. However, after 12 months, despite their best-made plans, the relationship fell apart.
One of the men in the male couple had donated his sperm to a female in the lesbian couple who carried and gave birth to the baby. The judge was saddled with the problem of deciding custody of the child.
The child had two mothers and two fathers. Who would be the primary caretaker? What custody roles would each parent have? Working out custody and visitation was doubly difficult to decide. The biological connection was not the most pressing factor in this case. As more of these unusual cases come before the courts, judges will rule and case precedents will be set. Right now, such cases are in the frontier stages of emerging case law.
If you have questions or concerns about child custody, meet with an experienced lawyer for legal help. Long Island divorce attorney Chris Palermo has years of experience and is sensitive to your needs.
While it seems as though mothers typically still have an advantage in custody cases, you never know for sure how a case will go. This was true when Bode Miller and Sara McKenna both sought primary custody of their unborn child.
Olympic bronze medal winner Bode Miller and Sara McKenna met through a high-end dating service, but their relationship only lasted three months. Afterward, McKenna discovered she was pregnant. Several months later, Miller married his current wife, volleyball player Morgan Beck. (New York Times )
Miller had initially expressed no interest in parenting the unborn child. McKenna, who is a former Marine and firefighter, decided to move from California to New York to attend Columbia University on the G.I. bill. She moved when she was seven months pregnant, and the baby was born in New York. During her pregnancy, Miller sought custody of the child in a New York Family Court. He accused her of leaving California to find a sympathetic court. The NY Family Court judge agreed, reprimanding McKenna and turning the case over for California jurisdiction. A California court awarded primary custody to Miller.
The case brought up legal issues about women’s rights and whether a pregnant woman had the legal right to move. McKenna appealed the decision, and the appellate court ruled that New York had jurisdiction, not California because the child was born in New York. The appellate court also ruled that “Putative fathers have neither the right nor the ability to restrict a pregnant woman from her constitutionally protected liberty.” The New York court returned temporary custody to McKenna, which allowed her to establish residence in New York.
Child custody battles can be some of the most heart-wrenching issues for parents. Having an effective and compassionate Long Island divorce lawyer at your side, like Christ Palermo, can help you overcome the challenges and protect your rights.
On May 29, 2015, Congress passed the Rape Survivor Custody Act. The new federal law assists women who become pregnant because of rape and decide to keep their babies. The law provides stronger protection against the rapist when he is claiming custody rights to the child.
According to Yahoo News , studies show approximately 25,000 to 32,000 U.S. pregnancies result annually from rape. An estimated one third or more of the women in these instances decide to raise the child.
The Rape Survivor Custody Act boosts funding to states that permit women to petition for parental rights termination of the rapist. Better funding encourages states to help women take a stance. The other change the law introduced is a lesser burden of evidence is required for proving a child was conceived through rape: clear and convincing evidence.
Previously, women did not have much chance of protection unless the rapist was found guilty in a criminal court. Because the burden of proof in criminal cases is guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, many rape cases lacked sufficient evidence for a conviction. Consequently, the rapist, who would either not be charged or convicted, could continue to harass the woman, using a claim for custody as a means of continued torment. Clear and convincing evidence is a lower burden of proof than guilty beyond a reasonable doubt because it only requires proving that it was substantially more likely than not that the rape occurred.
Chicago attorney, Shauna Prewitt began advocating better state laws for raped women after pursuing and enduring a two-year custody case against a man who raped her. She’s quoted as saying that she has seen custody cases where the rapist has told the woman that if she drops the criminal case against him, he’ll drop the custody case or agree not to pursue parental rights.
At this time, 36 states address the child custody rape issue. However, many require a criminal conviction of the rapist. Although New York does not require rape conviction, it also has no provision to terminate parental rights of a rapist. Your attorney must convince the court that the father seeking parental rights is harmful to the child.
If you have concerns about custody, discuss them with Attorney Chris Palermo. He is committed to protecting your rights and providing you with compassionate and effective legal counsel.