This video explores the basics of how child custody works in Massachusetts. It explains the difference between physical custody and legal custody, joint and sole custody, and what typically works best.
*Update* September 22, 2010 – Florida Appeals Court strikes down the ban on gay adoption. Read it here.
Dan Savage presents his viewpoint on the state of gay adoption in America today by reframing the argument. The issue is not “gay parents vs. straight parents.” The issue should be whether it is better for a child to have parents at all vs. having no parents.
Gay people are allowed to foster children but not adopt them in some states.
“Every child deserves a mother and father. It would be nice wouldn’t it if it did work out that way. But it’s not gonna work out that way.”
“Why are they in foster care? Because their gay parent abandoned, neglected and abused them? No. Because their straight parents abandoned, neglected and abused them.”
“Gay people don’t have children by accident…Every child that’s been adopted by a gay and lesbian couple is a wanted child.”
I read a recent Yahoo! News article about the challenges that military families have when dealing with a parent (or both parents) deploy overseas. It’s extremely hard on the single parent left behind and it’s extremely hard on the children. In addition to the possibility of deployment, military members often get reassigned, involuntarily, to other locations. Fortunately, if the serviceman is married to another member of the military, the military will reassign them together. What happens when military members are divorced and one gets reassigned?
The military, if 2 people are not married, will not consider a joint reassignment. That makes it extremely difficult when the couple has a child together and they were either sharing parenting time or one parent had sole custody but the other had regular visitation rights. In that case, when happens all the time, the parents will have to go back to court to settle on a new custody arrangement.
These types of cases are generally call Removal cases because one parent is usually requesting that the child be removed from Massachusetts to live full time in another state. If the parents cannot agree on a custody arrangement on their own, the court will make a determination for them. They will look to see what is in the best interest of the child and also whether there is a real advantage in one parent moving while another parent stays. Usually if there’s a job or military reassignment, there is definitely a real advantage to the parent for them to leave the Commonwealth.
How the court makes a decision is very complex. Child custody lawyers for both parents will really need to convince a judge one way or the other if the parents don’t agree. In a lot of cases, a guardian ad litem will be very useful to a judge in making his determination.
My advice for military families is that if you’re getting divorced and figuring out the parenting and custody situation, make advance plans for what happens when one parent gets deployed or reassigned. You don’t want to deal with the issue at a later date because you will be spending twice the time, money, energy and heartache to litigate the issue and fight again. Figure it out the first time around.
A Guardian ad Litem (GAL) is a latin term meaning “Guardian for the lawsuit.” A GAL is a person, a social worker or an attorney, who is appointed by the court in a divorce or child custody case in order to investigate and gather evidence for the judge. Judges here in Massachusetts, presiding over a divorce case, cannot leave the courtroom and go into the parent’s house, look around and talk to different people, before making a decision in the case. Instead, a GAL is assigned the task.
The GAL will work the both parties’ divorce or child custody lawyer to get a list of witnesses to talk to. In a child custody case, they will typically want to talk to the parties and see the child interact with the parents in the home. They will want to speak to the child’s teachers, babysitters, family members, doctors, etc. Anyone that the GAL feels will have an opinion as to how the child is raised and the interaction between the child and the parents.
After the investigation and speaking with all the witnesses, the GAL will typically write a report to the judge detailing his investigation and lastly, make a recommendation on how custody should be ordered.
A GAL is very useful in that they will do a more extensive investigation and will be able to bring in more testimony and witnesses than if the divorce or child custody attorneys can parade in during trial. You probably don’t want the entire family, friends, neighbors, teachers and doctors to be testifying at trial during your divorce or child custody battle.
If you’re in the Boston area and you feel you might benefit from using a GAL in your case, you should speak with your attorney. Using a GAL can be a useful litigation strategy.
