Child Abduction

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Always keep in a safe place… especially if there’s a chance the holder might be abducted.

[The TL;DR of this post: get in touch with Melissa Kucinski for help in international abduction cases.]

Well over two years ago, in “The Hague Child Abduction Convention applies first” I posted a bit about that Convention’s primacy when a lawyer calls me for help in serving process in custody actions.  Where a parent has taken his/her child(ren) abroad contrary to the other parent’s wishes, or wrongfully retained the child(ren) abroad, merely pursuing a custody order in the U.S. is rarely the right first step.  …
Continue Reading The Hague Child Abduction Convention: who to call

Two white whales are the subject of my Captain Ahab diatribes in this space.  One concerns an issue of cross-border civil procedure, while the other concerns a rather goofy* interpretation of what the rest of the world views as plain language.  I address here the latter of the two:  the concept of a child’s habitual residence.  Remember those words, friends, because the U.S. Supreme Court held unanimously today that the term habitual residence should be analyzed under a totality-of-the-circumstances test.

In Monasky v. Taglieri, the Court held that a child’s habitual residence depends on the totality of the circumstances specific to the case, not on “categorical requirements.”  …
Continue Reading Hague Convention Habitual Residence

State Department photo.

Another “I get this question pretty regularly” post… and the answer is usually pretty good news, in comparison to a parent’s dreaded fear.

The question usually pops up in a listserv or at some bar function, but occasionally in a call from a lawyer who’s stumbled across this…