Who has ownership if an asset is obtained after separation? What happens when child custody is not determined during the divorce? And is there any legal advantage to being the spouse who files the divorce? Host Lee Rosen and guest Ketan Soni, managing attorney with Rosen Law Firm, answer listener questions and go over five critical things to do before you get married.

Custody battles can be one of the toughest and most painful aspects of a divorce but what can you do if your spouse takes off with the children?  Host Lee Rosen and attorney Holly Gray discuss the options that one can take with regards to child custody.  They also answer listener questions about cohabitation during separation.

Lets say the parents have agreed to meet at the halfway point to exchange the children. How do you know where halfway is? And how do you find a good spot there – like a Pizza Hut – or a sushi place?

Try Meetways. It’s a free, hosted product that will find the halfway point and places of interest in that vicinity. Perfect solution to the kid hand-off problem.

The terms “custody” and “visitation” have been outlawed in Florida effective October 1. They have been replaced with “parenting plan” and “time-sharing schedule”. Other words like “Plaintiff” and “Defendant” have been replaced with “Mom” and “Dad”.

While some may think these changes are trivial – I disagree. The language of child custody has a huge impact on the outcome of many negotiations. Emotional, upset parents sometimes care more about the language of custody than they do about the actual time sharing. I have witnessed the breakdown of negotiations when the schedule had been agreed upon but the labels applied to the schedule were unresolved. If changing the words helps kids then it seems like a good move. Congratulations Florida.

Should custody cases be determined by how demanding a respective parents’ job is?

In a recent case in St. Joseph Superior Court, the judge gave custody of the 5-year-old girl to her father. In part, the judge considered the mother’s job to be more demanding and time-consuming than the father’s and felt this was in the best interest of the child.

I just read an interesting op-ed piece in the Boston Globe about shared parenting in MA.

Divorcemag makes a good case about the effects of fatherless homes and the lack of a father figure in a child’s life.

According to their findings, fatherless homes account for:
-63 percent of youth suicides
-90 percent of homeless/runaway children
-85 percent of children with behavior problems
-71 percent of high school dropouts, 85 percent of youths in prison

In conclusion, research shows that children in joint custody arrangements have less behavioral problems and fare better overall.

A decade ago, two Minneapolis siblings wrote a ground breaking book entitled, “Divorce Is Not the End of the World.” It was one of the first guidebooks to coping with divorce written by kids, for kids.

The book’s message is as relevant today as it was in 1997. So coauthors Zoe and Evan Stern created an anniversary edition to include more insight. Ten years of life experience has allowed the siblings to add more depth to their previous viewpoints.

The revised version is due out this month.

Filling out FAFSA forms can be a nightmare, but being divorced can actually help your budding student receive more financial aid. The forms only require that the custodial parent’s income and assets be listed.

Many have asked the question: Why do some men disappear from their children’s lives after divorce?

Often children are placed in the custodial care with their mother. Constance Ahrons, an American author of several books on divorce, says that men struggle with the feelings of loss they endure between visits. Possibly counter-intuitively, many men cut off communications with their children in order to avoid repeat feels of the strong pain they feel when their children return to their mothers.

Representatives from 68 countries recently came together to finalize the text of a new convention that will help parents seek unpaid child support from former partners or spouses.

Margot Bean, Commissioner of the U.S. Office of Child Support Enforcement, believes this ‘comprehensive system’ will help children receive support more rapidly.

Among those that supported the text were European nations, the United States, Canada, Australia, Brazil and several Asian countries.

According to two recent studies, over half of out-of-wedlock babies born in the U.S. are born to women who live with the fathers of their children. Cohabitating couples are on the rise and as more couples live together before marriage an increasing number of them are having children.

How do you think child custody cases should be treated concerning children of cohabitating couples?

In the world of on-going battles for child custody, a new weapon has recently been brought to the arsenal of separating parents. Non-custodial parents experiencing “Parental Alienation Syndrome” (PAS) claim they are suffering psychological trauma due to the alienation from their children brought on by the other parent. Is this a legitimate disorder that can provide scientific support in a custody battle?

Though supported by many, this “disorder” has been discredited by the scientific and legal community on the whole. Here’s an interesting article that addresses the different viewpoints surrounding this issue.

What role will PAS play in the future of child custody battles despite conflicting opinions?

Should a parent be allowed to enforce a strict vegan diet on their children?

This question is at the center of a heated custody debate involving quintuplets whose father is fighting for rights to his children by arguing his wife’s psychological issues and the strict vegan diet she enforces on the kids are negatively affecting them.

Is this case just about vegan vs. non-vegan or is it more than this?

Parenting coordinators are a child-focused method of alternative dispute resolution used in high conflict child custody cases.

A parenting coordinator is a neutral third-party brought into custody cases to reduce the level of conflict by helping the parents make better decisions concerning the parenting of their children.

Rosen Law Firm’s recent article on Parenting Coordinators is very imformative.

To learn more click here.

Here’s an interesting N.C. bill that would help expedite custody hearings for military personnel. It’s already passed in the House and is now in the Senate committee.

A recent bill (LB554) passed in Nebraska will require parents fighting out custody battles to try and resolve issues with a mediator before going in front of a judge.

The bill increases the cost of filing for divorce by $50 and would also mandate at least one parenting class. Its goals are to keep the focus on the child’s best interest.

I question whether this would just prolong the span of fighting between disputing couples, especially those who cannot resolve matters amicably or in a mediation setting.

Parents Without Partners, and online forum for single parents, recently published an article by Brette McWhorter about how single parents can help keep summer fun, even in the shadow of a divorce. The tips include:

Keep summer vacation fun
Plan around your given custody time
Welcome your child’s friends
Make other plans for your child when you are busy
Think of things you might want to do when your child is away
Remember what it is like to be a kid
And finally…RELAX

Kids love having a break from school so I think the most important thing to remember is that it’s supposed to be fun. However, being a single parent does take a bit more planning.

Last week, Rosen Law Firm began offering its clients a therapeutic resource, Earthquake in Zipland by Zipland Interactive Ltd. It’s the first research-based psychological computer game aimed at helping children ages 7-13 cope with divorce.

The game is based on techniques and insights drawn from a variety of fields including clinical psychology, family counseling, and child and divorce/separation therapy.

Rosen Law Firm published an informative piece on Virtual Visitation. WRAL Local Tech Wire posted it on their site. I know some advocates of Virtual Visitation are trying to get a bill passed in N.C. The N.C. legislative session starts Wednesday. Will there be a sponsor for this bill?

This is also an interesting site-www.internetvisitation.org

Rosen Law Firm just released an informative white paper on virtual visitation that covers the history of this new concept and explores cases where virtual visitation was a factor. The term ‘virtual visitation’ doesn’t come up in Merriam-Webster’s dictionary online, but that will likely change as more non-custodial parents adopt this new form of communication with their children.