MK Family Law

2020 was not for the faint of heart, with a global pandemic and a U.S. Supreme Court opinion on the Hague Abduction Convention authored by the late Justice Ginsburg.  Here are the TOP TEN most clicked blog posts from MK Family Law's Family Law Across Borders  BLOG.   No. 10     Case Update: International Service of Process using the Hague Service Convention - Winston v. Walsh No. 9     Case Update: Hague Abduction Convention's application between Hong Kong and the United States after July 2020 Executive Order - Wan v. DeBolt No. 8     Case Update: Issuing a U.S. passport to a minor child, abduction prevention issues - LO v. NO No. 7      HCCH Update: COVID-19 Toolkit for the 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention No. 6    Case Update: Recognition of Foreign Divorce Decree, Notice of Foreign Order, Court Deadlines - Derbez v. Derbez No. 5     Case Update: Simultaneous divorce proceedings, comity - Vica...

A recent New Jersey family court opinion, Nahar v. Salgia , mirrors the debate that occurs between international parents in custody litigation in the United States all the time.  The father accused the mother of being a risk of abducting their two children to India, and he sought a writ of ne exeat , which would prohibit her from traveling internationally with the 2 children (both age 11 at the time of the most recent iteration of their custody case).  Their history is long and storied, including litigation in NJ and India, and an alleged abduction of the children some six years ago, where father claimed the mother kept the children in India unilaterally, and mom claimed the children were sick, with at least one being hospitalized.  Shortly thereafter, the mother moved to India and left the children in the father's custody in NJ, before she returned and obtained U.S. citizenship.  There were a variety of custody orders.  It came to a head yet again in this litig...

The U.S. Department of State issues a yearly "compliance" report, as mandated by Congress , that visits outstanding child abduction cases from the United States to other countries and explores some of the underlying reasons behind why certain cases remain unresolved.  The report includes both countries where there is a treaty relationship with the United States under the 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention and countries where there is no treaty relationship (and, perhaps, no laws in place to facilitate the return of a child to the US). For the 2020 report (looking at cases from 2019), the below countries were designated as "non-compliant" by the United States.  Non-compliance relates to a country's "persistent failure" to abide by legal obligations to return children or work with the U.S. government to resolve cases.  Under ICAPRA , a "persistent failure" is where 30% or more of all abduction cases remain unresolved; the foreign country...