MK Family Law

The  American Bar Association's International Law Section  will host a free webinar on February 10th at 11 a.m. ET.  During this hour-and-a-half webinar, join  Melissa Kucinski of MK Family Law  and  James Netto of the International Family Law Group  as they take attendees through the top highlights in international family law in 2020 in the United States and Europe.   Registration can be found by  clicking here . 

The Appellate Division of the Superior Court of NJ's case of Begum v. Palanisamy involves a multi-jurisdictional family and a NJ custody order.  While the opinion itself is merely about a variety of motions filed between the parties, there are some interesting issues that arise that allow this blog to address the mirroring or domesticating of U.S. custody orders in foreign countries.  Under the parents' custody agreement, incorporated into a NJ court order, they shared joint legal custody of their minor daughter, and the child was permitted to relocate to Singapore, with the child's father in NJ having access to the child in Singapore and in the United States.  The order also specified that NJ would retain jurisdiction over the custody matter and the parties were permitted, but not required, to domesticate the NJ custody order in Singapore. The parties returned to the NJ court not long after when the plaintiff mother sought Singaporean citizenship for the child, Alexis....

The Superior Court of Pennsylvania, in JS v. RSS , addressed an issue of an international relocation and a U.S. court's subject matter jurisdiction over a custody modification action.  The facts are long and twisted, but the salient ones are: the parents divorced in 2015.  The father sought custody of their child with a request to relocate him to Hungary in November 2015.  The mother agreed to the father's custody of the child and the child's relocation to Hungary, believing the father was entering a witness protection program. The father didn't move to Hungary, and the parties actually threw the terms of their custody agreement out the window.  The mother had significant access to the child.  Apparently, however, the father did relocate the child to Hungary in July 2016, unbeknownst to mother.  The mother did not see the child after July 2016, but the father still traveled to Pennsylvania, and remained sexually intimate with the mother, even though he had ...

In a March 2, 2020 opinion by the Supreme Court in New York County in Federbush v. Shah (2020 NY Slip Op 50300(U)), the court addressed a multi-jurisdictional divorce suit between a couple that had married in Thailand 8 years earlier.  The couple had signed a prenuptial agreement on the same date as their wedding, which divided property by title, and Wife gave birth to a child about 2 months later.  The family lived in Thailand until mid-2017 when they then relocated to NY.  While Husband is American, the Wife’s nationality presented problems for her remaining in the United States for more than a set number of days at a time.  Approximately 1 year after their arrival in NY, the parties separated while vacationing in Thailand.  The family was embroiled in 3 separate court cases.  Wife filed a Hague return petition in NY that was denied, finding that NY had become the child’s habitual residence by agreement of his parents.  Before this decision was...

In an unpublished appellate opinion on March 27, 2020, the Court of Appeal of the State of California (2nd Appellate District, Division 2) affirmed a mother’s request to relocate her child to Japan.   In re Marriage of Inoue (B289261 c/w B290642, Cal. App. 2020), had the child’s father appealing the trial court’s decision to allow the child’s international relocation.  Both parents were born and raised in Japan, and met and married in the United States.  Their son was born in the United States.  In November 2016, the petitioner mother requested permission to relocate with the child to Tokyo, arguing that her residence in Japan was the only option for her to become self-supporting and that both parents’ families would be a support system for her and the child in Japan.  The respondent father argued against the relocation and raised concerns that any California custody order would not be enforceable in Japan, that joint custody is not a recognized custodial ...