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...

Tatiana Akhmedova filed an ex parte request of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas , using 28 USC 1782 to seek certain evidence in support of her English divorce action.  Tatiana alleges that the English courts have ordered certain money judgments and transfers of property in her divorce action against her Husband, Farkhad Akhmedova.  She also alleges that Farkhad has failed to abide by the orders and, in fact, has transferred certain assets that the English court awarded to her, including a yacht, the M/Y Luna. In her attempts to collect on the judgments, the English court ordered Farkhad's son Temur, to produce certain electronic information and cooperate in a forensic investigation.  Needless to say, at the end of the day, Tatiana claims no one cooperated, and Tatiana is now seeking discovery from Rackspace, the email host for Great Circle, the entity that provided email and IT hosting for the M/Y Luna.  She is also asking that the court per...

 Mr. Imad Jaffal sues the U.S. government for citizenship ( Jaffal v. Thompson ).  The underlying issue for whether Jaffal can be granted citizenship revolves around his parents' divorce, which occurred in Jordan.  Apparently, his father obtained a unilateral divorce from his mother in the shari'a court in Jordan.  The divorce was revocable and then turned into an irrevocable divorce after the requisite period of time passed.  Further, at the time of the divorce, both of Jaffal's parents were domiciliaries of the state of Ohio in the United States.  The U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey concluded it could not recognize the Jordanian divorce, which was fatal to Jaffal's citizenship claim.  The divorce was unilateral and there was no evidence that Jaffal's mother had any notice of it, therefore it was not entitled to recognition as a matter of comity as it violated public policy.  Furthermore, it was, in all reality, equal to a "mai...