Maryland Divorce Lawyer Blog

This month, a Maryland Court of Special Appeals ruled on Li v. Lee, a case with several family law issues. The facts are complex, but are briefly as follows.

A husband and wife met in 1977. In spite of a brief romance, they married other people. Years later, their romance was rekindled while they were still married to those people and the wife was living in Canada. Both divorced their partners. The U.S. Government was the husband’s employer and he was a naturalized U.S. citizen.

The couple wanted to change the wife’s immigration status to “lawful permanent resident” status and hired the immigration attorney Yu Gu, who was recommended by one of the wife’s friends. Gu prepared all the paperwork for the couple. The husband provided his tax return information and bank statements in order to complete the paperwork. Continue reading

The Court of Special Appeals of Maryland recently ruled that a trial judge did not abuse his discretion when questioning a child about custody arrangements in Karanikas v. Cartwright. Rachel Karanikas Cartwright (“the mother”) and Konstantinos Karanikas (“the father”) were originally awarded joint legal custody of their nine-year-old daughter, which later changed to physical custody by the mother with visitation by the father.

In March 2012, the mother emailed the father stating her intent to relocate to Pennsylvania with their child. The father did not consent. Both parents filed pleadings to change the original order and judgment. The relocation trial was set for September 7, 2012.

The father sought to have the child testify either in open court or in chambers. Initially the trial judge reserved on the question of whether or not to interview the child because other witnesses might be able to provide information pertinent to the issues such that a nine-year-old would not need to testify. However, the trial judge did meet with the child in chambers for about twelve minutes at the end of the trial’s first day. Continue reading

Maryland Divorce Lawyer Blog

Maryland Court Recently Ruled on the Attorney-Client Relationship in Family Law

Maryland Court Rules On Judge’s Interview of a Child During Custody Battle