Maryland Divorce Lawyer Blog

Maryland Court Affirms Constitutionality of Rules Regarding Natural Parent’s Objections

April 3, 2013 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

The Maryland Court of Appeal recently considered constitutional questions in the context of the independent adoption process in In Re: Adoption of Sean. Moira M. and William H. dated from April 2008 to November 2008. On June 16, 2009, Moira M. gave birth to a baby, Sean. The next month Moira filed a complaint against William H. Stating that he was the natural father of Sean, Moira’s complaint sought sole custody.

In his answer, William H. denied that he was the natural father. He set forth no objection to Moira M. having sole custody. Meanwhile, Moira M. married Jeffrey Craig K., a man she had been dating, during the fall of 2009. The suit was dismissed in 2010 by agreement.

In March 2011, Jeffrey Craig K. filed a Petition for Stepparent Adoption of a Minor and Change of Name. He announced that he planned to continue to live with Sean’s mother. He also said the natural father had not been identified nor come forward. The Petition claimed that even if William H. was Sean’s natural father, he had “abandoned his parental rights” by denying Sean was his son in the answer to Moira’s earlier complaint, not participating as Sean’s father, and not attempting to support Sean.

Case Summary: Sole Legal Physical Custody Awarded to Dad

March 21, 2013 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

Recently, our office assisted a Dad who wanted to obtain sole residential and sole legal custody of his two young children. He was a young father, only 21 years old, but he had already demonstrated a level a maturity of someone much older. He had been taking care of the children for about a year with little to no support or even contact from the children’s mother.

The Dad, acting on his own without the assistance of an attorney, filed for custody with the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, MD. When he filed for custody, he never anticipated that the children’s mother would fight him. However, that is exactly what happened. After being served, the children’s mother hired an attorney, who immediately opposed the Dad’s request for sole custody and filed for joint custody on the mother’s behalf.

By the time the Dad had saved a little money to hire an attorney and had sought assistance from our experienced family law attorneys, the custody merits trial was less than one week away. The Dad came to our office petrified and nervous that he was going to lose custody of his children. He believed that the Court would favor the mother solely because she was the mother and she would automatically get joint custody even if that wasn’t in the best interest of the children.

Bigamy Can Lead to Misrepresentation Claim in Maryland

March 17, 2013 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

In the recent case Bradley v. Bradley, the Maryland Court of Appeals considered the questions raised when a woman sued a man she believed to be her husband for intentional negligent misrepresentation. Mr. Bradley and Ms. Bradley met in 2003 at Kennedy Krieger Institute. Ms. Bradley was responsible for Mr. Bradley’s son and was often in contact with Mr. Bradley who was then married with three kids. The next year, Mr. Bradley told Ms. Bradley that he had separated from his wife and started divorce proceedings. They commenced a long extramarital affair.

In 2006, after claiming that there had been various problems in the divorce proceedings, Mr. Bradley announced that his divorce was final. He proposed to Ms. Bradley. In 2007, the couple married in Las Vegas, Nevada. Ms. Bradley experienced two incidents of battery by Mr. Bradley before she checked previous domestic violence cases to see what his history was. The records revealed that Mr. Bradley’s divorce was not listed. Mr. Bradley confessed he had never obtained the divorce from his first wife. He and Ms. Bradley separated. Continue reading

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

March 16, 2013 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

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

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

March 14, 2013 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

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