Our guest contributor this week is Judianne Cochran a nationally recognized expert/consultant in the following disciplines: sex offender profiling; interstate and international parental abduction; interstate custody and parental alienation. She has testified in numerous Courts throughout Ohio and the country. Judi presently resides in Columbus, Ohio.
Recently, there has been a flurry of news reports and discussions regarding cases where an abduction has already occurred and a child has been taken and retained in a foreign jurisdiction. The most recent is a case where a father attempted a “snatch-back” in Japan. As is usually the case, this self-help method does not result in the recovery of a child. Unfortunately, in both that case and in the Goldman case where the child is in Brazil, it appears that nothing was done in the way of prevention before the loss of the child.
There are many measures which can be put into place to aid in the prevention of an international abduction. To begin with, any parent who chooses to have a child with a foreign national should always anticipate the possibility that the foreign parent will eventually elect to take the child and return “home”. Since this is an obvious predictable … Read More... “Parental Abduction: Prevention and Remedies”
It has been six months since our first blog article appeared regarding the Montgomery County Domestic Relations Court’s “mandatory requirement” that both parents must attend a seminar intending to assist parents in understanding what each must do to help their children succeed after a divorce or dissolution. Several questions have arisen since the initial article was published, and I shall endeavor to address them.
In 2008, the IRS amended Code Section 152(e), the section which addresses the subject of the child dependency exemptions for divorced or separated parents. The old rule and procedures have been changed dramatically.
For many parents contemplating a divorce or dissolution of their marriage, a primary concern is which parent shall have “custody” of the child or children of the marriage. I shall begin the article by addressing the differences between the two parenting systems in Ohio – “sole custody” and “shared parenting”.
Our responsibility as parents is to nurture and protect our children. We do everything possible to ensure their physical safety and to care for their emotional and psychological needs as well. It seems a bit odd to think that many children and teens feel like it is their responsibility to protect us.
It is newsworthy that the State of Ohio has taken major “hits” in the job loss category and that our unemployment rate approaches 10%. Recently, General Motors, aka Delphi, has closed most plants in Dayton causing a massive loss of jobs in the manufacturing sector. Then, National Cash Register (NCR) announced the company was moving its headquarters and nearly fifteen hundred (1500) jobs to a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia. The Dayton Daily News has reported that eleven (11) policemen are slated to “lose their jobs” due to budgetary constraints. Also, businesses associated with supplying the auto industry with parts and services are feeling a financial “crunch” as their major or primary customer was General Motors, aka Delphi.
One of the most interesting and well written pieces that I have read in a long time is a keynote address presented by Dr. Frank S. Williams to the National Council for Children’s Rights in Washington D.C. on October 20, 1990. Dr. Williams is a noted child psychiatrist and the Director of Family and Child Psychiatry at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. While this presentation was almost 19 years ago, Dr. Williams’ sage advice is no less relevant now than it ever was!