The Impact of Parental Alienation on Child Custody: When one parent manipulates a child to reject the other, it can have negative emotional and psychological effects on both the estranged parent and the child. What is Parental Alienation? A type of emotional child abuse known as parental alienation occurs when one parent consciously damages the child’s bond with the other parent. It frequently entails persistently disparaging the targeted parent, restricting contact or access, and interfering with the child’s ability to communicate with the alienated parent. This conduct hampers a child’s emotional growth, causing them great distress. Signs of Parental Alienation:
Author: Mitchell A. Palmer
Mr. Palmer has been in private practice for over 20 years. He offers his clients a full range of services, with a particular focus on all areas of family law. He also practices in personal injury and business law.
When to Use an Expert Divorce Financial Analyst for a Community Property Partition: Are you considering divorce? Obviously, this step requires careful consideration of property issues and the best approaches for same. There are many things that you need to think about before you decide on your final move. One of them will certainly be the state of your finances. No one wants to leave a marriage bankrupt. Our firm works with a few of the very best forensic accountants and financial experts in the region to best maximize your results in all aspects of community property partition. Here is
Issues to Consider Regarding Finances in Divorce: Generally speaking, a divorce will have a profound impact on your finances both now and in the future. As Louisiana is a community property state, all property is presumed to be community unless proven otherwise, meaning essentially half of your net worth could be exposed via trial or in a final settlement. Furthermore, you might also be responsible for paying a joint debt that you didn’t know about or play a role in accruing. Tips for Paying Off Joint Debts When a Marriage Ends: It might be in your best interest to make
Louisiana Grandparent Visitation and Custody Considerations: If your grandchildren live with you already or you have concerns about their home life, you may want to seek legal custody or visitation. Louisiana allows grandparents to take this step in certain situations. Review the factors that affect grandparent visitation and custody before moving forward with this process. Circumstances Warranting Grandparent Visitation: One can petition a Louisiana court in the parish where your grandchild lives for legal visitation if: Your grandchild’s parents have divorced or lived apart for at least six months; One or both of your grandchild’s parents has died, gone to prison,
Continuing Tutorships and Child Interdictions: A “Continuing Tutorship” is a legal proceeding for special needs children with intellectual disabilities who are age 15, 16, or 17. The legal standard states that when the child “possesses less than two-thirds of the intellectual functioning of a person of the same age with average intellectual functioning…” The parents or children usually do not have to make a court appearance. Based on the documentation given to the court to prove the intellectual disability of the child (usually IEP evaluations/IQ tests, medical and school records), and with the concurrence of the coroner (via a signed
What is Child Support in Louisiana? Child support is a court-ordered amount that the non-custodial parent must pay to the custodial parent to cover a proportionate amount of the child’s expenses, including housing and utilities, food, clothing, and education expenses. Both parents have an obligation to support their children after a divorce. State laws differ greatly as to how courts calculate child support payments. Louisiana long has recognized and credited the custodial parent’s day-to-day care as a significant portion of the support obligation. Child support orders may be modified only by another court order and usually depend on the amount
The Importance of Domiciliary Parent Status: Louisiana provides joint custody of children between the mother and father in most situations. Joint custody is presumed by the courts to be in the best interest of the children and is awarded regularly. Sole custody can be awarded but is much less common than joint custody in Louisiana unless there is an extenuating circumstance leading to the need for sole custody. While joint custody may be favored by the Louisiana court system, it does not mean, however, that both parents will exercise equal physical time with the children. In the majority of cases,
Contesting Intra-Family Adoption: There are many steps and tests required by law in contested adoption proceedings. These can mainly be found in the Louisiana Children’s Code, with which our firm is very familiar. The Louisiana Children’s Code was drafted to combine all the laws affecting juvenile court jurisdiction, resolve ambiguities, reconcile conflicting laws, ensure that statutory law accurately reflects settled case law and provide a single code containing procedural and substantive laws affecting juveniles. Some interesting concepts are articulated in these cases and may be useful in your case too: When a stepparent or parent with custody fails to cooperate with
Reconciliation After Divorce: Per La. Civ. Code art. 104, “[t]he cause of action for divorce is extinguished by the reconciliation of the parties.” The concept of “reconciliation” can be thorny and confusing for a spouse who has filed for divorce. If you are in doubt as to what to do, where to reside, or how to interact with your spouse during the pendency of your divorce, it would be wise to retain counsel and discuss this issue with your attorney. Our family law attorneys are able to clearly and thoroughly advise you of the “dos and don’ts” of dealing with
Ex Parte Orders in Custody Proceedings: Ordinarily, courts issue orders regarding custody after hearing evidence at a trial. However, most family law practitioners know of and have utilized the ex parte emergency order of temporary custody. In emergency situations a parent may file a petition asking for temporary custody, and a court may issue an ex parte order awarding emergency temporary custody prior to a formal hearing. It is an effective tool if the procedural requirements are followed closely and used only in instances of exigent circumstances. Immediate and Irreparable Harm Under La. Code of Civil Procedure: La. Code Civ.