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Elliot S. Schlissel is a father’s rights attorney who has been representing fathers for more than 45 years in all aspects of family law court proceedings. He handles custody matters, visitation agreements, divorce cases, and child support issues. Elliot and his associates can be reached for consultation at 516-561-6645, 718-350-2802 or by email to schlissel.law@att.net.
In a situation where you are a father who has had an active relationship with your children, and you are now facing a divorce, what should you do to maintain your relationship with your children? To start with, you should do everything in your power to maintain the relationship you had with your children while your marriage was intact after your marriage breaks up. This means you should spend as much quality time with your children as is reasonable. To become the residential custodial parent, showing you are the nurturing parent involved in your children’s daily lives is extremely important. You should seek to have, at a minimum, equal parenting time with your children. If your custody issues are going to be litigated before a judge, you must develop a strategy so you can demonstrate to the court you are involved in the children’s activities on a daily basis. You must show you have a support system, which will help take care of your children while you are working or unavailable. You must provide the court with a realistic presentation demonstrating how you having custody of the children will be in the children’s best interests.
If you are a father who seeks custody of your children, you must choose an attorney who understands your motivation and your desires. Fathers are currently entitled to equal rights to obtain custody of their children. However, even though on paper fathers have equal rights to obtain custody of their children, statistics indicate there is still a bias within the legal system favoring mothers. The attorney you choose to represent you should have experience regarding father’s rights issues. He or she should have a history of representing other fathers in custody disputes. You do not want an attorney who is just getting started and using you as a guinea pig in his efforts to develop a winning strategy on father’s custody cases. Before hiring an attorney, read about the attorney online. Look into his or her previous experience in representing fathers in custody cases. Check to see if he or she has published articles with regard to custody issues concerning fathers.
Children’s Best InterestsA gender neutral standard is utilized by courts in New York State to determine custody based on what is in the children’s best interests. There are a number of factors which courts consider on the children’s best interest issue. Among those factors are the following:
Custody Litigation
If the issues concerning custody and parenting time cannot be resolved amicably, custody litigation ensues in both the Family Courts and the Supreme Courts in the State of New York. When these matters are litigated, each of the parents has the right to show how giving custody to him or her would be in the child’s best interests. The parent’s gender no longer is a consideration in determining who should receive custody of the child or children.
Children Need Both Parents
All children have one father and one mother. Custody litigation is not a winner take all situation. Even if one parent receives sole custody of the children, the other parent should be entitled to extensive parenting time with the children. The best way to handle custody issues is to try to resolve them out of court. Litigation itself may create levels of animosity which is detrimental to the children.
Please click on the link below to watch today’s video blog:
Elliot Schlissel is a father’s rights attorney. He has been representing fathers in child custody matters, visitation issues and all other aspects of Family Law for more than 45 years. He can be reached for consultation at 516-561-6645, 718-350-2802 or by email to schlissel.law@att.net.
Grandparents’ rights regarding custody and visitation arrangements are regulated on a state by state basis. There is a federal statute called the Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act of 1980 which impacts upon grandparents’ rights. This statute requires each and every state to give full faith and credit to child custody orders and decrees given by other states. In 1998, a federal law went into effect which required all 50 states to recognize and give legal enforcement to court orders from other states giving grandparents visitation rights with their grandchildren. The Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act requires courts in the state where the child is located to enforce child custody orders from other states.
In the year 2000, the United States Supreme Court, in the case of Troxel v. Granville rendered a decision that a statute from Washington State giving grandparents visitation rights violated the due process rights of the biological parents to raise their children. Since this case was decided, there have been numerous state court decisions in New York as well as sister states and state laws trying to get around, modify, or soften the decision in Troxel v. Granville. New York State is one of the most liberal states in the country when it comes to giving grandparents visitation and/or custody of their grandchildren.
Elliot Schlissel has been litigating cases on behalf of grandparents for more than three decades. He is successful in helping grandparents obtain visitation with their grandchildren. In the appropriate situations, he has been successful in helping grandparents obtain custody of their grandchildren. He strongly believes that grandparents can play an invaluable role in the lives of their grandchildren.
The Administration for Children’s Services (hereinafter referred to as “ACS”) filed a neglect proceeding in Kings County Family Court. Their petition alleged the mother did not provide her child with adequate medical care. In addition, the petition claimed the child lacked appropriate supervision. They claimed the mother left the child in the care of an inappropriate caregiver.
The case was submitted to Judge Lillian Wan who sits in the Family Court of Kings County. Judge Wan found ACS did not establish the allegations appropriately. Her decision stated no medical records were presented to the court. There was no proof submitted to the court with regard to the child’s alleged medical problems. Although the mother had made a statement the child had chronic heart disease and the child had been treated by both a pulmonologist and a cardiologist in 2012, without further care, was insufficient to show the mother had neglected the child’s medical needs. Judge Wan went on further to state no evidence of any type was submitted to the court which showed the child was required to have further medical care.
Improper Guardianship
Judge Wan found there was no evidence submitted of improper guardianship by the mother. Judge Wan stated the mother was on leave from her job and home during this period of time with her child. Judge Wan dismissed ACS’ petition. She found based on the evidence submitted, ACS had failed to prove their case regarding inadequate medical care or lack of proper supervision by the mother.
Please click on the link below to watch today’s video blog:
Elliot S. Schlissel is a father’s rights attorney. He has been representing parents in child custody, CPS and ACS investigations and other family matters for more than 45 years. He can be reached for consultation at 516-561-6645, 718-350-2802 or by email to schlissel.law@att.net.
United Airlines Flight 897 took off from Dulles Airport at 2:20 PM Eastern Standard Time. During the course of the flight the airline was contacted by federal law enforcement officers. The FBI advised United Airlines a mother on the flight was improperly taking her child back to China. Upon the flight returning, the mother was arrested on suspicion of committing an international custody kidnapping. The child was returned to the father’s custody.
In 2013, a father started a divorce proceeding against a mother. Joint custody was awarded of their 4 year old son. Their son had been born in China and had dual United States and Chinese citizenship. The custody agreement entered into in 2014 specifically prevented either parent from traveling outside the United States without “express written and notarized consent of the other party, provided in advance of the trip.” The mother in this case admitted she was removing the son from the United States without the father’s consent in violation of this express agreement.
International Custody Kidnapping
It is a crime to take or attempt to take a child out of the United States and keep him or her out of the country to prevent another parent from having custody of the child. The problem is, although a parent can be prosecuted for this, in many situations it is very difficult to have the child returned back to the United States. Each and every year, there are approximately 2,000 children who are missing related to international parental kidnaping situations in the United States.
The Law Offices of Schlissel DeCorpo is experienced in representing clients in international custody kidnapping cases.
To watch today’s video blog, please click on the link below:
Elliot S. Schlissel is a father’s rights lawyer. He can be reached at 516-561-6645, 718-350-2802, or by email to schlissel.law@att.net.
In custody litigation the court must determine which parent would be better at taking care of the best interests of the child or children. Best interests of the child or children involves which parent can provide a life situation where the child will thrive and grow emotionally, intellectually, spiritually and physically. The large majority of custody issues are resolved out of court in custody agreements between the parties. However a small number of custody matters require a judge to make a decision as to which parent would be better suited to being the residential custodial parent of the child.
Each litigant in a custody case will seek to prove it is in the child’s best interest for the child to reside with them. In order to accomplish this goal, a litigant in a custody case should obtain documentation supporting his or her claims. This documentation should show the involvement of that parent in the child’s medical needs, school, work, after school activities, family and social events, and other issues which would lead a judge to believe that parent was the primary, caring individual involved with raising the child and promoting the child’s best interests. A parent seeking custody should show his or her residence provides appropriate accommodations for the child, is within a reasonable distance of the child’s school, and the living environment the child would be exposed to is conducive to raising a child. Photographs of the place the child will live, his room, the accommodations of the home should be available to present to the court.
Who The Child Seeks to Live With
In the State of New York, in custody battles, an attorney is appointed to represent the child. The attorney for the child is supposed to meet with the child and take into consideration the child’s desires as to who he or she would seek to live with. It is this author’s opinion the child’s position as to who should be the residential custodial parent should only be considered with mature children. Unfortunately, this is not the law in New York. I have had numerous cases where attorneys for a child have come into court and advised the court who the 4 or 5 year old they interviewed would seek to live with. 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 year olds often change their minds. Sometimes 3 or 4 times during a 15 minute span.
Support System
Parents seeking custody of a child should be able to make a presentation to the court who will be taking care of the child, supervising the child, and meeting the child’s needs 7 days a week. If the parent works, he or she must present to the court a support system which would nurture the child, protect the child, and properly supervise the child when that parent is unavailable due to employment or other reasons.
The More Available Parent
Some parents have employment situations which are more flexible than others. The parent with the more flexible position can make a presentation to the judge that he or she would be available to be there for the child during school programs, after school activities, and help with homework. Judges do take a parent’s availability to nurture a child into consideration when custody issues are presented to them.
Elliot Schlissel is a father’s rights lawyer practicing law within the Metropolitan New York area for more than 35 years.
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