Charlottesville Divorce Lawyer Rob Hagy

Charlottesville Custody Lawyer Rob Hagy: Award of Third Party Visitation to Grandmother Improper.

In the case of T.W. ex rel. R.W. v. T.H., the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, Division Four, ruled that the trial court erred in awarding third party visitation to maternal grandmother on alternating weekends, alternating holidays, and every Christmas Day.  The visitation was more than minimally intrusive of mother's parental rights and thus impermissibly impinged on her fundamental constitutional right to make decisions concerning care, custody, and control of her child.

Rob Hagy, Charlottesville Custody Lawyer.  For help defending against a claim for visitation by a grandparent, please contace me at (434)293-4562 or email me at [email protected].  I look forward to helping you.

PKPA Prevents Virginia From Exercising Jurisdiction Over Custody Dispute Between Gay Couple

In the case of Miller-Jenkins v. Miller-Jenkins, the Virginia Court of Appeals ruled that the trial court improperly adjudicated the parental rights of a lesbian couple who were joined in a Vermont civil union . The parties separated.  One party stayed in Vermont.  The other moved to Virginia with the parties' daughter.  A Vermont court issued an order concerning the parties' parental rights concerning the child.  After that order was entered, the Virginia trial court entered another order covering the same matters.  The trial court should not have entered the second order because, the Court of Appeals ruled, the Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act, 28 U.S.C. Section 1738A, prevented the trial court from exercising jurisdiction in the first place.  The Vermont, and not the Virginia orders, are entitled to full faith and credit.

ABA Family Law Quarterly Update

The Spring 2006 issue of the Family Law Quarterly, a publication of the Section of Family Law of the American Bar Association, deals with the issue of third party rights and obligations concerning children.  This issue has come up recently in Virginia.  In the published opinion of Surles v. Mayer, the Virginia Court of Appeals ruled that a man who lived with and had a daughter with a woman could petition the court for visitation with the woman's son from a previous marriage.