Recovery under the Hague Convention

Christian Nørgaard, a Danish computer science engineer was working in California when he met and married Tammy Zied, a software engineer. They married in Redwood City, California and had two daughters, Mia and Sarah, both born in California. The family moved to Germany then Denmark for Christian’s employment. 

While living in Denmark, the couple separated and in 2012, the Danish courts granted sole custody of both children to Christian. Tammy accused Christian of violence against her and the daughters. Mia began running away from Christian’s home, according to Tammy, to "escape the violence". Last May, Mia arrived in the United States and Sarah was left in Denmark with Christian. It is unclear whether Mia came to the United States with permission of Christian and was never returned, or whether Mia went to the United States without the consent of Christian and against the court order. 

According to an article published in the Copenhagen Post in August 19, 2013, Mia was reported as kidnapped to Interpol after Tammy failed to return her to Christian after an Easter visit. Tammy had told the police that Mia had run away and she didn’t know where she was. Police suspected that Tammy was hiding Mia and held her in custody for five days. When she was released, Tammy disappeared. 
 http://cphpost.dk/news/american-mother-suspected-of-kidnapping-her-daughter.6461.html

Mia and Tammy were living in Laguna Niguel. On January 31, 2014, the local authorities took Mia to a youth facility. Christian returned to California and Mia was returned to him a few days later. It appears that Mia is now with Christian and Sarah in Denmark.

Christian filed a Petition in Orange County under the Hague Convention and received assistance from the United States in the return of Mia to his custody. 

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/mia-604827-denmark-danish.html

Generally, exercising self-help in custody cases is not a good option. If faced with a similar situation or if you don't like the orders that are in place, the remedy would be to petition the court that made the orders, in this case Denmark, for a modification. Orders are binding and disobeying a court order or using self-help will make it more difficult to obtain custody or visitation in the future.

Decision From SCOTUS Regarding Hague Convention

(yes, the Hague Convention on International Child Abduction, NOT the one about dropping bombs from Zeppelins):   Lozano v. Montoya Alvarez, stating that the one year "statute of limitation" within which the courts of a country to which a child has been abducted  (or, in the language of the statute, "removed") must order a child "returned" to the original place of residence is not extended if the child is concealed.

Collecting Child Support Internationally?

On June 18, 2013, the House passed H.R. 1896, International Child Support Recovery Improvement Act of 2013. This Bill, in part, amends the Social Security Act, to allow the United States to comply with the Hague Convention for the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance. This bill will allow child support to be collected when one parent and the child(ren) live in one country and the other parent lives in a different country as long as both countries are members of the Hague Convention.

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-113hr1896ih/pdf/BILLS-113hr1896ih.pdf

The next step to ratify the bill is for the Senate to adopt and enact similar legislation for this treaty. The Department of Health and Human Services is already working on moving the legislation forward.

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/css/resource/july-2013-child-support-report

This should make collecting child support easier because, if passed, the custodial parent may be able to receive some assistance and take advantage of some of the collection resources provided by the non-custodial parent’s country of residence in order to collect child support from the non-custodial parent.

SCOTUS To Look At Hague Appeal Issue

The Hague Convention on Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction* is intended to permit speedy resolution of disputes as to which nation is the appropriate place to resolve child custody disputes, by assuring return of the child(ren) to their "habitual residence", except under extraordinary circumstances.  While generally the problem with Hague proceedings is that they are not speedy enough, sometimes they may be too speedy.

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard argument in Chafin v. Chafin, to address the issue.

While it's not as headline-worthy as the DOMA cases, for the increasing number of parents with international, and intercontinental child custody arrangements, it may be more critical.


*I note the full title, because any treaty between nations signed at the Hague will be titled as a "Hague Convention", and simply searching those two words may end you up, for example, at the Hague Convention on the Launching of Explosives From Balloons.

Abbott: Supreme Court Decision on International Child Abduction Issues

The SCOTUS has decided, 6-3, in Abbott v. Abbott, a lingering issue in international child custody abduction cases. Only a parent with a "right of custody" can invoke the Hague Convention to compel the return of the child. Lower Federal courts have disagreed as to whether a parent with only "visitation" rights, but with a "ne exeat" order (forbidding the removal of the child from that country) could request return of the child under the Convention. The Supremes (or at least six of them) say that he can.