South Florida Dads

South Carolina Man and Woman live together.

Woman has a Son.

Man acts like any good father would toward Son.

Drives him to school. Roots for him at his ball games. Attends parent-teacher conferences. Etc., etc.

One thing is missing …

A paternity test does not bear out a biological connection between Man and Son.

Man and Woman eventually break up.

But Man and Son do not want to break up with each other.

Man goes to court to obtain visitation, arguing that he is Son’s psychological parent, the father figure in Son’s life.

But the court rules against him, because Son knows that Man is not his biological father and that someone else is.

Man appeals. And the South Carolina Court of Appeals agrees with Man.

Court awards Man visitation with Son.

Shortly before Father’s Day, Man won full custody of Son by agreement with Woman after a six year court battle.

Read more in this [Charleston, SC] Post and Courier article: Helping set legal precedent, man gains custody of boy he helped raise.

In the criminal courts, the defendant can insist on speedy justice.

Not so the litigants in family court, which often operates in a virtual time warp.

Husband and Wife live in North Carolina. They have two children.

Wife files for divorce.

North Carolina Court grants permission for Wife to relocate to Rhode Island, but allows for visitation by Husband each month in both states.

The Wife reportedly tries to block Husband’s visitation and cut Husband out of the children’s lives by accusing Husband of everything from harsh discipline of the children to neglecting them to watch pornography on the internet.

Wife also obtains an injunction for protection against domestic violence, or order of protection, against Husband - in Rhode Island.

Not buying it, the North Carolina Court orders Wife to return with the children to live in North Carolina.

Unhappy with the North Carolina ruling, Wife tries to do an end run around the North Carolina courts and seeks emergency jurisdiction in Rhode Island.

Which Rhode Island’s family courts exercise … repeatedly.

Having apparently exhausted his remedies in North Carolina, Husband appeals in Rhode Island.

And Husband wins …

A mere seven years later.

The reasons Husband wins are because:

1. North Carolina validly exercised jurisdiction in the first place and
2. Emergency jurisdiction is inherently temporary in nature
.

Read more in this Providence Journal news blog post: R.I. Supreme Court: Mother, children must return to N.C.

Turkish Man living in France seeks to marry and bring a Turkish Woman to live with him in France.

Only that particular Woman had been accepted to college and has her heart set on attending.

So the Man promises the Woman that she will be able to go to university after the marriage.

So the Woman marries the Man.

But he does not allow the Woman to go to college.

In fact, he literally locks Woman inside the house in France.

To do housework.

Woman returns to Turkey and files for divorce.

Woman alleges that Husband is violent and that his family mistreats her.

The Court grants the divorce and, concluding that this case is not that different from a case of physical violence:

• orders alimony for Woman
• orders actual damages for Man’s “social violence” toward Woman
• orders emotional damages for Man’s “social violence” toward Woman

Read more in this Hurriyet [Turkey] Daily News article: Man found guilty of ’social violence’.