Maryland Divorce Lawyer Blog

Maryland Appellate Court Recognizes Congolese Marriage By Proxy

April 24, 2013 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

In Tshiani v. Tshiani, a Maryland appellate court ruled on the question of whether the trial court was right to recognize a marriage that occurred in the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire (hereafter “Congo”). In that case, both the husband and wife were from the Congo.

The wife was 18 and her husband was 35 when they met. They married five months later. However, the husband was not actually present at the marriage because he was on assignment in a different country. His cousin stood in for him at the wedding. They followed the customs of the Congo.

After the wedding, they lived together in Virginia and then Maryland and represented themselves as husband and wife. They bought property in Maryland 1994 and had three kids. They renewed their vows later that year, obtaining a proof of marriage from the Congolese embassy. Continue reading

Case Summary: Prenuptial Agreement Prepared and Client Says “I do” as Planned

April 22, 2013 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

Recently, our office assisted a client in drafting and finalizing a prenuptial agreement between him and his fiancée. While our office has drafted prenuptial agreements and voluntary separation agreements for many of our clients, this client’s situation was a bit unusual. He needed the agreement negotiated and signed within a few days because he and his fiancée were planning to get married in less than two weeks.

Our client’s family had been encouraging him to speak with an attorney about drafting a prenuptial agreement for several months, but our client waited until just before his wedding to finally seek legal advice. Once he came in for his initial consultation, our office strongly advised him that his family was right – he should enter into a prenuptial agreement with his fiancée to ensure all his rights were protected if they were to ever divorce.

Our client earned a substantial yearly income working for the government. Additionally, he owned his own business in Washington DC, had a substantial retirement account, owned several automobiles, and had almost no debt to his name. In contrast, his fiancée was in the US on a student visa, she was not employed, she had several student loans, and she owned no property other than one automobile which was over a decade old.

Maryland Court Did Not Rule Improperly in Granting Joint Custody to Fighting Parents

April 10, 2013 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

In March 2013, the Maryland Court of Appeals issued an opinion in the divorce and child custody case of Reichert v. Hornbeck that illustrated the broad leeway courts have in making child custody determinations. The case arose out of the rocky romantic relationship that ensued when Jeffrey, a recent law school graduate, met Sarah, who was preparing to go to law school. The couple broke up after three years. They reunited in 2008 and got engaged. By then, Jeffrey had moved up the corporate legal ladder. Sarah had also succeeded professionally, earning about $120,000 a year at a firm. However, she later left her firm for a new job that paid only $68,340 a year.

Jeffrey and Sarah moved into a three-story rental in Baltimore and got married. During their honeymoon however, they experienced the same kind of conflict they had in the earlier incarnation of their relationship. These issues continued through the rest of their marriage. Continue reading

Same-sex marriage in Maryland

April 4, 2013 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

In 2012, Governor O’Malley led a campaign for the legalization of same-sex marriage. This led to the General Assembly passing a law permitting same sex marriage in February 2012. 52.5% of Maryland voters approved the law in a referendum on November 6, 2012. This was the first time marriage rights have been given to same-sex couples through a popular vote. It was a particularly significant change because Maryland was the first state to specifically define marriage as a union between a man and a woman in the early 1970s. The law took effect on January 1, 2013.

In 2007, the court found that the statutory ban on gay marriage was constitutional. However, last year, the Maryland Court of Appeals issued a decision in the case Port v. Cowan, which suggested the tides of opinion were changing.

Port v. Cowan arose when two women, Jessica Port and Virginia Anne Cowan, married in California in 2008 at a time when California recognized domestic same-sex marriages. The couple separated voluntarily for more than a year. About two years later, Port filed for divorce in the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County where she lived then. Cowan did not contest the divorce. Continue reading

Maryland Court Affirms Constitutionality of Rules Regarding Natural Parent’s Objections

April 3, 2013 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

The Maryland Court of Appeal recently considered constitutional questions in the context of the independent adoption process in In Re: Adoption of Sean. Moira M. and William H. dated from April 2008 to November 2008. On June 16, 2009, Moira M. gave birth to a baby, Sean. The next month Moira filed a complaint against William H. Stating that he was the natural father of Sean, Moira’s complaint sought sole custody.

In his answer, William H. denied that he was the natural father. He set forth no objection to Moira M. having sole custody. Meanwhile, Moira M. married Jeffrey Craig K., a man she had been dating, during the fall of 2009. The suit was dismissed in 2010 by agreement.

In March 2011, Jeffrey Craig K. filed a Petition for Stepparent Adoption of a Minor and Change of Name. He announced that he planned to continue to live with Sean’s mother. He also said the natural father had not been identified nor come forward. The Petition claimed that even if William H. was Sean’s natural father, he had “abandoned his parental rights” by denying Sean was his son in the answer to Moira’s earlier complaint, not participating as Sean’s father, and not attempting to support Sean.

Case Summary: Sole Legal Physical Custody Awarded to Dad

March 21, 2013 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

Recently, our office assisted a Dad who wanted to obtain sole residential and sole legal custody of his two young children. He was a young father, only 21 years old, but he had already demonstrated a level a maturity of someone much older. He had been taking care of the children for about a year with little to no support or even contact from the children’s mother.

The Dad, acting on his own without the assistance of an attorney, filed for custody with the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, MD. When he filed for custody, he never anticipated that the children’s mother would fight him. However, that is exactly what happened. After being served, the children’s mother hired an attorney, who immediately opposed the Dad’s request for sole custody and filed for joint custody on the mother’s behalf.

By the time the Dad had saved a little money to hire an attorney and had sought assistance from our experienced family law attorneys, the custody merits trial was less than one week away. The Dad came to our office petrified and nervous that he was going to lose custody of his children. He believed that the Court would favor the mother solely because she was the mother and she would automatically get joint custody even if that wasn’t in the best interest of the children.

Bigamy Can Lead to Misrepresentation Claim in Maryland

March 17, 2013 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

In the recent case Bradley v. Bradley, the Maryland Court of Appeals considered the questions raised when a woman sued a man she believed to be her husband for intentional negligent misrepresentation. Mr. Bradley and Ms. Bradley met in 2003 at Kennedy Krieger Institute. Ms. Bradley was responsible for Mr. Bradley’s son and was often in contact with Mr. Bradley who was then married with three kids. The next year, Mr. Bradley told Ms. Bradley that he had separated from his wife and started divorce proceedings. They commenced a long extramarital affair.

In 2006, after claiming that there had been various problems in the divorce proceedings, Mr. Bradley announced that his divorce was final. He proposed to Ms. Bradley. In 2007, the couple married in Las Vegas, Nevada. Ms. Bradley experienced two incidents of battery by Mr. Bradley before she checked previous domestic violence cases to see what his history was. The records revealed that Mr. Bradley’s divorce was not listed. Mr. Bradley confessed he had never obtained the divorce from his first wife. He and Ms. Bradley separated. Continue reading

Maryland Court Recently Ruled on the Attorney-Client Relationship in Family Law

March 16, 2013 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

This month, a Maryland Court of Special Appeals ruled on Li v. Lee, a case with several family law issues. The facts are complex, but are briefly as follows.

A husband and wife met in 1977. In spite of a brief romance, they married other people. Years later, their romance was rekindled while they were still married to those people and the wife was living in Canada. Both divorced their partners. The U.S. Government was the husband’s employer and he was a naturalized U.S. citizen.

The couple wanted to change the wife’s immigration status to “lawful permanent resident” status and hired the immigration attorney Yu Gu, who was recommended by one of the wife’s friends. Gu prepared all the paperwork for the couple. The husband provided his tax return information and bank statements in order to complete the paperwork. Continue reading

Maryland Court Rules On Judge’s Interview of a Child During Custody Battle

March 14, 2013 | by Anthony A. Fatemi, LLC

The Court of Special Appeals of Maryland recently ruled that a trial judge did not abuse his discretion when questioning a child about custody arrangements in Karanikas v. Cartwright. Rachel Karanikas Cartwright (“the mother”) and Konstantinos Karanikas (“the father”) were originally awarded joint legal custody of their nine-year-old daughter, which later changed to physical custody by the mother with visitation by the father.

In March 2012, the mother emailed the father stating her intent to relocate to Pennsylvania with their child. The father did not consent. Both parents filed pleadings to change the original order and judgment. The relocation trial was set for September 7, 2012.

The father sought to have the child testify either in open court or in chambers. Initially the trial judge reserved on the question of whether or not to interview the child because other witnesses might be able to provide information pertinent to the issues such that a nine-year-old would not need to testify. However, the trial judge did meet with the child in chambers for about twelve minutes at the end of the trial’s first day. Continue reading