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Family Reunion

In our last column I told the sad tale "Farewell to Arms," in which Larry and Sylvia's dream life was derailed by Sylvia's decision to split for New York with boyfriend Jack and the kids.

After a surprising first round in court, in which Larry's motion for primary custody on a temporary basis was granted, Larry began to learn some hard lessons. For one thing, getting the temporary court order giving him primary custody was easier than getting the kids back. He had naively assumed that after the order was issued, someone would bring the kids to him at once. No such luck.

Larry's lawyer, Sid Strong, explained that the order was just the first step in what could be a very lengthy process. As recent events in the national news have made clear, child custody fights are complicated when the parents are in two different states. Parents assume, often wrongly, that the legal solutions for interstate custody battles must be fairly clear. Not only are the answers unclear to the parents; they are also often difficult for the lawyers and judges to resolve.

In Larry's case, he and Sid couldn't even locate Sylvia to serve her with the Court order giving him temporary custody. Eventually, they located her through her mother, Dotty. Since Dotty felt that Sylvia had deprived Dotty of contact with her grandchildren, she was more than willing to pass on Sylvia's new address to Larry. Larry learned that legal service of Washington State court orders could indeed be made on Sylvia.

Enforcement of the orders was another matter. Sylvia simply ignored the custody order from King County favoring Larry. She too got a lawyer from a well-known New York family law firm, Durt & Bullshot. Before the end of the week, Larry got another visit at home from the friendly young process server - who now had, in addition to his pierced ears, a lovely silver stud in his tongue. He cheerfully served Larry with some court orders from New York, signed by Harry Bullshot himself. The content of the orders seemed impossible to Larry. According to the Court from the Big Apple, Sylvia was to have primary custody.

"How can that be, Sid," mumbled Larry. "The King County order is totally different from the New York order. Sid raised only one of his dark, shaggy eyebrows. "The ace in the hole for you, Larry my boy," said Sid, "is a handy little statute called the "Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act." Larry doubted that this law would help. Neither of his children had ever even worn a uniform. Sid ignored this remark.

"This may come as a shock to you," said the famous Sid, "but you are not the first parent to have their children kidnapped by a spouse. The states got so sick of watching kids be used as footballs they passed the UCCJA. Under that statute, custody fights have to occur only in the state which has the closest connection to the children and their parents, and where the witnesses are located who can testify about the p

With the help of a document retrieval company, Sid got a copy of the entire New York file before lunch. As Sid had guessed, the New York orders had been issued on the basis of false statements made by Sylvia and her boyfriend, Jack. Sid had responsive affidavits drafted and signed by Larry, Dotty, her husband Burt, and Dr. Ben Ezra, the family physician. Since Sid was not admitted to practice law in the state of New York, he hired an excellent family law attorney in New York.

"How do you know she's any good?" asked Larry. Sid smiled. "She's A-V." "You mean she's average?" "No," Sid explained, "she has been awarded the coveted A-V rating by the number one independent rating service for attorneys, Martindale-Hubble." Sid turned to his computer, pulled up a website, and showed Larry the specs on his new attorney, Temple Justice. Top ten percent of her class; clerked for a federal judge; casenote editor of the Columbia Law Review; twelve published appellate cases; former chairperson of the Family Law Section for the New York Bar Association. Larry was duly impressed.

Sid immediately e-mailed Larry's legal response to Temple Justice. Temple interviewed Larry by phone, accepted the case, and filed her Notice of Appearance and Larry's response the next day. The response included a motion to vacate the earlier New York orders placing the children with Sylvia, and a motion under the UCCJA to force Sylvia to return the children to Larry until further order of the King County Court.

There were more legal fireworks in New York, and Larry and Sid heard about them soon after each explosion. Sylvia's attorney was also good, and came up with a number of reasons why it would be best for the children to remain in New York, and why New York courts should retain jurisdiction of the case. Temple set the stage for each court battle, scanning and e-mailing to Sid every document filed by Mr. Bullshot, and preparing all the documents and affidavits needed for an immediate response. She won every motion. Temple, Larry concluded, was magnificent.

A critical hearing was then calendared in New York. Temple advised Larry to fly out and attend in person because the Judge might require testimony. The afternoon before the hearing, and two hours before Larry was scheduled to board a red-eye, he got a call at home from Temple. She had just come from yet another unscheduled "emergency" hearing. Mr. Bullshot, realizing that he would probably lose if Larry testified, got the hearing moved up a day earlier than scheduled due to "an unforeseen emergency." The judge was unconvinced and unimpressed. The trick backfired on Mr. Bullshot, and resulted in an order forcing Sylvia to immediately return the children to Larry. Temple wanted Larry to know that she had already arranged the flight, and that Josh and Tamarra would fly out to rejoin Larry in Seattle at 11 am the next day.

At the airport the next morning Larry, Dotty, Burt, several other relatives and a couple of the kids' friends from school met Josh and Tamarra as they disembarked at Seatac airport. Hugs and kisses all around. Not a dry eye in the bunch.