Plantation Family Law Blog

Determinations concerning the amount of child support owed are seldom easy. It's especially dicey when the individuals involved are self-employed, receive significant incomes or are in possession of a large number of assets.

In one circumstance where both the mother and the father of a 5-year old girl are millionaires, one of the couple is accused of concealing income for the purposes of child support. What's unusual about this circumstance is the person accused of hiding the income is the custodial mother of the child. She is accused of concealing her financial circumstances so that she could obtain more than $50,000 per month in child support payments from the biological father.

A Florida legislative committee has voted 5-4 on what is called the "anti-sharia" law. What this means is that SB 58 could still become law. If passed, it would prevent Florida courts from applying foreign laws in divorce and child custody dispute. It appears that the bill is mostly designed to prevent couples from using the Quran when making arguments in courts.

The attempts to pass this law have created opposition and controversy. Many critics have felt the legislation is not based upon any real need in our court systems. Though one legislator claimed it is "not a blanket prohibition against international law" in divorce type cases, a number of organizations state that the bill would have an effect upon divorces of Jewish couples. Some feel it would prevent divorce settlements made under Israeli or Jewish law from being recognized.

Though not in Florida, one recent child custody matter in another state demonstrates how complex these matters can become - especially in light of a number of social and cultural considerations. One state's Supreme Court ruled that the best interests for two young girls would be best served if they remained in the care and custody of their adoptive parents rather than be turned over to their biological grandparents.

This matter was complicated by the fact that the girls and their grandparents are black while their adoptive parents are white. Also, the adoptive children live in an urban area in a northern state (the state where this decision was tried) while the grandparents live in a rural area a long ways away in a southern state. The decision thus raised a number of questions concerning race, culture and identify relative to where the children's best interests lie. 

A recent study has shown that children of devout parents will often make a break from their faith if their parents also happen to divorce. There could be any number of reasons for why this occurs. However, what it does demonstrate is that a divorce can greatly alter the direction that a child's life might take.

It has long been thought that children of divorced parents were less religious to begin with. Yet this study suggests that children were even more likely to leave the church following their parents' divorce when they were raised in a deeper religious environment. What this study also found was that the phenomenon of children leaving their faith following the divorce was occurring regardless of what religion children may have been raised in.