Reprinted from the November 5, 2014 Mongoose newsletter. Clients and former clients have already started calling about arguments over which parent has possession of the kids this coming weekend. Most people think last weekend was the first weekend of November and yet last weekend started with Friday, October 31. Our clients need to be reminded that weekend visitation is based on Fridays - 1st, 3rd and 5th. Expect a few emergency calls Friday and some enforcements to arise out of this coming weekend. In 2015, January, May, July and October have five Fridays. That means a parent with visitation under a standard possession order will have three weekends in those months and have two weekends in a row when the fifth Friday of one month is followed by the first Friday of the next month. Your clients will appreciate it if you forewarn them about these calendar anomalies. Next year, the parent with visitation rights, for example, should carefully consider that July gives him ... Read More >
The Crime of Interfering With Child Custody
The next time a police officer tells you that a parent's failure to return a child after visitation is "a civil matter," remind the cop about Penal Code Sec. 25.03, which states: Sec. 25.03. INTERFERENCE WITH CHILD CUSTODY. (a) A person commits an offense if the person takes or retains a child younger than 18 years of age: (1) when the person knows that the person's taking or retention violates the express terms of a judgment or order, including a temporary order, of a court disposing of the child's custody; (2) when the person has not been awarded custody of the child by a court of competent jurisdiction, knows that a suit for divorce or a civil suit or application for habeas corpus to dispose of the child's custody has been filed, and takes the child out of the geographic area of the counties composing the judicial district if the court is a district court or the county if the court is a statutory county court, without the permission of the court and with the intent to ... Read More >