Articles Tagged with “Hague Convention”

Many times Broward divorce attorneys receive telephone calls from a parent who claims that the other parent has abducted their child. However, many individuals are unaware of the Hague Convention, a multinational treaty that provides an expeditious method to return a child taken from one member nation to another.

The Hague Convention insures the prompt return of children who have been abducted from their country of habitual residence or wrongfully retained in a contracting state not their country of habitual residence. While the Hague Convention only applies to children under the age of 16, it preserves the status quo time-sharing and child custody arrangement that was in place before an alleged wrongful removal or retention deterring a parent from forum shopping to a more sympathetic court.

The United States of America would like Japan to sign a global convention on international parental child abduction. This would assist foreign nationals who are denied contact, access and time-sharing with children by their Japanese former spouse. Japan is one of seven nations that have not signed the Hague Convention.

During your divorce in Broward County, it is important to speak with your lawyer about removing your child from Florida during and after your case. The marital and family law judge in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit Court can issue an order or temporary injunction prohibiting the removal of your child from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. During contested custody and time-sharing cases, the divorce judge can also issue an order prohibiting the issuance of a passport or requiring you or your spouse’s Fort Lauderdale divorce attorney to hold your child’s passport in trust to prevent your child from being abducted or kidnapped from the jurisdiction.

The United States Supreme Court recently agreed to hear arguments in a child custody dispute between a Texas mom and British dad. The court will examine how American authorities handle the Hague Convention on child abduction which prevents one parent from taking a child to other countries without the other parent’s consent. The United States is amount 80 different countries that follow this treaty.

In this case, the father accused the mother of violating a court order issued in Chile by taking the minor child, a U.S. citizen born in Hawaii, to Texas without his consent. The father asked the American court to order that the minor child be returned to Chile based upon the Hague Convention. The mother felt that she had exclusive custody of the child and that the U.S. courts can not order her to return the child to Chile.