The legal authority for a parent to seek modification of a prior child custody award upon a showing of changed circumstances affecting a child since the last award raises a disturbing possibility of custody litigation throughout a child’s minority. Naturally, the stress and expense of multiple custo...
Parents and judges often prove reluctant to use testimony from children in divorce and other actions involving custody determinations, even though children frequently possess critical knowledge of parental behavior material to those determinations. Without a child’s testimony, hearsay rules limit a...
When a person willfully disobeys a prior court order, including a child custody order, a court can hold the offender in contempt.(1) The finding of contempt can be either “civil” or “criminal,” depending on the action taken by the court to deal with the contempt. Criminal contempt “imposes unconditi...
Georgia law grants no prima-facie right to the custody of a child in the father or mother, in a battle between two parents.(1) Rather, the judge hearing the issue of custody must “exercise discretion to look to and determine solely what is for the best interest of the child and what will best promot...
Drug and alcohol abuse has ruined many a marriage and severely damaged the children of addicted parents. Allegations of alcoholism and addiction consequently abound in divorces and other domestic relations actions. As this article discusses, evidence of substance or alcohol abuse can be relevant in...