Maryland Family Law Maryland family law opinions and commentary

Child custody — De facto parenthood — Heterosexual relationships As society evolves in its recognition of relationships and families not formed purely by biology, so too must the law. Hale Kpetigo (“Father”) asks us to reverse the judgment of the ...

Child custody — Motion to modify — Joint legal and physical custody Lyonel Jose, Jr. (“Father”), the appellant, and Sandra Farnham, formerly Sandra Jose, (“Mother”), the appellee, are the divorced parents of a now eight-year-old daughter (“Daughter”). This case comes ...

Child custody — Special Immigrant Juvenile status — Predicate factual findings Oscar Orlando Martinez, the appellant, noted this appeal from an order of the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County granting him custody of his daughter, Jenniffer Elizabeth Martinez-Trujillo (“Jenniffer”), ...

Child support — Affidavit of parentage — Request for paternity test Although it was hardly Reginald Faison, Jr.’s plan, his appeal in this case reprises Davis v. Wicomico Cty. Bureau, 447 Md. 302 (2016), without the intervening res judicata question. ...

Child custody — Grandparents — Third-party custody We consider whether the Circuit Court for Montgomery County properly determined that the grandparents of a minor child may intervene in a custody action between the child’s parents and whether the circuit court ...

Justin Davis, Petitioner, twice sought to secure a paternity test years after he had executed an Affidavit of Parentage, in which he attested, shortly following the birth of twin boys in 2009, that he was their father. The Wicomico County ...

Joint custody — Tie-breaking provisions — Warring parents In Taylor v. Taylor, 306 Md. 290, 293 (1986), we decided that an award of joint custody was a permissible exercise of a trial court’s general equity powers. Notably, we also explained ...

Child custody and visitation — De facto parenthood — Non-traditional marriage Child custody and visitation decisions are among the most serious and complex decisions a court must make, with grave implications for all parties. The dissolution of a non-traditional marriage ...

Child custody — Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act — Child’s home state The Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (“UCCJEA”) eliminates jurisdictional wrangling and forum shopping in custody cases by defining, for each child, a “home state” ...

Respondent’s parental rights were correctly terminated because she failed to protect her children from their abuser, who was respondent’s boyfriend. It is immaterial that the boyfriend was incarcerated and was to be deported while this appeal was pending. The issue is not whether the children will be at risk from a particular abuser. Rather, termination is appropriate because respondent had the opportunity to prevent the abuse but did not do so.