Maryland Family Law Maryland family law opinions and commentary

Child custody — Order — Timeliness of appeal In September 2016, a judgment of absolute divorce was entered in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County dissolving the marriage of Tiemoko Coulibaly, appellant, and Fatou Gaye-Coulibaly, appellee. In 2016, prior to ...

Child custody — Child’s testimony — Preferred parent On December 20, 2019, Judge Richard Bernhardt, of the Circuit Court for Howard County, entered a judgment of absolute divorce between Jared Ross (“Husband”), Appellant, and Jennifer Ross (“Wife”), Appellee. Wife received ...

Child custody — Special Immigrant Juvenile Status — Abuse, neglect or abandonment On October 25, 2019, O.T. filed a Complaint for Joint Custody and Judicial Findings of Fact of Child’s Eligibility for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (“SIJS”) in the Circuit ...

Child custody — Circuit court jurisdiction — Contempt Oleg Kapustin, appellant, and Evgeniya Lugovkin, appellee, have been involved in a custody dispute regarding their two minor children for over ten years. The Circuit Court for Montgomery County has entered multiple ...

Child custody — Sole custody — Parents’ inability to communicate This appeal arises from a custody dispute in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County. After a four-day trial, the court awarded sole legal custody to the mother and ordered an ...

Child custody — Access schedule — Modification Roland Sand (“Father”) and Heather Sand (“Mother”) divorced in 2016. The Circuit Court for Baltimore City awarded them joint legal custody and shared physical custody of their minor son, A, and gave Mother ...

Child custody — Unsupervised visitation — Record of abuse We are once again called upon to review a decision from the Circuit Court for Howard County regarding the custody and visitation of E.S.’s (“Mother”) and S.S.’s (“Father”) two minor children. ...

Child custody — Tie-breaking authority — Cooperative parent By order dated November 8, 2019, the Circuit Court for Talbot County entered a judgment of absolute divorce between Mary Honablew (“Wife”) and Christopher Holden (“Husband”). In addition, the court gave the ...

Child custody — Parent’s right to travel — Child’s best interests Again, we are asked to address how to balance a parent’s fundamental right to travel against the overall best interests of her children in custody disputes. Although each custody ...

Child custody — Visitation — Notice requirement This appeal arises out of an order by the Circuit Court for Baltimore County resolving several motions by Nakia (McKinley) Pope, appellant, and her ex-husband, Noldon Pope, appellee, concerning custody and visitation of ...