A recent Maryland appeals court decision provides a warning to men and women who marry much older, wealthier and ailing people not out of love but in the hope of cashing in when the spouse dies. Because they enter the ...
Read More »‘Unclean hands’: Appellate decision warns those who marry for money
CSA clarifies rights in out-of-state custody order enforcement 
A Maryland court cannot modify an out-of-state custody order if Maryland is not the child’s home state, even where the custodial parent has unilaterally removed the child from the country, the Court of Special Appeals has held. The state’s intermediate ...
Read More »Altering child’s surname requires change in circumstances, Md. court says 
A Maryland appeals court has ordered that a son’s surname revert to his mother’s, saying a lower court had improperly given the father a second chance to have the boy’s name changed to his. Unmarried parents generally have just one ...
Read More »Md. appellate ruling to have major impact on juvenile immigrants 
Children seeking special immigrant juvenile status to become legal permanent residents of the U.S. do not have to prove their parents left them to “fend for [themselves]” for a circuit court to find they were neglected, the Court of Special ...
Read More »Volodarsky revisited: Same standard applies to denial of all visitation 
Accusations of sexual abuse by a parent can be judged under a “preponderance of evidence” standard in visitation cases even if all visitation is denied, the Court of Special Appeals has held. The Court of Appeals left the question open in a footnote several years ago when it decided Volodarsky v. Tarachanskaya, 397 Md. 291 (2007).
Read More »Week-long ‘move’ didn’t change child’s home state 
Baltimore County grandparents cannot fight for custody of their grandson in Maryland courts based on his mother’s quickly abandoned plan to move here, the Court of Special Appeals has held.
Read More »Nick Bergeris v. Jeanine Bergeris
Divorce: Cohabitation: Sexual relations by phone. Court of Special Appeals No. 0405, Sept. Term 2012. Reported. Opinion by Meredith, J. Filed April 30, 2014. Appeal from Montgomery County. Reversed.
Read More »He said, she said: Reaction to the phone-sex ruling 
When it comes to whether phone sex is cohabitation, the Court of Special Appeals emphatically agreed with Nick Bergeris. So does longtime family-law attorney Jeffrey N. Greenblatt. When the appellate court decided that phone sex alone doesn’t count, it was ...
Read More »John Aaron Winters v. Carroll County Bureau of Support Enforcement 
Child support: Motion to order genetic testing: Non-appealable order CSA No. 0280, Sept. Term 2013. Unreported. Opinion by Salmon, J.P., J. Filed March 11, 2014. Appeal from Carroll County. Appeal dismissed.
Read More »Maria D. Benfield v. Gregory M. Benfield 
Divorce: monetary award: alimony CSA No. 0234, Sept. Term 2012. Unreported. Opinion by Meredith, J. Filed July 18, 2013. Appeal from Baltimore County. Remanded in part, without affirmance or reversal. 18 pages.
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