Former spouses who are in arranged custody agreements or are still in the midst of custody battles with one another over their children must now contend with the COVID-19 crisis as part of their legal entanglements.
A Miami emergency room physician on the front line of the coronavirus pandemic temporarily lost custody of her 4-year-old daughter after state Circuit Court Judge Bernard Shapiro ruled the child should stay with her father to limit the risk of exposure to the coronavirus.
“The Court does not enter this Order lightly but given the pandemic in Florida and the recent increase in confirmed COVID-19 cases, the Court finds in order to insulate and protect the best interests and health of the minor child, this Order must be entered on a temporary basis,” the judge wrote in the court ruling.
Divorced parents who are doctors on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic are not the only ones likely facing this issue.
Law enforcement, firemen, sanitation workers, supermarket workers, pharmacy workers, public transportation workers, among others who interact with the public every day, could very well find themselves in similar legal fights as the Miami doctor.
Though the judge ruled in this case, many legal questions related to child custody are temporarily on hold. Many courts across the country are unavailable to make decisions in states where stay-at-home orders are in place.
“Fundamentally, the courts are closed, except for emergency basis, and custody alone hasn’t really come up as an emergency. So, people are navigating it on their own. So, I’ve got my clients, and I’d say one-third are saying they don’t want their spouse to see the child, because they don’t want the kid to get sick,” New York City-based family attorney Scott Orgel told the Washington Examiner.
“The other third are trying to work something out so that even though they have separate homes, they are sort of staying in place together in separate homes, because the kids are going back and forth,” Orgel said.
“So, as an adult, they’re quarantined with the other person in a separate home just because the kids are breathing the same air in both places and hopefully they don’t get sick and making a go of it,” Orgel said. “Then, you have people that just don’t know what they’re doing.”
In Southern California, according to the Orange County Register, the family law court is opened on a restricted basis until June 1. Supervising Judge Lon Hurwitz notified family law attorneys in late March that the court would only handle domestic violence cases and other emergencies as it was operating with a 70% personnel reduction.
Orgel described cases he is handling, which included New York parents who ran off with their children.
“One, I think, to a beach house in New Jersey, and another one got a private plane and went down to Florida with the kids, and in both cases, not really agreeing on it with the other spouse to say, ‘Hey, we’re gone.’”
In Maryland, the judiciary released a statement confirming that all court orders for a child’s custody, parenting time, and child support are still in effect.
“In some situations, if permitted under the court order, custodians can jointly adjust their shared parenting responsibilities in ways that they agree are best for the children. If custodians are not able to agree, the court order controls,” the statement says.
Maryland-based family law attorney Eyal Rosenstock told the Washington Examiner, “The problem becomes when one parent doesn’t want to do that together with the other parent, and they just, on their own, hold the child.”
Although current circumstances with a shuttered court system may make one parent feel empowered to grab their child, there may be consequences to pay later when the court system reopens.
“Realistically, right now, with the courts closed except for emergencies, basic custody or parental access is not happening in the court system, but as soon as it reopens, you’ve got these people who are going to say the other parent is absolutely not cooperating, and in New York, one of the factors for custody is fostering a relationship between the children and noncustodial parents,” Orgel said.
“I would use this as a blatant excuse of a nonfostering relationship, especially for the people that have ran away — even the people that are here and just refuse to let the other parents in,” he said.
