Pandemic Complicates Custody for 8 Million Children of Divorce
No one has a bigger challenge than doctors and nurses who risk infecting their kids.
The mother keeps throwing New York City dinner parties, and the father worries their kids might contract COVID-19. What’s a divorced couple to do in the age of social distancing?
This one chose the time-honored route and went to court – by phone, of course. In the emergency conference, the judge rebuked the mother but left the custody arrangement intact.
This clash, recounted by New York family lawyer Marilyn Chinitz, illustrates the treacherous terrain facing the 8.3 million American children whose divorced or separated parents share responsibility for raising them in the pandemic.
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Chinitz, a partner at Blank Rome LLP who represented the husband in the dinner-party case, said judges are delivering a clear message to couples: “Don’t forget I’m going to be deciding this custody case when it’s all over, and the first thing I’ll look at is which parent is providing access to the other parent and who isn’t.”
“Pandemic Complicates Custody for 8 Million Children of Divorce,” by Shelly Banjo, was published in the Portland Press Herald on April 4, 2020.