Are you Being Accused of Child Abuse While in a Divorce
Over the years we have had numerous cases where a parent has been accused of various forms of child abuse by a parent seeking an advantage in the case. A number of years ago a young mother was accused of beating her children after the husband coached the children to call Children and Family Services. He then had his lawyer file for an emergency hearing at which the representative from the state testified that although no abuse was found, it could not be ruled out. The mother was put out of the house, the children given to the father and the only way this mother could see her children was at the courthouse twice each week in the presence of a court appointed third party. While the court eventually found out what the husband had done, a tremendous amount of irreversible damage had been done. In another matter, a mother moved herself and the children out of state while her husband was n a business trip. She then claimed sexual abuse of a child by her husband, filing the complaints with the local police and with the police in the state into which she moved. The out of state police were required to inform Child Services. Child Services brought an emergency petition to the out of state court and the husband was prevented from seeing or speaking to his children for almost three months while the matter wound its way through the original state court.
In family court, child abuse allegations require no proof, no validation, no verification, no police reports, nor any other tangible evidence – the mere unsubstantiated allegation will do. Research proves upon the accusation of child abuse in family court, the presumption of guilt is taken for granted by the majority of attorneys and judges. Therefore, in family court, unsubstantiated hearsay allegations of abuse is all it takes for a parent to be “guilty,” along with all the consequences which go with that “guilty” verdict. From the onset, the parent will be treated as though he or she were found guilty in a real court.
The result of this is that the parent will almost immediately be separated from their children – at least until they can “prove” their innocence. During a divorce, the mere allegation of child abuse can and most of the time will cause an irreparable breakdown of the accused parent-child relationship. At the very least the previously healthy parent-child relationship will be disrupted and interfered with unnecessarily. The accused parent will typically become defensive and in the effort to prove their innocence, they will many times unwittingly distance themselves from their child, which is then used against them as verification of some form of abuse. Many times the falsely accused parent is stigmatized and their reputation tarnished by the false allegations. This stigma and tarnished reputation may stay with them even if they are eventually found to be factually innocent.
Like spousal abuse, child abuse allegations require no proof, validation, verification, police reports or any other tangible evidence – the mere unsubstantiated allegation will do very nicely by itself. Just as in false allegations of spousal abuse, false allegations of child abuse are extremely common in family court. Given the current heightened awareness of child abductions and child abuse nationally, there is a lot of emotions around the allegations of child abuse – and family court is almost totally governed by emotions. Family court judges are given wide discretionary powers unlike any other area of law. This vast discretionary power of family court judges allows them to make their orders without ever having to justify and without ever giving sound logical reasoning for the orders they make.
If for any reason you suspect the other parent may make allegations against you, if the other parent has a history of repeatedly getting really angry with you, or if the other parent has ever made other false allegations against you (“You don’t love me anymore.”), then you need to take steps to protect yourself and your children if you believe a divorce may be coming. Do not let yourself be caught unprepared.
If you have any question regarding this or any other legal matter our firm may be able to help you. Please contact Jupiter Legal Advocates at (561) 748-8000 or email us at [email protected] for further information and assistance. We try our very best to respond immediately.
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