Custody arrangements, often complicated, get increasingly so in age of COVID-19

SOURCE: ELLSWORTH AMERICAN – At a time when human interaction is changing, the human need for that interaction has not.

The age of COVID-19 has seen social distancing and stay-at-home orders bring many households closer together — both figuratively and physically — than ever before. Yet for parents in shared custody arrangements and those whose children are in state custody, the pandemic has created a host of new issues.

Indeed, with Maine’s courthouses shuttered to family law cases and parents being asked to stay home, navigating child custody while complying with public health measures has become a difficult balancing act. That’s left families and attorneys looking to adapt with fewer resources available to them.

“We do things on a case-by-case basis, and with the courts closed, that’s been very challenging,” said Lucia Chomeau Hunt, a family law and victim rights attorney for Pine Tree Legal Assistance. “We’ve had a lot of changes in how things work, and we’ve had to adjust to them.”

Currently, all court proceedings for family, civil and criminal cases in Maine have been postponed since March 13, the day after the state confirmed its first positive test for COVID-19. That moratorium is set to continue through next Friday, May 1, though Maine State Judicial Branch officials said earlier this month that an extension is likely.

Although Maine courts have not specifically ruled that custody agreements must remain in place, travel conducted to fulfill a court order is considered “essential” under the stay-at-home order issued last month by Governor Janet Mills. That means, in a broader sense, that those with legally binding custody agreements should continue to abide by their visitation arrangements.

“A question we’ve been getting a lot is whether or not somebody’s custody order still holds,” said Dorathy Martel, executive director of the Downeast Maine-based Next Step Domestic Violence Project. “Every case is different, but generally, a court order is a court order unless it’s changed.”

Although visitation lies at the heart of parental rights for those in shared custody agreements, parents may be more wary than ever of their children spending time away from home in the era of social distancing. Children who split their time between two different households pose added health risks for anyone in contact with those in either household, especially those in at-risk groups.

In some cases, parents’ professions have jeopardized their custody rights; last Monday, a Florida judge temporarily stripped shared custody rights from a parent who works as a doctor treating COVID-19 patients. Yet even in cases where neither parent is on the front lines or leaving the home to perform other essential work, some have expressed health-related concerns.

“One of the things we’re hearing from parents is that they’re concerned about the other parent not engaging in productive conversations about the medical safety of their kids,” Martel said. “In an amicable separation, you can come up with solutions, but when that’s not the case, it becomes harder to do.”

For parents of children in state custody, in-person visits have been on hold since March 17 and will remain so through at least the end of April. In lieu of those visits, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services is conducting meetings between parents and their children via Skype, Zoom and other videoconferencing software in accordance with federal guidelines.

“We recognize that it’s critical for children and their families to maintain connections, especially during this time of stress,” Maine DHHS Communications Director Jackie Farwell told The Ellsworth American. “We’ve taken [these] steps to help support these connections, and we will continuously re-evaluate our policies to adapt to changing circumstances with the goal of restoring in-person visits as soon as medical science supports taking that step.”

There have also been questions as to how the relief checks from the Coronavirus, Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act will be distributed. Those who have had a change in filing status since filing 2018 taxes through a joint bank account controlled by a former spouse could see the entire amount delivered to the remaining account holder.

“The issue of how these stimulus checks are going to be deposited is something we’ve had come up for some people,” Hunt said. “You have some cases where people were together when they filed last year but have now separated.”

The issues aren’t limited to physical health, social distancing and finances, either; Martel noted that home-schooling responsibilities aren’t always equal among parents, and Hunt added that establishing visitation schedules has been problematic for those in high-conflict situations.

Still, attorneys and advocates alike want parents to know they have options. Legal assistance organizations such as Pine Tree have expanded their hours of operation to provide additional help, and courts are still granting emergency protection hearings to those who need them.

“If people are concerned, they can call the courts,” Martel said. “It’s not a good idea to be guessing about what you should do. … It can be a scary thing for parents right now, but there are still resources here to help.”