Most family law actions that will be filed include a filing fee for the initial complaint or pleading. A part of these filing fees go to fund the Pennsylvania Children’s Trust Fund (CTF). This fund has received approximately $40 million dollars from family law filing fees since inception. The initiative of the CTF is to prevent child abuse and neglect across the state. The main emphasis of CTF is to put prevention programs in place to decrease child abuse and neglect overall. The CTF grants its money to local community programs with the same initiatives. It is up to the respective community programs to apply with CTF to see if they are eligible for a grant. Currently, upwards of 250 community based programs across the state have received grants to aid in the fight against child abuse and neglect.

The PA CTF recently established a supporting organization, “Friends of the Children’s Trust Fund.” The goal of this supporting organization is to raise additional awareness and financial support for the mission of the CTF. The fund focusing on prevention due to the negative and potentially long-term impacts of abuse and neglect including, but not limited to, poor physical, mental, and emotional health, social difficulties and behavioral problems. There is also a corresponding economic impact associated with dealing the aftermath of abuse and neglect making an even greater case for the importance of prevention. Many other states across the country also have a similar fund to aid in the prevention of child abuse and maltreatment.

Please visit pactf.org for more information on the Children’s Trust Fund in Pennsylvania.

Financial obligations in the context of a divorce can create a strain on the party ordered to pay. If a party is simply unable to keep up with all their obligations they may consider filing for bankruptcy. A bankruptcy filing generally results in an automatic stay meaning the party filing for bankruptcy is protected from creditors seeking payment from them until the bankruptcy is resolved however there are exceptions to this general rule. 11 U.S.C § 362 (b) provides that the filing of a bankruptcy petition does not operate as a stay for any proceeding regarding the establishment or modification of an order for domestic support obligations, concerning child custody or visitation, or for the dissolution of a marriage (including decree with court order or property settlement agreement except to the extent that such proceeding seeks to determine the division of property that is property of the estate). Accordingly, a party may not seek to dismiss all their obligations in a family law matter by filing for bankruptcy. Pennsylvania case law reiterates this point. In Schulze v. Schulze, 15 B.R. 106 (1981), the court held that “there can be no doubt that the state court action as it pertains to divorce and the custody of the minor children should not be stayed.”

Another component of filing for bankruptcy is the potential for certain debts to be discharged, meaning the obligation no longer needs to be fulfilled. 11 U.S.C. § 523(a)(15) provides that a debtor cannot discharge a debt to a spouse, former spouse, or child of the debtor that is incurred by the debtor in the course of a divorce or separation or in connection with a separation agreement, divorce decree, or other order of a court of record. This statute is interpreted to mean that a party cannot discharge an obligation to provide support. A party used to be able to discharge an obligation to split assets and/or debts under a property settlement agreement or order on equitable distribution. In Deichert v. Deichert, 402 Pa. Super. 415 (1991), the court discusses which marital obligations are dischargeable or non-dischargeable in bankruptcy and concludes the court is to look at the intent of the parties and/or the effect/function of the obligation since debts under property settlement are dischargeable but support obligations are not. However, amendments to the bankruptcy law in 2005 provided that any order arising under any family law docket including equitable distribution is no longer dischargeable.

Custody refers to the rights of a parent or other adult to be responsible for a minor. In family law there are several types of custody that may come into play. Sec 5322 defines all the different variations of custody. First, there is legal custody versus physical custody. Legal custody is defined as “the right to make major decisions on behalf of the child, including but not limited to, medical, religious and educational decisions.” As it relates to legal custody, it can either be shared between the parents or other responsible parties meaning they have to consult with one another and agree on the major decisions or one parent/party can have sole legal custody and make any decision on their own.

Physical custody is defined as “the actually physical possession and control of a child.” There are several scenarios that can play out as far as physical custody. First, it can be shared between the parents/parties. Shared, or joint, custody is generally understood to mean equal or 50/50 time. There can also be sole physical custody meaning one parent/party has physical possession of the child all the time. Another form of physical custody is primary physical custody. Primary custody grants the right to have possession of the child the majority of the time. In a situation where one parent/party has primary, the other parent/party would be deemed to have partial physical custody. Partial custody means they have the child for less than a majority of the time. Physical custody can be supervised if needed in which case it would need to be determined who would supervise the custody time be it an agency of the court, one of the parties involved, or a third party. The term “visitation” is used interchangeably with partial custody.

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