Even though the respondent-mother made progress on the condition that led to her sons’ removal – substance abuse – since she also failed to maintain contact with “Charles” and “Colin” or to provide for them, the trial court could let ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations

We affirmed the trial court’s order terminating the respondent-Father’s parental rights on dependency grounds pursuant to G.S. § 7B-1111(a)(6) because Father’s incarceration rendered him unavailable to support his child and because it was reasonably probable that his unavailability would continue ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations

The respondent-mother contends that the trial court should have considered her step-cousin (the child of her stepmother’s sister) as a “relative” placement for her child under G.S. § 7B-903(a1). Our General Statutes do not define “relative”; however, our Supreme Court ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations

At a pre-adjudication conference and nonsecure custody hearing the trial court included in its order that DSS was investigating whether the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) might apply because there was information that the respondents’ child’s “maternal grandmother may be ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations

Even though the defendant-Father engaged in bad behavior by “denigrating [the plaintiff-Mother] at every opportunity” and interfering and attempting to control matters when the children were in Mother’s care, the trial court could still award primary custody to Father. The ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations

Even though the parties had longstanding disagreements, the trial court could find substantial change in circumstances had occurred based on an incident in which the defendant-father parked behind the plaintiff-mother’s car, blocking her from leaving their child’s school facility; screamed ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations

After it distributed the marital home to the plaintiff-Wife and the mortgage to the defendant-Husband, the trial court’s judgment went on to provide “That Defendant Husband is hereby ordered to pay Plaintiff Wife alimony as follows: a. Defendant shall continue ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations

In addition to other factors, the trial court could consider the defendant-husband’s waste of marital funds on phone sex charges during the marriage without the plaintiff-wife’s knowledge or consent, his conversion of marital assets into the name of his family’s ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations

The trial court’s post-separation support order said, “Plaintiff’s payment of post separation support shall continue until the entry of an order awarding or denying alimony, the death of Plaintiff or Defendant, the remarriage of Defendant, cohabitation by the Defendant in ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations

Since the parties’ child, “Elizabeth,” has reached the age to attend pre-kindergarten, this circumstance and others support the trial court’s finding of a change of circumstances affecting Elizabeth’s welfare. Over the course of the months leading up to the time ...

Tagged with: Domestic Relations