Lawrenceville Family Law Blog

We have occasionally shared Georgia family law stories involving allegations of bigamy, which is the illegal practice of being married to more than one spouse at a time. Because it is illegal and largely socially taboo, cases of bigamy are the exception and not the rule.

It is especially rare to hear allegations levied against anyone with celebrity connections. Imagine our surprise, then, to read that the parents of a famous Hollywood actress are currently involved in a family law controversy involving an illegal second marriage.

Over the past few weeks, we have discussed spousal surveillance and general snooping. Some forms of spying during the divorce process are legal, and some aren't. But the big questions behind all spying are "what are you hiding and why are you hiding it from me?"

During the divorce process, these can be legitimate questions. If spouses hide assets or debts from each other, for example, such behavior could dramatically impact the ultimate divorce settlement.

A Cobb County, Georgia, father is struggling to gain custody of his two children after his wife took them to visit their grandparents in Costa Rica and decided she wasn't coming back and wanted a divorce. The child custody dispute has gained the attention of the U.S. State Department as the father has gained temporary custody of his children from a Cobb County court, but has not seen his two daughters in almost 11 months.

The father claims his wife, who was raised in Austell, Georgia, refuses to answer the phone or communicate via email to try and work something out. With his kids out of the country there is not much else he can do. The father states he has never been an absentee father and he will continue to fight for his kids in order to stay connected and involved in their lives.

In previous posts, we have written about how important it is to properly establish paternity in Georgia. State laws place a lot of importance on marriage, and the biological father of a child does not automatically have legal parental rights if he has not married the child's mother.

Similarly, establishing paternity can also be vitally important for mothers in order to make sure that the child's father is held responsible for paying child support. Of course, paternity tests will help make sure that a man is not erroneously paying for a child that is not his.