When should a court refuse to become involved in intra-familial disputes that involve children? Clearly, if it ain’t broke there is no need to fix it. Where there is agreement between two parents who are in an intact family no court will intrude in the family relationship and seek to override a joint decision in the absence of a claim that a child is being neglected, abused or otherwise harmed. What about in a non-intact family? Where parents are separated or divorced, but are in agreement about a decision relating to their child, are there circumstances under which a court might chose to override that decision in the name of parens patriae?
On March 24, 2009, the case of E.R. v. H.R. was decided (5/8/2009 NYLJ 30 (col.1) [Adams, J.]). In that case, a stipulation of settlement between two parents, relating to a father’s access arrangement with his minor daughters, was rejected by the court despite the fact that both parents believed the arrangement to be in the children’s best interests.
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