I posted here the other day about the Abby Dorn case, in which an ex husband was trying to prevent visitation between his ex wife and their children, based it seemed to me from the story on her disability and his loathing of her mother. Not knowing all the facts, I didn’t opine—but noted that all things being equal she had the right to see her kids if it was consistent with their welfare. And that seems to be what a judge has found in awarding visitation. From the story:
Judge Fredrick Shaller ordered five-day visits once a year, where the children will visit Dorn at her parents’ home in South Carolina for three hours each day. Only Dorn, her ex-husband Dan Dorn and their three young children are to take part in the visit. “We’re very pleased, the judge definitely understood our decision and ruled what Mr. Dorn said was best for the children,” Vicki Greene, Dan Dorn’s attorney, told ABC News. Greene said these yearly visits were offered to Paul and Susan Cohen, Abbie Dorn’s parents, before the case went to trial. The Cohens, Greene said, wanted visits three times a year, absent Dan Dorn...
Alongside the five-day visits, Abbie Dorn also will be able to speak with her children by Skype, an Internet phone service, for 30 minutes on the first Sunday of each month in an attempt to maintain a parental relationship with them.
“We think that this is just the beginning, that their time with their mother will increase as they get older,” Lisa Helfend Meyer, Abbie Dorn’s attorney, told ABC News. In the ruling, the judge noted that when the children were granted a visit with their mother last December, they immediately established a bond with her. As evidence, Shaller noted that the children would physically hold on to photographs of their mother that they were given after the visit for long periods of time. Today’s ruling requires Dan Dorn to display photographs of Abbie Dorn on a table or shelf in the children’s bedrooms.
Based on what the lawyer for the father said and what the court ruled, this seems to be really a fight between dad and grandma. I saw too much of that as a lawyer! Put the kids first, folks. In any event, I am very glad Dorn will be able to see her children. I mean, she became disabled giving them birth! If grandma and grandpa want visits, that should be litigated in a separate action.
