The Foreign Service Journal, October 2014

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2014 47 a year is all a child gets, in other words. e allowance does not pay for an adult to accompany the child. However, it will pay the fees an airline may charge for unaccompanied minors. e separated families’ travel allowances generally exist until the age of 21. Age limits do not apply to a disabled child. (See Travel of Children of Separated Families, 3 FAM 3750.) A child on the employee’s travel orders will receive the medi- cal bene ts available at the post. is may include evacuations for medical emergencies. If a tandem couple is divorced, the situation may be di erent. e child can only be on one parent’s travel orders. Custody may change according to the posting, the schools at post and whether one of the parents is on an unaccompanied tour assignment. e Foreign Service parent seeking custody should be famil- iar with the allowances so he or she can inform the judge about these means to enable the child to have a more stable life, even if living overseas. Evidence and Its Rules Once a party to a court proceeding collects information along the lines of the actions, arguments and information given above, each piece of information (including documents, photos, email messages, text messages and so on) must be entered into evidence before the judge may review it. In many cases, rules of evidence require that documents or records be authenticated, meaning that you may have to obtain either testimony or a certi cate from an administrator before the document may be reviewed by a judge or moved into evidence. For example, a photocopy of a school record or a medical record may need to be “authenticated,” requiring either testi- mony or a certi cate from a school administrator. For docu- ments, you may have some in a foreign language that will need to be super-notarized or translated—or both. Your lawyer will know how to do this (although many good family lawyers are not accustomed to dealing with non-U.S. documents or languages other than English). Similarly, most courts require that each party to the court proceeding list his or her witnesses in advance and demonstrate why each witness is relevant to the hearing. Because these rules are complicated, your lawyer will take the lead in this process, and ensure that Rules of Evidence are followed according to the law of the jurisdiction. ere may be a pre-trial conference during which all the physical and documentary evidence to be presented at trial is listed and presented as numbered exhibits, and witnesses must be named together with a preview of their expected testimony and how it proves your case. As a result, both parties will know what the other party will be using as evidence before the trial date. If you attempt to enter new evidence at the trial stage the judge may deny it. Expert witnesses may be needed. For instance, if the child has a learning disability or an allergy, you may need medical or edu- cational testing experts to testify that his or her needs can be met at post. If you have a nanny you are taking with you, she may need to testify. If you intend to hire someone at post, you should be able to show that such caregivers are available and competent. Your lawyer will know how to qualify the experts or conduct a deposi- tion and then move their testimony into evidence for the trial. A parent cannot be denied custody of a child merely because he or she does not earn as much as the other parent. However, the Foreign Service parent should be able to show that he or she can support the speci c and potentially expensive arrangements that a long-distance relationship involves. is might include international transportation several times a year to the other parent and to extended family or close friends, private schools, after-school tutoring or sports or other activities, summer camps, household help and communications such as mobile telephones, or a Web-based telephone account like Skype, to ensure regular contact with the other parent. is evidence could be copies of your wage and pay state- ments, your income tax returns or the support considerations entered into at the divorce; all these should be moved into evi- dence. Also, if there were custody considerations in the original divorce decree that the (ex) spouse is now trying to modify, the original decree should be entered into evidence. In addition, it is important to work with your lawyer to ensure that you have the proper consent from the child’s other parent when you cross an international border. is consent can be something as simple as a consent letter; but it must be current and cover the speci c travel that is actually occurring. In other words, if the itinerary changes and the consent letter no longer covers the actual travel that will occur, the other parent may need to be informed and asked to sign a revised consent letter. It is often useful to reach a general agreement about how consent letters will be handled in a joint custody agreement, or ask the judge to include such terms in a court custody order. As you are likely aware from your Foreign Service work, the consequences for taking unilateral action when traveling with your child or children are signi cant and could involve charges of child abduction or kidnapping. e nal piece of advice is an old, trite-but-true saying: “ e lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client.” n