Doylestown International Abduction Lawyer

Hague Convention Remedies for Removal of a Child to/from Another Country

If a co-parent has taken your child to a foreign country without your consent, or if the co-parent is refusing to return your child to the United States after an arranged visit, the Law Office & Mediation Services of Elissa C. Goldberg can intervene to bring your son or daughter home.

Attorney Elissa C. Goldberg represents parents in Bucks County, Montgomery County and the Philadelphia area in international abductions and international custody disputes. She knows who to contact and how to invoke the Hague Convention provisions that specifically address unauthorized removal and unlawful detention.

Doylestown International Abduction Attorney

We have handled child abduction cases involving different foreign nations:

• Parents whose child has been taken out of the U.S.
• Parents in other countries seeking return of a child kidnapped to the U.S.
• Abducting parents seeking custody “asylum” in the U.S. on the basis of child abuse by the foreign parent.

The Hague Convention generally recognizes the rights of custodial parents as defined in the country with original custody jurisdiction. However, the parent accused of abduction or detention is granted due process to argue why the child should not be returned.

A Case Example
At the specific request of the U.S. State Department, Elissa Goldberg represented a mother from England whose son was abducted. During regular visitation, the father took the boy to the United States without his ex-wife’s consent. He then married an American citizen, but never told the new wife that the boy’s biological mother had primary custody in the U.K. We succeeded in returning the child to his mother, but even in this egregious case justice was not automatic or quick. These cases require sophisticated legal knowledge, aggressive representation and great persistence.

Ms. Goldberg began her career as an international adoption lawyer, and has contacts in the State Department. She is also experienced in filing emergency petitions in U.S. federal court, to prevent removal of a child from the U.S. or to satisfy domestic or international authorities of a client’s superseding custody rights.

Bucks County Hague Convention Lawyer

It is a frightening, nerve-racking and helpless feeling when your child is being kept from you in a foreign land. Call our office in Doylestown, Pennsylvania at 215-345-5259 or contact us online for compassionate support and proven advocacy in the specialized field of international parental child abduction.