School Comes First

As custody trials and appeals drag on, children often stay in situations that are not necessarily in their best interest. This is a point of frustration for attorneys who practice matrimonial and family law, such as David Mejias, a partner at Mejias Milgrim & Alvarado of Glen Cove and Hempstead. Mejias represented a father who was awarded majority custody of his son in 2015 after the boy missed an excessive amount of school while in his mother’s care. The child’s mother appealed, but the appellate division affirmed the original decision granting the father residential custody during the school year. However, while the appeal was pending, the boy continued to reside with his mother. “It took more than two years for the appeal to work its way through and that’s unfortunate,” Mejias said. “During those 2½ years the mother worked very hard to alienate the child from his father.” However, with the 2015 decision affirmed this year by the appellate court, the child w...