International child custody case in Brazil | Bellevue child custody attorney

Child custody cases are always difficult but when you add an international abduction by one of the parents into the mix, then the matter is complicated ten fold.  Take the case of the father David Goldman who has been fighting for years to get his now 8 year old son Sean back from Brazil where his mother had taken him in 2004.

Sean's mother moved from New Jersey to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil without his father's consent and has grown into an international custody dispute with political overtones.  Both the U.S. and Brazil governments consider the decision of Goldman's wife, Bruna Bianchi to move Sean to Brazil a violation of The Hague Abduction Convention, an international treaty that seeks to determine whether children have been wrongfully removed from their country of habitual residence.

The U.S. State Department and the Brazilian government authority that deals with the treaty have called for the return of Sean to the United States.  But the case remains in federal court in Brazil awaiting a ruling on whether the treaty has been violated.  Brazil is has the fifth most number of international child custody cases after Mexico, India, Japan, and Canada that the State Department works on.

The twist in this case is that the mother Bianchi died in August 2008 when she was giving birth to another baby from her new husband and lawyer Joao Paulo Lins e Silva, who is a member of a prominent Brazilian family of lawyers and judges.  A state court judge in Rio de Janeiro granted temporary custody of Sean to Lins e Silva who has an army of 70 lawyers working on his behalf on this custody case.  The deck seems stacked against Sean's biological dad David Goldman but he has not given up the fight.  "I'm just trying to bring my son home," he said.

The Andrew Kim Law Firm, PLLC handles divorce and family law cases involving child custody, child support, and other family laws matters.  If you would like to speak with a Bellevue, Seattle, Washington divorce or child custody attorney, call us at 1-800-636-3676 for a free case evaluation.

Labels: abduction attorney Bellevue Brazil Bruna Bianchi child custody David Goldman international Joao Paulo Lins e Silva lawyer Rio de Janeiro Sean