Mississippi Court upholds child custody to father
In Mississippi, moral fitness plays role in child custody
Last week, in a case out of Rankin County, the Mississippi Court of Appeals affirmed the chancery court awarding custody of the couple’s minor child to the father. At trial, there were allegations of adultery, alcohol use, and downloading pornography onto the family computer. In fact, both parties called computer experts to testify at trial in an attempt to establish who downloaded the pornography.
In awarding custody to the father, the chancellor called into question the moral fitness of the mother, one of the Albright factors, given her admitted adultery, alcohol use and traffic violations in addition to an unstable work history—five to six jobs in a three-year-period.
What this case illustrates is that in divorce and child custody cases, your behavior has the possibility of being aired in court, especially any dirty laundry. While most agree that what you do within the confines of their home is private, it becomes rather public in a divorce or custody dispute. If you are contemplating a divorce, you need to watch your behavior. How would it look in the light of day? How would it sound to a chancellor when he or she is deciding who is at fault in a divorce or who is entitled to custody of the children.
