Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Preventing International Travel: Connecticut Court Relies on Jeremy Morley's Expert Testimony

The Superior Court in New Haven, Connecticut relied in substantial part on the expert evidence presented by Jeremy Morley as to family law in India in ruling that the mother of a young girl should not be allowed to travel to India with the child for a visit with family.  The child’s father opposed the travel because of his legitimate concerns that the child might never return.  The Court relied primarily on Mr. Morley’s testimony in its ruling, which was issued on July 18, 2012.  The Court’s stated that: 
“The Court is absolutely convinced that—well, let me back up for one second.  We, normally in these matters, do not have the opportunity to hear from an expert witness, particularly someone as learned and experienced in what I’ll call international issues as Attorney Morley who was here this morning.  As everyone knows, Attorney Morley only testified for probably about 15-20 minutes.  We sometimes, lawyers and judges will discuss people’s testimony and sometimes say it’s the quality not the quantity of the testimony that is appropriate.
In that 15-20 minutes Attorney Morley laid out what I’ll refer to as both, I think, the social interaction between the parents and the political in India, the United States, the Hague Convention, their courts, our courts, that sort of thing in a very succinct, intelligent and sophisticated manner; the Court found Attorney Morley’s testimony to be extremely credible.”