Judge Sees Skype as Solution to Custody Battle

(AP)  A New York woman moving to Florida has been ordered to use the Skype computer program so her children can have long-distance visitation with their father.

State Supreme Court Justice Jerry Garguilo made the ruling after Debra Baker of Coram, N.Y., told the court she is moving to Venice, Fla. The unemployed bookkeeper explained her house is in foreclosure.

Garguilo ordered the Bakers' children, 6 and 9, to communicate three times a week with their father on Long Island using the video-conferencing program.

James Baker's attorney is considering an appeal because his client doesn't know how to use Skype.

A national divorce center says Skype visitations are uncommon but not unprecedented.

The decision was published this week in the New York Law Journal.

[tmittelstaed]

"deadbeat dad" isn't a deadbeat, he is paying his child support. He is a recovering alcoholic, however, who only makes $600 a month working at a construction job, so his child support is negligible anyway. The mother is unemployed. The home is in Long Island and was bought 8 years ago when both of them were making a LOT more money. At that time construction was going great guns. So what are you going to do? Both of them have rotten credit, both are living in an area with the highest cost of living in the country, neither are making more then subsistance pay, and almost certainly they are upside down on their mortgage anyway. Both of them signed the mortgage and both are to blame for biting off more than they could chew, financially speaking. In any case, a bookkeeper isn't a position that requires certification and she doesen't have a CPA's license, so she has no more value to the job market than he does. And she is moving to Florida because her parents own a house there and so she is going to move in with them.

What really needed to happen here was the judge needed to slap some sense into both of them. Staying in a home that you can't make the mortgage on is plain stupid, she should have short-sold it or just walked away and let the bank take it years ago.

[shipswhl]

Really James Baker doesn't know how to use Skype, or he is it that he doesn't want to communicate with his children?? A monkey can use Skype!! How 'bout the dead-beat-Dad pays his child support so Mom doesn't have to move at all... Guess that part of the story isn't relevant... Good luck Debra in Florida.

[PR0sofrito]

I dont think its that he doesnt want to see his children. As a parent of 2 i would play that same card to have my kids stay in the state that I am living in as well. Being that he is a recovering Alcoholic I can see why she has preferential treatment at this time. He will need to prove that he is doing everything possible to be a fit father for a his kids. In this regard I think both parents should have short sold the home as "tmittelstaed" stated and if bookkeeping or the construction job is not cutting it to pay bills you need to change your job or do something more.

Also there are plenty of people out there who do not even know how to turn on and off a PC appropriately ranging from doctors down to kids. This is not because of lack of education it is just something that they have not taken the time to learn or bothered with it.