Firm News: Cahill Pro Bono Team Secures Full Custody of Child and Order of Protection For Client After Six-Year Court Battle 08.28.2024

Cahill Pro Bono Team Secures Full Custody of Child and Order of Protection For Client After Six-Year Court Battle

Date: 08/28/24

A Cahill pro bono team, in partnership with Sanctuary for Families, reached a remarkable settlement in the case of Golan v. Saada, which resolves a six-year custody battle that reached the United States Supreme Court and awards our client sole physical and legal custody of the subject child.

Our client, a maternal aunt, is the caretaker of a young boy with special needs who fled Italy to America with his now-deceased mother as an infant, seeking refuge from his abusive biological father. The father petitioned a federal court in Brooklyn to return the child to Italy under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, leading to a complex multi-year litigation with cases pending in three locations: federal court (for the Hague case), New York State Family Court (for custody/visitation/orders of protection), and in Italy (for custody/visitation/orders of protection).

At the time of Cahill's first involvement, the Hague court had already issued orders on two separate occasions requiring the child to go back to his father in Italy, despite crediting the allegations of abuse. Cahill then successfully worked together with a team of counsel to persuade the Hague judge to reverse her prior rulings and keep the child in New York while custody was being litigated because of the grave risk of harm to the child if returned to the father in Italy. Cahill was also successful in negotiating a settlement in the NYS Family Court, which granted full legal and physical custody to our client, a two-year order of protection, and supervised virtual visitation for the father.

The pro bono team continues to litigate child support for the child in Kings County Family Court.