Legal Question in Family Law in Italy
Lengthy Divorce and Child Custody
I am in the military serving in Italy. About 8 months ago I met a woman who explained to me that she was going through a divorce. She is not Italian, but instead was born and raised in Costa Rica and only moved to Italy when she married an Italian. They have a 7 year old son together and for the last 3 years he has been very abusive to her...physically and mentally. About 10 months ago, she filed for divorce and only just now has the paperwork come back granting her ''legal separation''. She is being told that it will now be 3 more years before the divorce is final. Is this lawyer discriminating against her for divorcing an Italian man and her not being Italian herself or is this just the particulars of Italian divorce law? Is there anything that can be done to speed up the process? Also, concerning her son, if when her divorce is final, and her and myself were to get married, would she be able to move back to the states with me and bring her son without any legal hassles or will she have to file a custody suit to be able to move her son so far away from his father? Please give me (her) any advice that might help us to resolve this mess in a more timely fashion than what she is being told. Thanks.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Lengthy Divorce and Child Custody
If your fiancee and her husband are both italian citizens and /or their marital life was in italy, the divorce is ruled by Italian law.
According to the Italian law, before being able to start the divorce procedure, the person must wait three years starting from the first hearing they had in the court, and not from the day she recieived the paper granting the legal separation.
Regarding the child, he goes with the parent who has the custody. Please note that the custody could be theoretically granted to both parents and in that case (or in the case in which the father gets the custody).
Your fiancee must fight from now to get the custody.
I suppose that the issue of the abusive behaviour of her husband was already mentioned when she has started the procedure for the "separazione legale". You should also note that in most part of the cases the child goes with the mother.
Anyway, you are right: three years are a lot of time, but, if you think that until 10 years ago it was five years, and before 1970 there was no divorce law at all....
Re: Lengthy Divorce and Child Custody
Well, I suppose your girlfriend has just got Italian cittadinance, marrying an Italian man, so the comune law that has to be applicate in force of Italian International Private Law is Italian law. So, there is no discrimination if your girfriend has to wait three years after "separation act" before asking divorce in Italy. In fact this is that Italian family law prevides in Italy. It's however important you have to know that these three years leave not from "separation act", but from the date of first udience in "separation" judgment. If your girlfriend has taken or will get the custody of the child, no problems for her to traslate herself in another state or country. In contrary case there could be big legal problems.
If you have any other questions, please write directly me to mailbox: [email protected]
Best regards.
Avv. Gerardo Grazioso, lawyer in Italy.
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