Section 7-103.2 - Child support and custody educational seminar. - Maryland Statutes

§ 7-103.2. Child support and custody educational seminar.
 

(a)  Applicability.- This section applies to an action for divorce in which issues of child support, custody, or visitation are raised. 

(b)  Participation by all parties.- Prior to granting a decree of divorce, the court may require all parties to participate in an educational seminar that is designed to educate parents about the effects, and to minimize the disruption, of a divorce on the lives of children. 

(c)  Rules.-  

(1) The Court of Appeals shall adopt rules to implement this section. 

(2) Rules adopted in accordance with this subsection shall: 

(i) provide for the content of the seminar required under this section; 

(ii) require successful completion of the seminar by all parties to the action within a certain time after the service of the original complaint upon the defendant; 

(iii) establish sanctions for failure to successfully complete the seminar required under this section; 

(iv) for purposes of funding the cost of the seminar, establish a fee that: 

1. shall be assessed as costs; and 

2. may be waived under appropriate circumstances; and 

(v) establish criteria for exemption from the requirement that the parties participate in an educational seminar, except that a court may not exempt the parties from attending the educational seminar if there is any evidence of domestic violence or child abuse or neglect. 

(d)  Contract to provide seminar.- The seminar required under this section may be provided under contract with a public or private agency. 

(e)  Seminar proceedings inadmissible in divorce proceedings.- Unless the parties stipulate otherwise, any information about a party, including statements or reports, obtained from an educational seminar required by this section, is not admissible during the action for divorce of that party. 

(f)  Attendance.- This section may not be construed to require the parties to an action for divorce to attend the educational seminar together. 
 

[1997, ch. 323.]