KLG represented Sara Ibrahim against husband, Kerolus Ibrahim.

This was a socially complex divorce action. Sara and Kerolus Ibrahim had six children together. Sara was in her 40’s and proudly held 5 advanced degrees. Kerolus was from Saudi Arabia and not accustomed to American mores due to cultural differences. Therefore, he was not fond of American culture. Kerolus believed that Sara was too permissive with their children and he would travel to Saudi Arabia for months at a time, leaving Sara the heavy burden of child rearing and financial production.

Kerolus had no known source of income, making Sara the breadwinner in the family. Sara’s parents had wealth and they subsidized the family for what Kerolus did not contribute. Sara was worried that Kerolus would take their 6 children and go to Saudi Arabia, as he often threatened to do. He suddenly announced that he was going to Saudi Arabia and wanted his children (aged 2-10), to join him. He provided no details on where he would stay with his children in Saudi Arabia or when they would return to their mother.  He said that he would pay tuitions at a religious school at which he wanted them to study.

To protect the children and Sara, we filed a divorce complaint for her against him. This was not about money, as her parents were helping, rather we wanted a court order giving Sara full custodial rights so the kids could not leave with their father.

To ensure the kids would not leave the country, we had to file very quickly and serve Kerolus with papers before he left. We filed papers by hand delivery and filled out a lot of paperwork in a short period of time. Since we were in a time crunch, our staff had to work efficiently and quickly. One of our staff went to the Ibrahim’s house and knocked on the door to serve Kerolus. He backed away, refusing to take or acknowledge the papers. However, she stood her ground and threw the papers at him, which suffices under the law.

KLG’s diligence and persistence paid off, as we successfully achieved our client’s long-term goals while keeping the children safe from unlawful relocation out of state.