What is Kayden's Law? Kayden's Law is an August 2024 law that attempts to further protect children’s safety in Pennsylvania custody cases. Kayden’s Law is named after a 2018 tragedy where 7-year old Kayden Mancuso was brutally killed by her father in a murder-suicide.
Prior to the murder, her mother submitted evidence to the of Father’s criminal and mental health history as well as evidence of violence and threats by her father. Unfortunately, father’s custody periods were only shortened, without any additional restrictions. There was no evidence that father had abused Kayden, so he was still provided with unsupervised custody. During a period of unsupervised custody, father committed the murder-suicide.
Kayden’s law applies equally to men and women.
What does Kayden’s Law do? Pennsylvania law already required consideration of the safety of the child in all custody decisions. However, Kayden’s Law further directs judges to give extra weight to the consideration of violence and a criminal record, even if the violence was never aimed towards the child. Kayden’s Law also adds seven additional crimes that must be verified by a parent, including cruelty to animals, endangering another person, simple assault, reckless endangerment and interference with child custody.
Moreover, if a party has a history of abuse towards a child or other household resident, any award of custody to that party must include an outline of safety conditions, restrictions and safeguards necessary to protect the child or the household resident. If the court awards unsupervised custody to the party with an abuse history, it must state why unsupervised custody is in the best interests of the child.
Finally, Judges are now required to undergo mandatory training in domestic violence and custody issues.
The effect on Custody Cases. Kayden’s Law tightens custody decisions involving the threat of violence in a number of ways. Chief among those changes is that there is now a “rebuttable presumption” that custody cases involving a history of violence include supervised custody provisions on the violent party. In other words, Kayden’s Law creates a higher bar for the court to order unsupervised custody in cases involving a history of violence.
Kayden’s Law requires a separate hearing to review evidence of abuse, and Courts are required to conduct more comprehensive reviews of risks and safety plans. Moreover, court appointed psychologists, and social workers will often need to do comprehensive “risk assessment” evaluations. This will make supervised custody more common across the state.
What do you need for a case involving Kayden’s Law? You need an experienced attorney who can plan in advance when violence is a potential custody issue – whether you are the accused or the accuser. These custody cases are likely to take longer, be more complex and be more consequential. Anticipating the pitfalls and collecting the right evidence will be more important than ever before.
Our practice is limited to family law in Allegheny, Beaver, Butler and Washington Counties.
What is good about this law? Had this law been in effect in 2018, Kayden would likely still be alive. Limiting a judge’s discretion can be a good thing if the Judge is not carefully considering all factors. The law forces the Judge to seriously consider all of the safety ramifications in an abuse case and to create a plan that addresses those concerns. Kayden’s Law provides clarity on the effect of violence in custody cases.
What is bad about this law? Many good people may have simple assault or reckless endangerment cases that could lead to supervised visitation.Moreover, deceit in custody cases, and in Protection from Abuse actions, is already a problem in the court system. Raising the stakes for a successful lie and forcing the Court to order supervised custody makes the risk and harm of bogus allegations even greater. Limiting a good judge’s discretion can be a problem in a fact-specific area like custody law. Finally, some people will lack the financial resources to pay for custody supervision.
