{"id":569,"date":"2015-04-30T09:30:33","date_gmt":"2015-04-30T09:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/surrogacy-lawyer.com\/?p=569"},"modified":"2021-12-29T21:26:35","modified_gmt":"2021-12-29T21:26:35","slug":"shepherd-parentage-the-courtroom-battle-is-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/surrogacy-lawyer.com\/zh\/shepherd-parentage-the-courtroom-battle-is-over\/","title":{"rendered":"Shepherd Parentage:\u00a0 The Courtroom Battle Is Over"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 410px;\">\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 144.878049% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/180438735?et=XxDUs2dXSAVXrsLWwxBoxw&amp;viewMoreLink=on&amp;sig=2r6bsUFhMxu_p4qNxLjpWJwA7hLeqwnETEG8MrJcWiI=\" width=\"410\" height=\"594\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0 0 0 10px; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/180438735\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">View image<\/a> | <a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">gettyimages.com<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Following a lengthy legal battle, a Pennsylvania judge delivered his ruling for Sherri Shepherd and Lamar Sally. Shepherd is now the legal mother of her 8-month old baby which was carried via surrogate.<\/p>\n<p>Shepherd was not present at the hearing, but we all know that this was not the news she wanted to hear.<\/p>\n<p>During their surrogate\u2019s pregnancy, Shepherd separated from and divorced her husband, Sally. At that time, she walked away from the surrogate, the baby, and Sally claiming that the third-party reproduction arrangement was nothing more than a ruse from Sally for child support.<\/p>\n<p>It was quite a statement, but it didn\u2019t hold up in court. Shepherd\u00a0was a part of this\u00a0surrogacy process from the very beginning, and it wasn\u2019t until after the embryo transfer and the\u00a0progression of the resulting pregnancy\u00a0that she had a change of heart.<\/p>\n<p>Shepherd and Sally were married for a total of three years.<\/p>\n<p>For the surrogacy, Sally\u2019s sperm and an egg donor were used.\u00a0 The surrogate, Jessica Bartholomew, came out publicly following the birth. She was also named on the baby\u2019s birth certificate as the mother, something no surrogate should have to ever bear.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nydailynews.com\/entertainment\/gossip\/sherri-shepherd-declared-mother-baby-born-surrogate-article-1.2194669\"><u>Kirthana Ramisetti of the New York Daily News<\/u><\/a>, \u201cYet despite not having a biological connection to the child, it seems that Shepherd\u2019s excitement about his impending arrival is what helped convince the judge to name her as co-parent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Craig Bluestein, the child\u2019s legal representative told reporters, \u201cThere was some additional evidence put on the record involving some video clips involving Ms. Shepherd.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The clips, it appears, conveyed her joy and excitement regarding how she and her former husband would be having a baby with the help of a surrogate.<\/p>\n<p>Bluestein told <a href=\"http:\/\/www.people.com\/article\/sherri-shepherd-legal-mother-surrogate-baby-lamar-sally\"><u>People Magazine reporters Emily Strohm and Diane Herbst<\/u><\/a> that he thought this was the first national case in where an intended parent wanted to \u201copt out of the contract\u201d during the pregnancy.<\/p>\n<p>He went on to say, \u201cThis is very important because gestational carriers need to know that, if they are intending other people to be parents, that the carrier\u2019s name won\u2019t be on the birth certificate as mother and carry with it all the responsibilities of being a mother, including child support for a child you never intended to parent.\u201d<br \/>\nNow, what does this ruling mean for Shepherd and what can she expect to face?<\/p>\n<p>For starters, she will be legally obligated to pay alimony and child support.<\/p>\n<p>Tiffany Palmer, Sally\u2019s attorney, told People Magazine, \u201cNow that Sherri\u2019s name is on the birth certificate, it is possible she may have to reimburse the state of California for the health insurance and WIC benefits, to cover the cost of formula.\u201d She continued, \u201cThe ultimate outcome is that this baby has two legal parents, and the parents are Lamar Sally and Sherri Shepherd. She has to be responsible for this child that she conceived and created.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Palmer also confirmed that her law firm will be seeking the reimbursement of legal fees. No exact price tag was given but it\u2019s estimated to be in the tens of thousands of dollars.<\/p>\n<p>When this case started, I had a legal suspicion the judge would rule in the favor of Sally and the baby. It would be very difficult to prove that Shepherd was coerced into signing the third-party reproduction legal contract.<\/p>\n<p>What also needs to be pointed out is the distress that Bartholomew endured. Not only was she named on the birth certificate, but the State of California state issued a child support action.<\/p>\n<p>Some legal analysts are predicting a possible lawsuit between Bartholomew and Shepherd.<\/p>\n<p>Thankfully, the judge\u2019s ruling ensures the financial stability of this child and the surrogate finally removed from the birth certificate as the child\u2019s mother.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; View image | getty<span class=\"excerpt-hellip\"> [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,14,1],"tags":[135,175,206,222,231],"class_list":["post-569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-infertility-2","category-surrogacy-2","category-uncategorized","tag-lamar-sally","tag-parentage-orders","tag-sherri-shepherd","tag-surrogacy","tag-surrogate"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/surrogacy-lawyer.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/surrogacy-lawyer.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/surrogacy-lawyer.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surrogacy-lawyer.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surrogacy-lawyer.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/surrogacy-lawyer.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/surrogacy-lawyer.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surrogacy-lawyer.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/surrogacy-lawyer.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}