Not sure what we can do...mother moved and left child with grandma.

[ibcurious]

What is the name of your state? Virginia

Hello everyone.
My husband has joint legal custody of his son Ryan(4yrs old) who lives in Virginia. We live out of state. Ryan's mother has primary physical custody, but she moved halfway across the country and left Ryan with his grandmother. She also gave grandma power of attorney over Ryan. My husband has always paid his child support as ordered, but should he still be liable under the same order to pay if his son no longer lives with his mother? Don't get this wrong, he feels he needs to support his son. We've been seriously thinking about trying to gain custody of him. Ryan's mother called the other day and said that she had recieved papers for HER to pay support for Ryan to grandma. This situation is all messed up! Grandma won't even let Ryan talk to his daddy on the phone and we fear that when we go to try to visit something will hapen and we won't get to see him. We haven't been able to visit him the past year due to financial reasons. What are the chances of getting even temporary custody since it's been so long since he's been with daddy?

 

[Grace_Adler]

From what I understand, courts would rather place a child with a biological parent than someone else. Is the joint custody legal only or physical too? He may have every right to go over and get his son. I would definitely check on it. He should go file for a modification of custody because she left the child with the grandmother. It may even be possible to go file for an emergency temp custody order. I'm not sure though.

As far as child support, he should go file to have the order modified because he should being paying support to the caretaker not to someone the child isn't living with.

If you can hire a lawyer or consult with one that would be in your best interest. He can file by himself but I think you should at least get a consult and find out how before jumping in. Sometimes legal aid will cousel people. Also sometimes the bar association has a referral service where they refer you to an attorney and you can get a consultation for a reduced fee.

 

[A.J.HASEK]

I agree with grace see a lawyer

 

[ibcurious]

Thank you both for replying. We should be recieving a form from the court to ammend the current order in the mail. Hopefully this week. The form is simple, so we won't need help on that. Our budget is tight right now, so I'm not sure we can afford a lawyer. I'm not familiar with an emergency custody order. We don't have joint physical custody (just legal) so, unfortunately, we can't just go and pick him up. I just hope that the fact that my husband hasn't seen his son in so long doesn't hurt us too much here.
Oh yeah...can you get legal aid from a state that you don't live in??

 

[Grace_Adler]

You really need to get a consult with an attorney if you can. Call your bar association. They can at least tell you how to do this pro se. You can also try calling the magistrate and ask them about info. on a temp emergency custody order.

I'm sorry, I honestly don't know if you can get legal aid from another state. I really doubt it though. But if they will see you and give you a consult in your state you will still be better off I think.

Good Luck with everthing.

 

[ibcurious]

Thanks for the advice. Hopfully things will work out ok.

 

[ibcurious]

HELP!!!!

Yikes! My husband THOUGHT he had an agreement with CP. She said she would relinquish the power of attorney grandma has and send a copy to us along with written consent for us to take Ryan for the next 2 months. We were planning to leave tommorrow night and expected the papers before now. When we called her about it, she said grandma told her that if she does this granma will take Ryan and she wouldn't even be able to find him. Grandma has CP scared to do anything. I guess CP is brainwashed or something. We told her that she didn't even have to let gandma know about it, but she won't do it. Would Ryan be considered in danger? We don't think he's being abused but still...this is ridiculous! Child support enforcement closed our case w/cp and opened another one with grandma recieving child support.....and we were NEVER notified. We have everything set up to leave tommorrow night, don't have a lawer, what can we do? We're in AL Ryan is in VA. What would happen if we just got him anyway??

HELP!!

 

[Whyte Noise]

I don't know what you mean by the statement that the mother gave the grandmother power of attorney over the child. All a power of attorney does, is give someone written authorization to act on your behalf. It doesn't give the person CUSTODY of the child. Legal or physical. If grandma takes the child anywhere, then grandma is guilty of kidnapping as she doesn't have any custody rights with just a power of attorney. Now, if mom had given her temporary custody of Ryan through the courts, that would be a different ballgame. And the fact that CS opened a case with HER, makes me wonder if that's exactly what the mother did. Gave her temp. custody. Maybe if you can give us a little more info, it would help us to give ya some good advice.

 

[ibcurious]

Child support enforcement told us that the child support follows the child. From what I understand, the court can not give or change custody without notifying a NCP. CP says she signed over power of attorney to grandma, which is just like giving her temporary custody without a court order (this is unlawful too). Virginia code states that a child custody determination by a court of the Commonwealth of VA is binding and that it can only be changed by a court having jurisdiction.
Ok, so is the CP in contempt of court because she left grandma with custody? We think this may qualify for desertion. CP is not paying child support or supporting this child in any way now. If this is desertion ar abandonment, can we remove the child from grandma's home or is there a petition or something else to get the child immediately?

 

[ibcurious]

Also, child support enforcement told us to just call themwhen we have Ryan because the case will be dropped. This was was when we thought we had an arrangement w/CP to have him for a couple of months. It has to be considered abandonment or something if they'll just drop the case if we get him for this short period, right?
Also, I have a letter that was sent by her from Colorado to prove that she is there. She has her own appartment, job, goes to school and all there. She's been there for apparently quite a few months now and until we got this mail, we didn't know what her address was or anything.