So you are saying that you had custody of the kids, but your ex got a change in custody without your knowledge? How can that be? You didn't question it when he didn't return the kids? Even if your ex gave the wrong address to the courts, surely you would have figured out something was up when the kids didn't come back.
OK, here is how this can happen. Say the father has visitation for 6 weeks during the summer. While he has the children in his possession he goes down, tells the courts the mother is in jail, and he needs temporary custody. He gives them false information, false address and by the time his six weeks visitation is up he has a court order giving him custody in the state he lives in. Get it?
By the time the mother finds out all this has happened she has to try and figure out something to do. Being your average citizen her knowledge of what to do is very limited. Her financial situation is one where she can't go out and hire an attorney and believe it or not, someone in that position might just feel at a loss for what to do next. On top of all that, she is in Florida with limited finances and he is in Indiana. Might be a bit hard to fight the system with no money and all that distance don't you think?
I'm pretty sure when the kids didn't come back is when she figured out something was wrong. I don't think this woman woke up yesterday and realized her kids were not home. Read her post, it's pretty clear that this is something she has been fighting and trying to find an answer to since last June.
she already knows the date...
She knows this court date. She had no knowledge of the first court date and dates after that. Now she has this new court date and no money nor attorney. She is in Florida and he is in Indiana with a court order giving him custody. It's not real hard to figure out why this woman is facing an uphill battle...not in my opinion anyway.
ddsmith, what you need to do is call your local legal aid society and legal aid in the county where the hearing is being held. Explain to them what is going on and ask for assistance. You also need to contact the court clerk in the county where the hearing is being held. Tell them that you have not been notified through the courts. If they insist that you have ask them to produce a summons that was signed by you with the date and time it was served. Ask them to produce proof of contact to you regarding this latest court hearing.
Tell the court clerk that you want a continuance because you have not been able to hire an attorney yet and ask her/him what the procedure is that you need to follow to get one because at this time you are representing yourself. If they tell you they can't help you ask them to put you in contact with someone who can.
If need be, get the name of the judge who will hear the case and speak to his secretary. If they refuse to continue the hearing then write a letter stating your objection and request that it be put in the file. In the mean time, get yourself an attorney. Call legal aid!
my ex obtained custody of our 4 children during his visitaion he told the courts that i was in jail and then gave them a false address so i wouldnt know about the court date and theygave it to him(custody)and he has since then requested more child support and he gave a false address agaon i found out there is a court date on the 19 by a friend of his i live in florida and this is in indiana i was not served with a subpena do i have to go and can they fill contempt charges o me if i do not show since i was never legally served with papers? 