I have custody of my niece's youngest three children. All of which are under the age of 3. She has 7 kids but doesn't have custody of any of them. While she was pregnant with the last 2 she was on drugs and constantly talked of getting an abortion because she did not want the kids. Once she had the children they were taken from her by the state of TN, which is where I live, and given to me. Wednesday I got a court order. She was taking me to court to get the kids back. I had to appear in court today but I was 25 min. late because I could not find the building. The judge said since he had nothing to go on he would award custody back to my niece. These children will not be taken care of and will probably end up hurt. Is there anything I can do to keep her from getting these children? Help QUICK!



Well she showed up with the sheriff tonight to get the kids but she said she only wanted the two year old and not the one year old twins. So the sheriff called for approval and my niece left with the two year old. What can I do now to ensure that she doesn't do this to me again?

I will say this not being mean, if you were to be there on time, you leave early enough to be there a couple of hours early for something so important as this.

You need to get an attorney and file for an appeal of that decisioin ( and perhaps an emergancy restraining order to prevent her from getting them)

Once she has a copy of the judges ruling, you have to give her the children or you will be interfering with custody. Judges almost always rule in favor of the person that shows up, if the other one is not there. They don't really care why you don't show up.

In addition to what Chuck said, if the children were originally taken from her for drug use etc, then the local DCF agency was involved. They may not have been aware of the petition for custody. You should make them aware and enlist their aid in appealing the decision and getting an injunction against the judge's order. Do this IMMEDIATELY, before she shows up to claim the kids.

Go back to court and file your own motion to get custody of the remaining children. That's no guarantee that she'll "never do it to you again" but it'll make it much harder for her to do it again.