My friend is having a horrible custody battle with her two children. Her ex is holding her daughter, basically, hostage and refuses to let her see her. His reason is because their son is (finally) in school and my friend has more time with their son so he should have full time with the daughter (brother and sister have not seen each other for a while, either). He has no job, no place to live (He lost his house in foreclosure and lives with his sister), No car, No license and has child abuse charges against him (there has been no court outcome in that case). She knows she's right (everyone knows she right :)), but has no way to pay for help and the county said they are too busy to help her for at least 6 months. She had a lawyer whom she paid close to $6,000 to (her tax refund), and he told her that she cannot go for custody yet because they have not been divorced long enough (it had been almost 2 years at that point). Now she is broke, and doesn't know what she can do.

My questions:
Is the lawyer right? Will she loose a custody battle because she went for custody too early after the divorce?

We live in Wright County Minnesota, where can she go for immediate custody help for little or no charge?

If it has been 2 years she can file on her own. But she will have to do everything that is required for the courts to proceed. Also there will be fees to be paid. Does she have proof of the abuse or was it just an accusation ?

It is already in the court system, and it was not abuse against her children. It was a family friend. And she has nothing to do with it.

She really needs legal help. Is there anyone that can help her with that at low or no charge?

Her local bar assc may be able to tell her if there are any probono lawyers or ones that take hardship cases and work in a sliding scale. As far as the abuse being against someone else that doesn't matter it shows that if the police were called and if convicted that person may have a violent streak. Or may need counciling. That may be important if someone is in a custody battle.