My son is 17 will be 18 in November.He lives with his mother and I pay child support to her.He wants to live with me(Her husband has verbally abused my son for 11 years)He wanted to do this 2 years ago but they talked him out of it.I want him to live with me.My question is how to I go about changing the court order for child support and can his mother stop him from doing this.He has already moved his cloths in and his mind is made up that he is not living with them know more... We live in West Palm Beach Florida... Thanks for any advice

File a motion with the court that issued the original order asking that you be awarded physical custody and she be ordered to pay you child support. Be prepared to present witnesses to your ex's verbal abuse towards your son and prepare your son to testify on his own behalf. Also freely testify to anything that you have witnessed firsthand yourself. The facts are, he is 17, 4 months away from being 18, has expressed a desire to live with you and claims that his stepfather verbally abused him for 11 years. All said, you probably stand a pretty good chance of getting your motion granted.

The thing here is that it may take four months to get this through the courts. They may very well drag their heels since, when he turns 18 the issue will be moot.

Another factor here is that you are violating the court order. You are putting the cart before the horse. You get the custody order changed FIRST, then he moves. Otherwise the court may consider the fact that you violated the order.

I will be astonished if the Court entertains a change of custody when the filing occurs just 4 months short of the 18th birthday.

The Courts are busy, too busy for a matter which will conclude naturally in 4 months.