Custodial parent keeps moving to different states without notice
My boyfriend (resides in Miami, Fl) and his ex wife have shared legal and physical custody of their daughter which was issued in Minnesota in 2007. In 2008 he asked the courts in Minnesota to enforce visitation and modify his child support. After traveling to MN from FL to attend court hearings and mediations for about a year his ex wife (who is an attorney) up and moved to Orlando, Florida three weeks before the final hearing. She wrote a letter to the courts after she had already moved stating she was moving so visitations would be easier between my boyfriend and their daughter. That proved to be only a way to manipulate the courts because visitations were made difficult, visits for which he had to drive 4 hours to and 4 hours from were sometimes canceled last minute and phone calls were seldom answered. My boyfriend had to wait six months for her to become a permanent resident of Florida before filing a motion for modification for which she responded to October 18th. On October 27th she called him and told him she had moved to Georgia and when he asked why, when and where she hung up the phone. He has not spoken to his daughter since September and has no idea where she lives in Georgia. She had also filed a petition for a name change in Minnesota in 2008 which was denied by the courts yet when she moved to Orlando in 2009 she registered their daughter under the hyphenated last name she was denied in court. There was a hearing set for last week which we attended and she did not. The courts were unaware she had moved out of state once again and when they got her on the phone during the hearing she stated she moved to Georgia on October 19th to take the bar exam there in February. She did not mention this at all in her response to the motion signed by her October 18th. Since this was a hearing to modify child support the judicial officer had no interest in the fact the she was clearly in violation of custody and denied the motion for modification stating Florida was out of jurisdiction (she hasn't lived in Georgia for six months yet) and my boyfriend should consult with an attorney in Georgia. We cannot afford an attorney at this point and still owe a few thousand to the attorney we had in Minnesota when he first brought these issues to the courts there. We've talked to a few people in the clerks office in Orlando as well as some paralegals and no one understands how she's getting away with this and why the courts are allowing it. PLEASE help... we would really appreciate any input.
Comment on califdadof3's post
Thank you so much for the link. We're adding that to the Motion for Reconsideration to the courts in Orlando. I know not having a lawyer makes it easy for them to brush us off but he can't get legal aid in Orlando because he resides in Miami.
