Ask Me Help Desk - Emergency Child Custody Situations??

My husband is going through some problems and I need some advice. He has joint custody with his x and she came up homeless 3 in a half months ago and asked him to take her until she could find a place in a month well never found a place and we have had her since 4/20/2012. Very little contact never calls when she does it is very short and the child gets and attitude and she never comes to see her either. So remind you this has been happening now for 3 in half months okay. Well we as the responsible parents do what we need to as parents enroll her for school and what not okay and she calls today and asks if she can see her. We say yes that is okay because we aren't going to keep her from her daughter but we asked if she could have her back at 4:30pm because she is on a schedule and needs to be back to eat dinner and get ready for bed and stuff for school and stuff she says yes so we say okay. We go over there to have get her picked up at 4:30 and she is no there we wait till 4:45 and call no answer we wait till 5 and we call she answers and my husband says are you on the way with our daughter and she says she is not going home with you we are on our way up to Payson and hangs up on him. So my question is what can I do? We are already filing emergency custody papers tomorrow but what would I put down for the emergency situation?The health, safety, and welfare of a person is otherwise in serious and immediate jeopardy as follows... We live in Mesa, Arizona by the way

What are the current terms of the joint custody?
(Also, just curious, what school is the child going to in early August?)

Quote:

Originally Posted by joypulv

What are the current terms of the joint custody?
(Also, just curious, what school is the child going to in early August?)

The joint custody is that my husband gets her every other weekend and holidays. And she is going to salk.

By school, joy meant elementary, kindergarten, what? School generally doesn't start until September.

Here is the thing. You made a mistake by not filling for primary custody after a couple of months. Under the custody arrangement you cited, your husband doesn't have joint physical custody. She has primary physical custody with your husband having visitation. Therefore you had no right to dictate when the child would be returned. So you have no grounds for an emergency custody hearing unless you believe the mother does not have a place for them to live. She asked you to care for the child until she could find a place to live. Apparently she found a place is is taking back custody. What makes you think she can't do that?

Now, according to the visitation schedule, when would your husband next have the child? You will probably have to wait until that visitation and if she withholds the child, THEN you can petition the court to cite her for contempt of court and for a change in custody.

If you are going to try for an emergency hearing, you need to get an attorney to advise you of how to do it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScottGem

By school, joy meant elementary, kindergarten, what? School generally doesn't start until September.

Here is the thing. You made a mistake by not filling for primary custody after a couple of months. Under the custody arrangement you cited, your husband doesn't have joint physical custody. She has primary physical custody with your husband having visitation. Therefore you had no right to dictate when the child would be returned. So you have no grounds for an emergency custody hearing unless you believe the mother does not have a place for them to live. She asked you to care for the child until she could find a place to live. Apparently she found a place is is taking back custody. What makes you think she can't do that?

Now, according to the visitation schedule, when would your husband next have the child? You will probably have to wait until that visitation and if she withholds the child, THEN you can petition the court to cite her for contempt of court and for a change in custody.

If you are going to try for an emergency hearing, you need to get an attorney to advise you of how to do it.

No it did not because he does not have visitation rights he has custody rights which is in custody papers. Her mother does not have a stable place to stay she left and took her up to payson which is in Arizona and here in Arizona they already started school on the 8th of August so she is going to Salk Elementary school. Her mother is not a fit parent to be taking care of her what so ever she is on physic meds can't focus majority of the time never watches the child lets the child tell her what to do when to do it. Let me remind you the child is only 7 years old.

First, you are asking questions on a legal board. You are going to get legal answers. You told us "The joint custody is that my husband gets her every other weekend and holidays". That is NOT joint physical custody by any legal means. I don't know exactly what your papers say it doesn't really matter. But what he has is joint leqal custody with visitation. Joint physical custody would mean 50% of the time and alternate weekends and holidays is not 50%.

Second, you said nothing about psychic meds or level of care in your previous post. All you told us was that she became homeless and asked "asked him to take her until she could find a place". This implied that the child would be returned to the court ordered custody arrangement when she found a place.

Third, If the mother is on meds and unfit, they why haven't you tried to change the custody order before? Did something change?

Fourth, No you may not "remind you the child is only 7". Since you never informed us of her age before your last post you can't "remind" us.

Look, don't get me wrong, I think a mother who dumps her kid without daily contact on the other parent for 3 months and has a drug issue, shouldn't have primary custody. And her visitation should be supervised. But your problem is the court order gives her primary physical custody. Since you never attempted to change that order it still stands. Therefore, she has every right to take back control of the child. Unless you have conclusive proof that the child is in imminent danger, then I don't see a court granting your motion. The most I see happening is the court granting a hearing as soon as one can be scheduled to determine whether a change in custody is warranted.

We are here to help you, but that means telling you the facts as we see them based on what you tell us.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScottGem

First, you are asking questions on a legal board. You are going to get legal answers. You told us "The joint custody is that my husband gets her every other weekend and holidays". That is NOT joint physical custody by any legal means. I don't know exactly what your papers say it doesn't really matter. But what he has is joint leqal custody with visitation. Joint physical custody would mean 50% of the time and alternate weekends and holidays is not 50%.

Second, you said nothing about psychic meds or level of care in your previous post. All you told us was that she became homeless and asked "asked him to take her until she could find a place". This implied that the child would be returned to the court ordered custody arrangement when she found a place.

Third, If the mother is on meds and unfit, they why haven't you tried to change the custody order before? Did something change?

Fourth, No you may not "remind you the child is only 7". Since you never informed us of her age before your last post you can't "remind" us.

Look, don't get me wrong, I think a mother who dumps her kid without daily contact on the other parent for 3 months and has a drug issue, shouldn't have primary custody. And her visitation should be supervised. But your problem is the court order gives her primary physical custody. Since you never attempted to change that order it still stands. Therefore, she has every right to take back control of the child. Unless you have conclusive proof that the child is in imminent danger, then I don't see a court granting your motion. The most I see happening is the court granting a hearing as soon as one can be scheduled to determine whether a change in custody is warranted.

We are here to help you, but that means telling you the facts as we see them based on what you tell us.

So you are telling me that if we go and try to file a emergency child custody hearing we probably won't get one then even though she still doesn't have a place to live technically. She just up a left today to go somewhere else she has no job no car no place to stay nothing and just up a left with the child! We are going tomorrow to file for a emergency hearing. Yes we know we are a little late on filing but it's a little hard when there is only one person working because of personal reasons that I don't need to get into right now. So that is what you are saying is that we don't have a case though.

Can you prove she has no job, no place to live? Unless you can, I don't see you getting an emergency order to change custody. I can't predict what a court will do, since I don't have all the facts that you will need to present to the court. I don't know how long she had primary physical custody before April. I don't know what history she has with family services. There are a lot of things I don't know about this case. So I'm not telling you not to file. But I suspect that the only thing you will get unless you can prove that she has no means to provide for the child, is a hearing date.

You will stand a better chance if you have an attorney representing you.

Quote:

Originally Posted by corkygurl

So you are telling me that if we go and try to file a emergency child custody hearing we probably wont get one then even though she still doesn't have a place to live technically. She just up a left today to go somewhere else she has no job no car no place to stay nothing and just up a left with the child! We are going tomorrow to file for a emergency hearing. Yes we know we are a little late on filing but its a little hard when there is only one person working because of personal reasons that i dont need to get into right now. So that is what you are saying is that we don't have a case though.

Jumping in here. Scott covered it all, and he covered it well. It's going to be proof - what you can prove, not what you suspect or think or anything along those lines. I realize "we" is a better way to describe this, but this is your husband's legal problem, not yours.

So the mother has no job, no car, no place to say, no "nothing" but she picked up the child and left with her? Where do you plan to serve the mother with the papers if she is staying nowhere or drifting from place to place?

To cut right to the chase I'd be calling Child Protective Services (or whatever it's called in your State).