[mel7a8]

My husband and I are the managing conservators of my husbands niece.
Her mother is deceased and her father is on his 2nd incarceration (long story)
The ordeal to get custody was long and drawn out with my husbands father causing great problems.
The question is the judge here took the liberty of ordering the child support arrearage that was owed for years 2005-2007 put into an account by her dad under his name with an uncle and grandpa as co-signers (at the time her dad was not in jail). The money the judge said was for her father to use to "pay" for things she may need like camp, prom, whatever. She was to ask for an item and he should respond. The judge said it would build a better relationship between the two of them.
My husband and I objected, stating first the money was not the judges to assign, it belonged to us for care we had already provided. Second who got to decide what was an "appropriate" use of the money? We are raising this child, she has been in our care for over 5 years and was in ongoing counseling.
The judge simply said we could comply, or lose the child. So we complied...
Now her father is in jail will be until she is 21.
Grandpa and the other uncle refuse to send any money from the account (Dad never did either). We have her and two other children (of our own) to raise.
We have spent in excess $17,000.00 in legal fee's to keep this child safe (my husbands father is a 75+ year old lawyer (not family law) who has nothing but time and money).
What can "we" meaning "on our own" file to get this money returned to us?
We live in Lubbock Texas, and the judge in our case is stepping down to take a city attorney position... so maybe a new judge would see this differently...
Again also since the hearing her father is "back in jail".
Could we file to adopt?
I know this is a lot to ask, but we are somewhat on our own here.

[cdad]

Sure you can file for adoption and the father would have to agree. If not then you would have to have his rights removed which could be very hard to do depending on what he's in jail for. As far as recouping legal fees for the child.. forget about that. It was your choice to spend that money. You might be able to ask for child support and then when he is in arrears be able to draw from the account created but if it's a trust for the girl then your chances are slim.

[mel7a8]

I don't think you understood the question, I did not have any expectation of "recouping" anything.
We certainly spent the money of our "own free will". The option was leaving her in the care of an aging grandfather- who frequently left her in the care of her addicted father (grandpa enables her father), send her through the CPS system or take on the arduous task of raising a very confused and troubled child.
There is no trust, we have court orders for child support, of course prisioners rarely make child support payments.
The funds in the account are classified as "child support arrearage" monies that should have been being paid for the years from our formal filing to the hearing date (late 2005-2007).
The law states those funds (check out the Health and Human services website for the federal government) are the persons who provided the actual support of the child during the years of the arrearage.
For the record his first incarceration was for vehicular manslaughter under the influence, he broke probation on that one and spent the final 5 years in prision. She was 3 when he went in.
The current incarceration is for DUI on federal property so he is in a federal prision.
She wants to be adopted, and of course if we can't accomplish this before then and she is still so inclined we will formally adopt her when she is 18.
All I want is someone to let me know what I should file to get back to court to release those back child support monies.

[Fr_Chuck]

The judge can fully decide where past child support goes, but you needed to have worked out a better play, sorry my guess you were fighting the idea so much trying not to have it, that once it went in, there were no options on the table.

And the father can still authorise use of funds from inside prison, my family member controls his money from inside without a lot of hassle.

But you will have to petition the court for a modification of the existing order and ruling, to either provide a way to get the money ( if there is any still in the account? ) or to have the money assigned to a court representitive that will handle the money for you.