Originally Posted by
Napa Dad
Today did not provide a very good outcome. My son's mom was able to locate a friend-of-friend civil attorney in San Francisco who appeared telephonically. I believed I had established all the jurisdictional connectivity issues to overcome any question related to being in California couirt 12 days prior to a full six months.
The matter was heard by a commissioner.---Mom's attorney said she was already back in New York (which I know to be untrue) and that she had been in California for a 4 month "vacation".
The commissioner ruled that inasmuch as there is a dispute--the issue of whether my son be returned at all is to be heard at a hearing. He shortened time---still requiring until November 9th---
First, this is not the end of the world, so don't despair. All the judge did was set you for a hearing to see what is going on (and you got it on shortened time, so that's a good sign). Second, you said the mom hired some "civil attorney" in SF, which is also a good sign since he probably doesn't normally do family law and may not know zip about it, which gives you an advantage (this civil attorney may have never even heard of the UCCJEA).
But as Calidad said, get your evidence together to show mom and the kid were not on some extended vacation in California (think of things like, did mom have a job here, did she apply for one, did she register a car here, get a Cal. drivers license, enroll the child in school or daycare?. etc. anything that would point to the intent to settle in).
By the way, a Court Commissioner is a judge in California for all intents and purposes (I address them as "judge" when I'm in front of them in court for instance): they are not elected or appointed by the Governor like full-fledged judges but instead are hired by the other judges to fill the need for judicial officers in larger counties. They make the same salary and have the same duties of a judge but usually sit on a permanent assignment in some department doing one thing. Family law Commissioners are typically more experienced and know more about family law than regular judges because they don't get rotated around to different areas, like probate and criminal law, or the civil bench. Many of them were former family law specialists (like me), get the job as commissioner and then sit there for 20 years doing family law. So I'd show them a lot of respect. But it's like anything in life, some are good, some are awful, that's how it is.
