[msr2014]

I was granted a divorce in Texas on January of 2013, as part of the divorce agreement I was given custody or our 3 year old son. Ex wife moved back to her home state of Mississippi, after about 6 months my son and I moved to Mississippi and tried working things out. In August of this year, roughly 13 months after moving to Mississippi, things fell apart rather quickly upon me finding condom wrappers in her dirty clothes, my son and I moved back to Texas about 3 months ago. Out of the blue my ex, who has never taken advantage of her visitation in our times apart since the divorce is coming to get him in two weeks, she has notified me of this. Through e-mails we have had since the move in August most of which were pointless arguments about what went wrong and why, nothing was ever really said about her obtaining custody of our son, just that I was a jerk for leaving. Well upon getting to Texas I was informed in order to sign him up for Medicaid that I must pursue child support, which is not required as apart of the divorce, she receives notice of this at some point in September, and all of the sudden she is claiming I was abusive during our marriage and that she has pictures to prove this... I have never been arrested for not have I ever hit her, we did however have an overall bad relationship because we argued, all the time. She has son from a previous relationship. My fear is that she is going to take our son to Mississippi and file for either change of custody or a restraining order against me even though I live 800 miles away. Can she have custody changed over these issues?

[cdad]

First off if she were to try to change custody then the Texas courts have jurisdiction because they granted custody in the first place. Also what does it say about her taking the child? Is it actually her time to be with the child (visitation court ordered) or is this something your just allowing her to do?


If she had any claims then she should have stated them before during your trial for divorce. It is doubtful that it can be used for any type of defense at this time since you have been divorced completely for awhile and live hundreds of miles apart.

[dontknownuthin]

Get a lawyer and explain your concern that she is a flight risk with the child. You may be able to suspend the visitation or get a court order that she cannot remove the child from the state of Texas. If she wants a change of custody, she has to pursue it with the courts. If she wants to change venue for the case, she has to do it officially since a court where you live with the child already has jurisdiction. I would try to limit discussion between the two of you to text and email so you can prove her threats to take the child out of state. Still let her speak on the phone to the child though.