Legal Question in Family Law in California

Divorce

I am asking this question in regards

to my cousin. She is 22yo, married

and has 2 children. She is also 4.5

months pregnant with their 3rd child.

She lives in Indiana, but her entire

family lives in California. Her

husband has been cheating on her,

verbally abusing her and is never

home. The house that he provides

her now has no heat or hot water.

She let him see the kids today and

now they got into an argument on

the phone and he told he again he

wants a divorce. He told her that

unless she went back to the house

with no heat/hot water or to her

other families house (he doesn't

want her staying with my family for

some reason) that he is blocking her

phone calls and texts and won't bring

the children back. He also informed

her that he was at a females house

in another nearby city with the 2

children. She now wants to get the

children back and go back to her

family in California. He has filed no

paperwork with any court. She

wants to know if she should go to

California and get a lawyer there or

stay here in Indiana and get a

lawyer.


Asked on 4/27/09, 10:17 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Colin Greene Russakow, Greene & Tan, LLP

Re: Divorce

That is a question that requires much discussion. I do not know what Indiana law is. In CA, there is no jurisdiction over child issues until she has lived in CA for 6 months. In CA, once she files, there is an automatic restraining order on removing the children from CA without a court order or written stipulation of the parties. In CA, one of the grounds of who should get custody is if a parent has denied the other parent custody, meaning if she takes off to CA, she is at risk of looking like the bad parent which goes against her custody. Dad is apparently not a good guy though, so while at first impression, I'd say you deal with it in an Indiana court and get permission to move to CA, it is not that she might not be in good position for the custody she wants if she just moved and dealt with it in CA. There are risks to be examined with either approach.

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Answered on 4/27/09, 11:07 pm


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