Legal Question in Family Law in California
Lies, Losers and Lidigation
2003 DA found my son's father and started garnishing wages. He wanted custody to save money. My son wanted a father so much that I agreed to joint legal custody with him having physical custody. I'm in CA and they're in NV. His father promised to bring him to visit twice a month. I filed to regain custody & found that his lawyer ''accidently'' misread things and filed stating I was to have ''supervised'' visitation instead of the ''reasonable'' stated by court.I had them amend it for my hearing but when the new papers filed still showed Supervised the ''DAD'' told the Mediator that I had forged the copies I had shown so my request was denied, stating I had supervised visitation. Soon after that Dad moved my son to Oregon without telling me or court. He was unable to be found, no contact for 4 months and I contacted Chld Abduction. Next court date he hired a lawyer who i convinced to have them contact me. Mediator only listened to his lies not letting me produce proof. She recommended I be supervised now, judge refused the evaluation be done and no decision made. He has interfered with my visitation, custodial rights, alienated my son, EVERYTHING. Now he filed to change jurisdiction to OR. Is there someway I can fix this or just give up?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Lies, Losers and Lidigation
You absolutely must get an attorney to represent you. I can't begin to advise you adequately in an email. Supervised visitation only works if the parent and child are living close together. It is usually short term to re-establish a relationship that has been damaged. It also is usually for a very young child that needs protection. I know that you believe that it was a mistake in the first place but you need to accept that that is the current order and go from there. The real question is how many supervised visits need you do before the supervision ends and how are you going to be able to do them. If a family member can be the supervisor (like a grandparent or favorite aunt) then you may be able to have a summer visit and then return to court to review the order. Again, The situation screams out for an attorney to help you through this. Your son absolutely must get counseling. As far as jusrisdiction goes, Oregon is the state where the child resides so it would be appropriate to change venue.You may have to go there for the visits anyway so you might as well plan to go up there at least once. You might agree to the move and look for an attorney up there so that you will not have to appear at every hearing. Sometimes my out-of-town clients telephone the courtroom so they can hear and answer any questions the judge may have and sometimes I just talk to them when I'm out in the hall and go in and speak for them. There are low fee programs everywhere which are much more likely to get you someone than the "free" attorney programs. Start with the county Bar Association or the family law clerk for the phone number. You should invest some time in your own therapy/ self help program to prepare for the tough job of parenting this child again after this settles down. If you aren't feeling angry and hurt you aren't human. Please feel free to email me directly if I can answer any question you have about this reply.