Legal Question in Family Law in California

I was married and had a daughter with my husband in California, he was physically abusive, I finally got to a point where I was frightened for my life so I moved out of state to New Mexico. He was living with his parents at the time, I felt I needed to leave my daughter with him because I was scared he would be able to track me down if I took her with me since he would have to know my address to be able to visit and speak with my daughter. I knew she would be fine because he lived with his parents and she spent most of her time with her grandparents. I would keep intouch with her thru the grandparents. I applied for a divorce in NM and had a default divorce due to him not responding. On the divorce I put for joint legal custody and made a parenting agreement that I would be able to have her for summer vacations and holidays, I put physical custody of her with her father since that is where she is at. He is denying me to speak to her by telephone and when I told him that I want her for summer vacations he denied that too. So my question is : Is the visitation decree that I made from getting a divorce in NM be valid since she lives in CA? Can I just take that decree during the summer to the police and tell him he is not following it by denying me phone conversations and visitations. Basically Im wondering if the visitation decree from NM would uphold in CA where she is at.


Asked on 2/02/11, 8:43 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

You need to have the NM judgment and orders turned into a California order. You do that by filing papers in the California county in which your daughter lives. You will need an attorney to help you with that unless you can come to California to work with the self-help people at the courthouse. It is a pretty simple process for an attorney, though would probably trip you up unless you got guidance from the local self-help staff (called the Family Law Facilitators Office). An attorney shouldn't charge you too much to help. If she is anywhere in the San Francisco bay area, I would be happy to assist you.

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Answered on 2/02/11, 1:53 pm


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