Legal Question in Family Law in California
State of CA: My Husband and I have been trying to get his 8 yr old daughter back in school in the county in which we live.
Both he and his ex lived in the same county sharing physical custody 50/50. Since then I moved to his residence with my 12 yr old daughter and we had a son together. a few months later the mother with out his knowledge moved to another county about 30-40 minutes from us. She verbally said she would not be removing her from school and had no problem driving her to and from school on her days of custody. Soon after school started his daughter shared with us that she was going to get to go to a new school near her mommy. So we petitioned the court to set custody and allow her to remain in school near us. custody was set the same and his daughter was to remain in the same school for the remainder of the school year and should the mother decide that she would like to put her in a school near her she would have to petition the court.
His daughter remained in the school for that year - mother brought her to and from school.
We then had another child making a total 4 kids in our household. One in school and the other two I stay at home with.
Then this school year the mother enrolled her in school her county and did not tell the father until 2 days later, the night before I was supposed to have been picking her up from our school at the end of the school day.
We filed paperwork with the courts requesting that she return to school in our county becuase of our other daughter that's in school and the time's are very closed together making it impossible for us to be in 2 counties at the same time and we were asked to attend mediation. Mediation happened and no agreement came out of it. A child interview was conducted and the report said that child has a loving relationship with both parents and since the child already started school his recommendation was to not pull her from that school.
We did not agree with that because it would case us to give up our shared custody and limit us to every other weekend.
Now we are going to trial over this and niehter of us have attorney's.
The mother did not follow the court order - she did not petition the court nor inform my husband of this change until after the fact. It doesn't seem right that we should lose our share of custody just because the mother did what she did and they don't want to take her out of the school. I think her not being with us like she has been is more disrupting than moving her to another school. What are our the points we need to focus on to show the courts that she belongs back where she was?
1 Answer from Attorneys
These cases are difficult to present at trial. Based on the limited facts that you presented you may wsh to stress the following issues. 1. Mom has shown no respect for the court's orders. Mom should not be rewarded for her disobedience of the court order. 2. Allowing her to move the child to the new school will interfere with her relationship with father. Stress the strength of the bonding between father and daughter. Also stress the strength of her relationship with her half siblings. 3. Stress that she has done very well in the school she has been attending. 4. The recommendation encourages parents to take unilateral action. Ask the assessor a hypothetical question,"If father took the child and registered her in school would you recommend that she not be moved back to the original school?" If the answer is "no", ask does the length of time that the child is in the school is the determining factor?
It is impossible to pre-plan the questions in these matters. You have to be able to respond to the answers with you next question. The above areas would generally be the way to approach this type of hearing.
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