Legal Question in Family Law in Connecticut

With the limited information provided here, these some of my reccommendations: (sorry ahead of time for any typos or misspellings)

Self-help is seen as unacceptable by the family court in Connecticut, so staying in Contempt until hearing is not a good idea.

The first thing that you could do is file a Emergency Motion to Suspend Visitation until the hearing. The standard for an emergency motion like this is that the child must be in immediate danger. The judge may grant the motion or he may not, but it at least shows that you are trying to use the system and not just staying in Contempt. I would include copies of evidence such as the pictures showing recent drug use.

I'm not sure if you already filed a Motion for Modification of Vistation. If not I would do this immediately. You can use the Form JD-FM-174, found in the Forms section of jud.ct.gov for the Motion for Modification and fill out first part and the modification of visitation section. Take this to the court clerk for them to sign and pay the fee. Then you should go on jud.ct.gov to get a list of Marshals and have the Motion for Modification served on your husband. The Marshal may charge $ 65-70 for service on your husband.

The Motion for Modification Form JD-FM-174 lists on it which Forms you will need to bring to the hearing and the signed Financial Affidavit Form needs to be filed with the court and all Attorneys and Pro Se Parties 5 days before the hearing.The reason for this is that you need your Financial Affidavit as well as the other party's to fill out the Child Support Guidelines Worksheet for the hearing. At hearing you will need to file for the Modification of Visitation you will need to file the Child support Arrearage Guidelines Worksheet (CCSG-1) and the Affidavit Concerning Children (JD-FM-164).

If you have not already filed an appearance in the case you should do so along with your motions.

The Guardian Ad Litem's job is to investigate substance abuse by the parents. On the Emegency Motion you should tell the Court that the GAL is on vacation. For the actual Motion for Modification of Visitation hearing the GAL will be necessary to testify as to her/his investigation of the substance abuse and as soon as possible you should get her/him the evidence of this substance abuse, even if it sits in the GAL's inbox until they return from vacation. Remeber you must send copies of all Motion filed to the GAL as well as your spouses attorney or your spouse if he is a pro se party. If your spouse and his attorney both have appearances then you need to sned copies to both.

GAL's being assigned to a case where there are custody and visitation issues is common. Since your husband qualifies for free legal help and is unemployed and has no license you will probably end up footing most of the bill.. How much of the GAL bill each party pays is based on the income of each party. Unfortunately the more responsible party, the non drug addict, can end up paying a larger portion of the bill.You can file a Motion for Order Re: Fees for GAL to request that the court orders that your husband pays a certain portion of the bill.

Remember that with Financial Orders not only is the income of the party relevant but the earning capacity of the party. If your husband claims that he cannot pay anything because he cannot find a job the Court can require a substantial amount of proof of this. Things such as his resume, applications he filled out, the where the when and the who. Proof that all these businesses did not offer him work. Proof that he did not turn down any jobs no matter what it is or if it is minimum wage. That being said the old saying goes that you can't get blood out of a stone and if he chooses to be an unemployed drug addict, it is going to be difficult to get any money out of him. If somebody is obviously on drugs it is likely that no one will offer them a job especially in this economy and job market.

On the other hand if he choses this route he is likely to lose unsupervised visitation and he if he screws up supervisied vistation he could lose visitation completely until he get clean and sober. Motions modifying visitation to supervised vistation and a Motion for drug evaluation and testing, can encourage him to seek treatment. But unfortunately some people choose the drugs

As I just noted above another Motion that you may want to file along with the Motion for Modification of Visitation is a Motion for Order for Drug/Alcohol Evaluation and Testing.

In Connecticut Family Law many motions have Form versions provided for you on the jud.ct.gov website. these forms make it easier for a Pro Se party. Some of these a Form can be filed or a more detailed free form motion can be filed. Such as with a Motion for Contempt.

Some motions however have no form version and you have to write a free form motion. Many of the free form motions we attorneys file are not that creative, we have templates of a great number of motions we may need. Also as Family Law Attorneys we receive motions from other attorneys and if it is really good, we make it into template. For a Pro Se party sometimes filing and finding templates of these motions may be diifficult.

Some Attorney's like myself can offer Limited representation through a limited respresentation agreement and draft these free form motions for a Pro Se party and then it is the Pro Se Parties job to sign it in front of the court clerk and if a Marshall is required to serve the Motion as with certain Motions , the Court clerk can tell you.

Whether or not a Marshal's Service is required, you must sign the Certification as a Pro Se party and send a copy of the Motion to all Attorneys and Pro se parties. If your husband has an Attorney with an Appearance but has no Pro se Appearance himself then you would just send it to his Attorney. You would send copies of these motions to the GAL on the case.

If sent by fax use a coversheet and always save the fax receipt that proves that it was faxed and received by the Attorney or Pro Se parties fax machine. As a Pro Se Party it is better to bring the Motion to the Court Clerk by hand so that you can get their help in knowing what to do next. But lawyers many times we fax motions to the Court Clerk and this requires a Court Coversheet which you can find on jud.ct.gov. We then keep the fax receipt from the court and fax the other Attorney and/or Pro se party a coversheet, the copy of the signed Motion and the receipt from the Court Clerks fax machine. As a Pro Se party however I reccommend that you go to the clerk in person. They can't give you legal advice but they can give you alot of helpful information.

Another great resource for help and information is the Family Services Office. They are not allowed to give you legal advice but they are extremely helpful giving information to pro se parties.

If you need more help feel free to call or email me anytime, even if you just need some templates for specific motions that you want to file.

I am going to include some useful links below which I am not sure if i am allowed to do on this site. So if they do not appear email me and i will, email them to you. Some of the first links go intio great detail about for example the Motion for Modification. Others just include the law and information on the general topics. always double check the information on free websites to make sure tha it is up to date by going to jud.ct.gov but certain helpful sites can help fill in the blanks on specific things to do next.

-Attorney Christopher Neil Overton, Norwalk, CT

jud.ct.gov

ctlawhelp.org

http://ctlawhelp.org/how-to-modify-and-enforce-child-visitation-orders

http://www.jud.ct.gov/forms/grouped/family/modification.htm

http://www.jud.ct.gov/lawlib/Law/custody.htm

http://www.jud.ct.gov/lawlib/notebooks/pathfinders/representingminorsinct/representingminors.htm

http://www.kidscounsel.org/legalresources_QLR.htm

http://ctlawhelp.org/getting-a-lawyer-appointed-for-your-child