Legal Question in Family Law in Florida
I have been in court for many years trying to protect my daughter from an abusive father. I was 14 and he was 22 when I became pregnant. We broke up many years ago due to the abuse to me and my daughter. My daughter is now 14, he disappereared for a few years and has now started fighting for visitation (his parents are forcing him to). The judge refused to let me speak about the abuse (she said it was Irrelevant) then she cut me off when I talked about our ages and said it was Irrelevant. She decided to put my daughter in therapy for a few months before seeing her father but the worker in family court services decided to just force her to see him now. She told me to tell her that she would be in trouble if she doesn't go. She said at 14 she is not capable of knowing what she wants. I gently told her she would be going to see him soon and she has not stopped vomiting. Someone please tell me what to do to fight this. I have been as perfect of a mother as I can possibly be. I have never been in any kind of legal trouble or done anything where the courts should be against me. He has only paid child support 6 months out of 8 years, he is constantly in trouble with the law and can't even complete a sentance sue to how messed up he is from drugs. He has not had a relationship with her in years, before that it was never a good one. How can you "fight the system"? Thank you for any help you can give.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Were you ever married to this man? Odd that your parents did not sue him for statutory rape. I suggest you head for the legal office and get some support from that group. If you have proof of any drug abuse, you need to present it to the court. If he is now paying child support it is because the child support division was finally able to locate him to do so. You can request supervised visitation. I suggest you ask for a rehearing as to visitation and I suggest you have an attorney present with you. This judge obviously is not going to just let you speak. Also, not knowing what kind of action was presented, what your status is etc., I can't really say why the judge felt that way.
First, get an attorney. Don't do this on your own. Your daughter's mental health is too important for that. Don't complain that you can't afford a lawyer. How much is your daughter worth? Second, consider that maybe the judge isn't wrong. Maybe your daughter should get to know her father. Clearly, he is a rapist, a deadbeat, an abuser (of you, I assume, and not your daughter, or else the judge would have considered it), but he is still your daughter's father. Evil though he may be, she deserves to know him. Visitation should be supervised at best, and your daughter should be involved with a therapist, but if a judge and a case worker think she should know her father, maybe she should.
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