Legal Question in Family Law in Florida
When I was a month pregnant, I was homeless. My family offered to help my fiance and I, but it meant moving from Florida to Oklahoma. My fiance has a son that was about to turn 3 at the time. He was living with his mother. While we were gone, DCF contacted my fiance to let him know there was a possibility of his son being removed from the home. They wanted to know if he could come back to Florida or appoint someone temporary custody. He told them he would be back as soon as he could, but that I was so close to my due date and he had nowhere to stay if he came back to Florida right then. My fiance told DCF they could place his son with his great aunt, my fiance's aunt. We came back to Florida and we now have a stable place to live. We have made it a point to try and be involved in his son's life. My fiance's son's mother was incarcerated while we were in Oklahoma and my fiance's son was placed with my fiance's aunt. My fiance's aunt doesn't want to bring him to see us and we don't have a vehicle to go get him. We would like to go get him, but we're not sure if we're legally able to just go take him or if we would be charged with kidnapping. A DCF worker told my fiance that his parental rights supercede her power of attorney. Can we just go get him? Do we have to take it to court? Please let me know something. This is very important to us. I would also like to know if he could be charged with abandonment? We were homeless at the time and I was pregnant. We had nowhere else to go and wouldn't have been of any help to his son while he was homeless. My fiance is disabled and receives SSI. Because of his low income, we weren't able to find a place here in Florida at the time. I don't see how that is abandoning your child. My fiance's son was with his mother and things were good for him at the time.
2 Answers from Attorneys
If there is a Court Order in place granting the Aunt temporary custody of the child, the parent will have to file a Petition with the Court seeking to modify the custodial arrangement. It would be a violation of the Court's Order if the parent were just to go try to take the child.
Good luck in the resolution of this matter...
If DCF was involved, there is probably an Order giving temporary custody to the bio's aunt. I suggest you file a Petition for Custody, set a hearing date and have her served with the papers. The forms are online and instructions are included.
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