Legal Question in Family Law in Georgia

With all this going on, you know that you have an emergency and that it was ESSENTIAL that you retain a lawyer. There is no time to waste. Tomorrow is too long, so work on that today. That means this morning.

That is awful what has happened and is continuing to occur with you and your daughter, but yes, you can file for a Temporary Protective Order (TPO) for you and your daughter. The sooner you do it, the better. For your daughter, you should file on your daughter's behalf; from what you have briefly stated, you may have a more difficult time convincing a judge to grant a Temporary Protective Order for your daughter, but that is not to say it cannot be done. You may have more information that you have not stated.

You should already have a Conditional Bond in regard to your Mother-In-Law and Brother-In-Law. If that sounds foreign to you, you need to contact the Prosecutor's office; they have Victim Advocates who may be able to help answer some of your questions if you cannot reach the Prosecutor in your case. In Criminal cases like yours, there should have been a Stay-Away Bond/Order that would prevent the Defendants from having any contacts with you and possibly your daughter.

Your Mother-In-Law and Brother-In-Law legally have no rights to visit with your daughter unless there has been a legal Agreement otherwise. You can also modify the visitation/custody with your wife, especially under these circumstances, by going back to Court to modify it, either temporarily or permanently, to ask that your daughter not be exposed to your Mother-In-Law or Brother-In-Law.

I hope this general information is of some use to you; if you have any additional questions, please call me at 404-507-6795. The brief phone consultation is free. I wish you the best.

I would definitely file for a protective order for yourself and on behalf of your daughter. I am not sure what is going on with your divorce, but I would hope you have an attorney to assist you. A major concern would be if your wife obtains custody, would she protect your daughter from her family members. I don't know the pending custody arrangement or if there is a temporary order in place. If not, I urge you to obtain an attorney and get yourself and your daughter protected. If a temporary order was in place prior to the criminal activity on the part of your in-laws, you may want an attorney to review it and insure your daughter is protected under these circumstances.

Tahira Piraino