Legal Question in Family Law in Georgia

Re: Custody Modification

There are two events you need to prepare for if the child's mother should magically re-appear: 1. a Contempt action and/or 2. Criminal Interference with Custody. Both require a willful/knowing intent, malice, and so on. You dont seem, by your telling at least, to be intentionally withholding custody. Certainly, the mother's erractic behavior is not earning her any points with the judge she will in time have to explain her actions to.

But, if the mother does wonder in from the desert, Im sure she will have a much different slant on the whole situation. If she doesnt then you have no problem with her. Except for the realization that literally anything could happen when she has custody. Maybe the next time she drops out of the world, she has your daughter with her. If you are truly worried about the mother�s behavior then you need to act to protect your daughter against a potential threat to her health and safety. If you were truly worried, then you would know that it isn�t in your daughter�s best interest for this to continue.

So you can best prepare yourself then by establishing a body of evidence [the bigger the better...the person it keeps out of jail may be yourself...] showing your attempts at contacting her, etc. You should be the model of good sportsmanship in all aspects of this. You abiding by your custody order would appear currently impossible and you should be able to gather plenty of documentation to prove it, if that becomes necessary. You should also try to find out what happened to mother--nervous breakdown?, rehab.?, suicide? That answer could have a large impact on course of action.

Finally, you need to seriously consider starting a modification action, perhaps on an immediate or emergency basis, to establish primary physical custody of the child.

Best of luck. PAS