Legal Question in Family Law in Illinois
I live in Kentucky and my daughter lives in Illinois.
It has came to my attention that the mother of my daughter might be losing all custody rights to my daughter.
A court date is set for the mother of my daughter on June 10th 2010.
The mother of my daughter wants me to be there at the court hearing.
Sadly I cannot make this court date.
I have not received any documents or papers upon as to which I'm supposed to be at the court.
Before all of this came about, in February of 2008 I went to court and proved I am the father of my daughter in court.
My ex girlfriend was up for her rights being stripped away due to child neglect 1 and other reasons.
There was to be a follow up court date on May 13th 2008 of which the court told me not to attend because I was in Ohio at the time and there was a huge snow storm and I could not make it.
I tried to contact the DCFS person that was handling the case and she kept getting the cold shoulder for no apparent reason.
I tried getting everything resolved but everyone kept leaving me in the dark about everything and nothing came to a resolution.
Fast fwd to 2010.
About 2 months ago I got a call from my ex girlfriend and she asked me to take full custody of my daughter if she lost her rights. I said I would and contacted a member of DCFS.
The person was rude to me yet again and also lied about several things I found out to be lies.
I guess my question is this...
What can I do about all of this since I cannot make it to the court date?
If my ex girlfriend loses custody of my daughter, how can I get custody or go about gettin custody since I live in a different state.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Unless you are dead or in prison, you make the court date. If you are too busy to protect your child, you should not be given custody of a bean bag.
It may be possible for you to hire an attorney who may still have just enough time to file an Entry of Appearnce as your Attorney of Record and also a Motion for a Continuance. Due to the court date you stated, tomorrow might be the last day that these things can be done on time. It may be that your attorney could do the legal research to determine whether or not you will be entitled to custody of your child in the event that the mother's parental rights are terminated, but htis would take time. My advice would be to show up at this court date or hire an attorney. Good luck.
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