Legal Question in Family Law in Minnesota

I want to know what my chances are of fileing for custody for my 4yr. old son? His mother currently has physical custody, and we share legal custody. However, his Mother is mentally ill and has been place on 72 hr holds twice in the last year alone. She has Borderline Personality Disorder, and has a long history of depression, self mutilation, and eating disorders. She is very active in our sons life and technichly does provide food, shelter, and clothing. Our son has a rare disease and she is very proactive with this also, but I do have serious reason to belive that she purposely keeps him ill in order to maintain controll and to recieve attention from doctors and nurses. This is a prime example of how manipulative a borderline can be.Ofcourse I know proving this would be incredibly difficult, but I would also like to supeana all of her medical, psych, and therapy records to exploit how crazy and dangerous she can be. I myself do not have any legal or mentall health issues. I also have obtained coppies from a journal of hers that states how depressed and angry she is with the world. It also states that she is very scared that our son will grow up to hate her. I found a burn on my sons hand a year ago and did take pictures of it. She said that he got it in his crib one night and that she didnt know what it was. this was one day before she checked herself into a hospital for evealuation. I did take our son to a doctor who did concur that it was indeed a burn and this doctor also informed social services on my behalf. Please tell me what stratagies I should use to overturn this in court, and when to do so. Thank you.


Asked on 5/22/12, 3:22 pm

2 Answer from Attorneys
Christian Peterson Christian Peterson Law Office

There are thirteen factors that courts use to determine with whom custody is appropriate. When looking to modify custody, there is an elevated standard of proof depending on how long ago custody was last decided. It's such a complicated issue that it's impossible to give a full opinion on in a forum like this.

The one opinion I can give you is that your chances of modifying custody by yourself are slim to none. It's something you need to hire an attorney to represent you on.

For a phone consultation call 612-269-1902

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Answered on 5/22/12, 6:11 pm


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