Legal Question in Family Law in New Mexico

My Daughter in law has pasted away. My son is the father of the 2 minor children he is in jail and will move to a rehab hospital. As surviving spouse he would like to give us custody My daughter in law lived with her family now for a year . And committed suicide the children lived with us 5 years of there life. She was separated from her family for 11years and wanted nothing to do with them we filed for visitation and now we are amending our plea to Guardianship and custody the court add a guardian et liedum and they are holding the children at the house of an aunt against my sons wishes.


Asked on 3/18/14, 8:06 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

George Chandler Chandler Law of Los Alamos

I'm not sure what your question is. Looks like you're in court and the court has put the children in the custody of the aunt. Court will have the ultimate say about custody, Father can state his preference, but in this situation, with father unable to take custody, the court will likely rely heavily on the Guardian ad Litem to help it determine the best interests of the child.

If you want custody you should make your best case to the court that you should have custody but bear in mind that the court is not interested in what the father wants or what the mother did or wanted but rather what is best for the child, including maintaining any strong bonds with other family members. Your arguments should demonstrate to the court that the child would be better off with you than with anybody else. Be sure to emphasize that if you get custody you will make sure that the child is able to maintain existing relationships with all his relatives, including the other grandparents and the aunt.

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Answered on 3/18/14, 11:13 am


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