Legal Question in Family Law in New Mexico

My husband and I moved to New Mexico 9 months ago. After 4 months I moved back to Las Vegas with my 2 children ages 3 & 5 for a trial separation. My husband wanted to see the kids so we decided to meet in Arizona and he would take them for a 2 week visit. Two days later he informed me he filed for custody and the kids were to stay in New Mexico. I moved to Illinois and am currently living with my sister. I recieved Divorce/Child Custody papers on 9/28/09, they were filed in New Mexico on 8/20/09. The letter from my husbands attorney states I have 30 days to agree or I will default and my husband will be awarded full custody. First, 30 days from when I received the papers or when filed? If filed I am already in default. The papers state we will split the property and have joint custody with him as the primary with visitation to be determined at a later date. I dont know what to do and don't have the resources to hire an attorney. I just want to be sure that since I live out of state I will get visitation during the summer and spring/winter breaks(no school). I am afraid my husband and his lawyer will pull another fast one and try to set up visits that are not possible ( ex: every other weekend). Could you suggest what I need to file or do? Also do I have to go back to New Mexico to file? Thank-you for your help.


Asked on 10/02/09, 11:02 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
George Chandler Chandler Law of Los Alamos

First of all, you should beg borrow or steal to get an attorney.

The thirty days starts when you are served. You can file an answer by mail or FAX (most NM courts will accept FAX filings) in which you respond to the petition paragraph by paragraph. The property split and child custody arrangements he suggested are proposals, that you can negotiate. You can put your counter-proposals in your answer. You can get forms at www.legalfacs.org, a New Mexico website, or supremecourtlawlibrary.org/forms. There is no form for the Answer, it just uses the same heading as the Petition with Answer as the title and then respond to the Petition paragraph by paragraph. You can also contact the attorney and attempt to negotiate with him/her. But don't miss the 30 day deadline for the answer because it's tough to recover from that (probably impossible).

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Answered on 10/07/09, 6:51 pm


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