Legal Question in Family Law in New Mexico
I have two minor children one 14 years and the other 17 years old, I am divorced from their father since 2001. He has court ordered visitation but has not exercised his right to see or contact the boys he does call me but only to ask me to come back to him. He used to pay his court ordered child support but has not paid anything since 2009. He is a very severe alcoholic and violent when he drinks towards me and the boys which is why we divorced. He has very large child support arrearages and I recently grew tired of waiting for him to fulfill his obligations to the boys financially so I have filed in the courts to force him to honor his support order. He is now claiming he will simply take the boys away and dosent care what or how he has to do it, my family from which I do not associate has agreed to help him, and taunted me relentlessly that "It donest matter weather its true or not (My aunt works for CPS and can simply make them believe as she likes" My kids are healthy, happy, very well adjusted, and they don't want to see their biological father the man I have been with for over 13 years is whom they both call Dad because he has always been their dad. I don't know what to do.
1 Answer from Attorneys
First, I suggest you see an attorney. Your issues are quite complex because you are addressing both child support and 'potentially' re-introduction of dad to the children. In that matter, "visitation" may not be as easy for dad as he or your aunt states. The law allows any child over the age of 14 to address the court as to any visitation schedule that is being addressed by the court. Thus, your children can each tell the judge what kind of visitation they would like to see dad get or not get. And, they can tell the judge why they feel or believe the way they do. This does not mean that they get to dictate what the visitation will be but it does mean that the judge will hear them out and will seriously take into consideration what they say.
Second, if you are going to address this matter on your own there are several directions from which to approach this matter. You can go and see an attorney in your town (or in a nearby town) and hire that attorney to draw up the paperwork for you and then you represent yourself in the matter. Alternatively, you can hire an attorney to represent you fully in the matter. They changed the rules for attorneys some years ago and allow them to engage in "piece-meal' work; i.e., just parts of a case and not the entire matter.
Third, as to the child support ~ dad is on the downhill side of that argument. If he says anything to you about it just tell him to tell it to the judge. He is going to owe a lot of back child support if he has not been paying all the years that you stated in your question.
Hope this helps.
Las Guru
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