Legal Question in Family Law in New York
I am a divorced mother living in NY. My ex (who lives in Wyoming) has physical custody of our two children, both 12 years old (we have joint legal custody). They came to visit me this summer, and my daughter decided she wanted to stay with me and go to school here. My son wanted to go back to his father at the end of the summer, which he did. I have an affidavit signed by my ex that states my daughter can stay here until the end of December. The problem now is that she does not want to go back, she wants to stay and live with me, but my ex is demanding she come back. My question is this, what rights does my daughter have? Does she have any kind of say in where she wants to live? She was arguing with her father on the phone one night about staying here, and she asked him "Don't I have any say in what happens to me, it's my life?" His answer was flat out "No you don't". She does not want to live with him because of the fact that she is ignored when she is there. She has to do almost everything for herself, except for cooking once in a while. Her and her brother are left alone while their father goes to work for approximately 13-15hrs at a time, with almost no way to get in touch with their father should an emergency arise. Recently after another argument with her father, he sent her a text message on her phone that contained an obscene photo, it was of a girl barely dressed, and a man dressed as Santa with his head buried in her crotch with a caption that said "F*&K cookies". He claims it was accidental, but regardless, I do not feel it is appropriate and want to know if that can be used as evidence to help in my efforts to keep her here. I am in the process of filing papers to have her stay here, family court told me that jurisdiction falls to where the child lives if she has been here 6 months and she has been here since July. I just want to know what my daughters rights are and what if any say she has in where she wants to live. I do not feel the environment she would be living in with her father is healthy and borders on neglect. Thank you for your time.
1 Answer from Attorneys
You will probably have to file in Wyoming, also, it will likely do permanent damage to separate the siblings, especially if they are twins. The court will listen to the children, as they are old enough to have some imput. Perhaps you should consider shared custody of both and not separating teh siblings. Good luck!
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