Legal Question in Family Law in South Carolina
Custody Changes??
My fiance and his ex wife have been seperated for well over four years now, even though they have only been divorced for 2 years. He and I have been together for 2 years and five months and are engaged to be married this summer. This has infuriated his ex-wife and now she wants changes made to their court appointed custody. They share joint custody, but he is the primary. She lives with us and sees her mother every other weekend. She also has three weeks during the summer and split holidays. We have never refused her visitation. She gets all the time she was awarded and we try to accomodate any extra requests she many have. It seems that she is angry and atleast once a week she threatens us with getting a lawyer to get more time with her daughter. She is her mother, but we feel it is not in her best interest to spend more time with her. We don't want to give her this extra time simply because we fear her getting a lawyer and taking us back to court. The situations have not changed since the final divorce papers were written up. So, does she have any leg to stand on?? Even if nothing has changed , will she be able to go to court, or would a lawyer advice her against it? Please explain. We don't have the money to get and attorney.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Custody Changes??
Generally in order to change custody, one must prove that there has been a significant change of circumstances and that the change would be in the child's best interests.
However, when the parties have joint custody, the Court may be more lenient on the "change of circumstances" aspect, as the change could be that the parties no longer get along well enough for joint custody to work.
The bottom line is that she will continue to threaten and bully you as long as you allow her to do so. You may want to call her bluff and tell her if she feels that strongly, to go ahead and file. That way, she'll either shut up about it or you will have a judge decide the issue -- either way you get some peace.
If you cannot afford an attorney, you might contact legal aid to see if they can represent you at no cost. You can look in your local telephone book for their number. Good luck,
Ben Stevens
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