Legal Question in Family Law in Texas
PLEASE help me.
I had a little boy on Dec. 14, 2009. His father is trying to file for full custody & take him away from me. I currently have a lawyer, but I can't afford to give him anymore money; I just don't have it!! Here is the situation:
On April 5th 2010 the father filed a temporary order. On April 12th; 2010; the following Mon. we had court. The judge ordered me temporary custody, gave him supervised visitation, ordered him to take a drug test by 4pm that afternoon & ordered him to pay child support. He tested positive for marijuana so we went back to court the following day; April 13, 2010. His attorney was in my face screaming at me calling me an over protective mom, controlling etc. The judge said that he knew he would test positive, because he could tell just by looking at him, but he wanted to see how he did during this time & denied our order to extend visitation until he could pass a drug test. Today; April 15, 2010 my lawyer called & said his lawyer wants a bunch of paperwork & it's gonna cost me an additional 2,500. on top of the 3,500. I just paid him on Sun. April 11, 2010???? I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't have an additional 2,500. I barely came up with the 3,500. now he needs more. I'm trying to provide for my son!! The father of my little boy & I were never married so there is no divorce involved, but he is emotionally abusive & his environment isn't safe!! My little boy is 4 months old now & he has not been sick a day in his life; not even a sniffle. He's never had a diaper rash & doesn't even spit up like most babies do at this age. I take him to his pediatrician for every appt. He's current on all of his shots. He's chubby & smiles ALL the time. He is a VERY happy baby & the love of my entire world. If he has to go to the father he will be around drinking, smoking, drug use, partying etc. He doesn't have a car or a Tx. license to even take him to the hospital in an emergency or dr. appts. etc. When he drinks; which is daily. He is stumbling around & can't hold his own self up much less be able to care for my son. His lawyers defense is that he's a young man & of course he's going to drink & have marijuana in his system & that may be acceptable to her, but IT IS NOT acceptable for my child & I don't want him around it. I want him involved in his life. I have even made several attempts to try & contact him to visit with our son. I've even offered to come & pick him up & us take him to the park so he could spend time with him, but his excuse is that he's asleep. I've offered for him & his family to come to my house & spend time with him; which they've done twice & once we met at a restaurant, but the father wasn't there even though his whole family showed up; he was asleep. I want my son to know his father. I'm not trying to keep him out of his life, but I have to know my son will be safe with him when he's in his care. I'm not trying to be controlling I'm trying to think of my sons well being & at this time I don't feel he'll be safe with him. I've tried contacting legal services to try & get some help, but NO ONE can help me because I currently have a lawyer. I don't know what to do. I have to protect my child, but I don't have the money top keep paying out every time they want to be spiteful. I'm worried if I lose my current lawyer that's not going to look good in court & then if I do lose him & I can't find anyone to help me what am I going to do without a lawyer?? PLEASE HELP!!! Any advice or direction is greatly appreciated. Thank you.
1 Answer from Attorneys
You are not in my area of Texas. PLEASE don't call me because I am unwilling to accept any pro bono cases at this time.
You need to raise money with your friends and family. You need to have a garage sale or whatever to get money. Many people go to their church and many churches help their congregants with fundraising events.
This website is NOT the appropriate place to answer the questions that you are asking. I doubt that any attorney will attempt to answer the questions that you are asking. The questions are you asking are just too complex to attempt to answer via email.
My heart breaks for you, but you need an attorney to assist you.
You can look for a free (pro bono) attorney to help you. However, most of the free services are overwhelmed with requests for services. You have a complex case and most attorneys are not going to take this case for free.
You definately need an attorney because the father of this child has an attorney. Obviously, somehow he was able to come up with money to fight for his child. Therefore, I highly recommend that you find the money to fight for your child.
In Texas, if you are pro se (representing yourself) you are required to know the law. The Judge is unable to give you legal advice from the bench. When the judge went on the bench he/she agreed to no longer practice law.
The Texas Family Code is available on-line. Plus most counties also have something called LOCAL RULES. You must know both of these laws. There are also rules called RULES OF EVIDENCE. Many counties have law libraries. I suggest that you see if your county has a law library or law school so that you can go and learn something about family law. You might also want to sit in family law and observe other hearings to begin to understand how this judge tends to rule in his court.
Unfortunately, you chose a crummy person to reproduce with. You are stuck with this man as the father of your child.
BUT, REMEMBER -- YOU CHOSE THIS MAN TO BE THE FATHER OF YOUR CHILD.
If he was such a bad person, the judge is probably thinking -- why did you have a relationship with this man? If this man is such a bad person, this makes you look bad. And, don't claim that you did not know that he was a bad person. You made a bad decision that you now have to live with the rest of your life.
In Harris County last year, one judge got so fed up, that she put the baby in CPS custody because the got tired of the parents fighting each other. Now CPS has custody of the baby and both parents are trying to figure out how to get custody back from that agency. If CPS gets involved, generally they will keep the baby for months in their custody.
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