Legal Question in Family Law in Texas

my name is jerry and my son, his common law wife and son lived with till a month ago when his girlfriend had a breakdown and fled about 100 miles. she has lived with us for 9 years, shawn was brought from hospital to our house by me as ashto0n had to stay 2 days more. shawn was raised by my wife and i. we attend every school and sports function with him. i coach his soccer team and race go karts together. she fled to her moms in lindale. no notice, she did not withdraw from svhool, take his clothes or asthma and allergy meds. she is a compulsive lier. now she tells shawn we do not love him{heard while on phone} nor want to see him, she tells him and us we will kidnap him, never. scott (dad) can not see him, she even refuses a father day visit or phone call. she tells people my younger son and i beat her. all lies. scott, my wife and i feel she is unfit, and her mom has a large untrained dog. (a danger) which has attacked my mother. what can we do. file for custody (scott of course) sole, joint, court compel her to return to shawns county of residence(tarrant) , we will file forms pro se. atty will be retained for court, what should our next step. and an atty that is reasonable and GOOD. my wife and i are in a trance. scott can not get happy, i love that boy and never tried to take parents place. also they are considered common law married and divorce is required , they put scott on birth cert as dad. he is. i am lost, hurt and scared for shawn. she talks about us to and in front of him. I have coached kids soccer for 16 years, been in arlington for 30 years. do not do drugs, drink, run around (married 33 years). Thank you for your time. Jerry Bradley, Beth and Scott. 817-363-6922


Asked on 6/28/15, 8:15 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Thomas Daley KoonsFuller PC

Your son should immediately do two things:

File a petition for divorce in Tarrant County and go get his child. He has equal rights to the child as of now. He should also ask the court for a temporary restraining order preventing either parent from removing the child from Tarrant County or holding the child out of Tarrant County for the purpose of changing the child's primary residence. When he gets the TRO, the judge will schedule a hearing to occur within 14 days and he should be able to get the child back by court order at that hearing if he didn't get him back sooner.

You should file a petition in intervention based on sections 102.003(a)(9) and 102.004 of the Texas Family Code. Your petition will be adverse to your son's, but that allows you to go after the kidnapping mom from two directions.

I know you want to do the filings yourself and then hire a lawyer for courtroom appearances. That only works in calmer cases than this. Here you have a very serious problem on your hands and playing lawyer on your own will result in a disappointing outcome.

You've been a blessing in this child's life--now is time to engage in an aggressive campaign to continue taking care of him.

Good luck!!

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Answered on 8/08/15, 5:57 am


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