Legal Question in Family Law in Virginia

Custody

My fiance's ex wife currently has physical custody of their 2 daughters. She is living with her partner. Both of them are bipolar/schizophrenic & have been in & out of the mental hospital several times. The problem is that he has never been notified of these occurances until well after the fact - well past the time frame he legally has to petition for an emergency transfer of custody. He recently went through a lengthy custody battle this past year. The guardian ad liduem never came out to visit our home, never came to interview us at all. She did go visit their home & chewed them out for neither of them having a job-they both receive ''disability'' checks from the state due to their ''illness.'' Yet the guardian feels the 2 women are ''ok'' so long as they are taking their meds & ruled they should not be removed. We just recently found out the mother was arrested & given suspended jail time for tresspassing - we were not aware of this either. What can we do to be notified when she is arrested or locked up in the mental ward? She had free legal respresentation - we could not afford to continue paying the outrageous attorney fees to continue fighting. She still has physical, but we have better visitation than before.


Asked on 9/19/07, 4:50 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Michael Hendrickson Law Office Michael E. Hendrickson

Re: Custody

If your fiance recently "went through a lengthy custody battle this past year" in which his issues were presumably put before the court, then there's no point in going back anytime soon to reargue them, absent a very dramatic material change in the circumstances of the case with respect to the mother or children which could affect the best interests of the latter.

The better approach would be for him to keep a careful chronolgy(written record)of any events/happenings which would seem to be adverse to these children's best interests and then see an attorney who deals with custody matters in about two years or so, and who should be able to advise him as to what might be feasible in terms of a new custody action at that time.

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Answered on 9/20/07, 10:54 am


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