Legal Question in Family Law in Virginia
Getting joint custody FROM the grandparent
My husband has a 4 year old son. He has actively been in his life since he was born. The past couple years we have seen him every weekend. The mothers adoptive mother has custody of his son because when he was born my husband nor his girlfriend could take care of a child so they gave custody to the mothers adoptive mother. However she has always said that as soon as we have a room we could have custody of Landon. We just got a new house and we have a room for Landon now and she is now saying ''Youll get custody over my dead body''. My husband is a stay at home Dad taking care of our other daughter and he wants Landon to be with us too. Now shes changing her mind on everything. Nothing is in paper, no court ordered anything. She wont accept his child support either. What can we do? She has also been telling Landon that he is not allowed to love me (im his stepmother) and hes only allowed to love Daddy and his babysister and that i am not his family. She has also told him to cry whenever he comes over. She also has grown his hair out and cut bangs like a girl and has told us that if we ever cut his hair we wont be allowed to see him again. I dont know what to do from here. My husband wants his son.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Getting joint custody FROM the grandparent
Why is this so hard to figure out? Your husband as the biological father should go and get his child and bring him to his home. In the absence of a valid court order awarding custody to the grandmother, whatever informal arrangements which were made allowing this person to take custody of this child, legally mean virtually nothing.
If paternity needs to be established, your husband should file a petition with the J&DRDC to have that established along with an order giving him full custody of his son, and, perhaps, an order against the child's mother for child support.
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