Legal Question in Family Law in Virginia

My wife and I have been married for just under 10 years. I have learned recently of her escapades with several other men both online and physically though none with physical evidence. She has been involuntarily admitted to a psych ward for drug overdose therapy and is abusing again. She has also been observed by our 5 children filling up a thermos with beer or wine and then getting behind the wheel to drive to church. She does very little for the children and very little in her life other than talk to all of her significant others (not me) on the phone. She has also invited a man that she met off the internet into our home when the children were home.

My questions are these:

Is the above grounds for a Protective order to be issued, whether it be emergency, preliminary, or final? I feel that there is definitely mental harm being done to the kids and believe there to be a great potential for physical harm to the kids.

The three older children are my wife's from her previous marriage. I have been raising them now for over ten years so they all have spent a majority of their life under my care. Their biological father desires that either himself or my wife be the ones to care for the kids but the kids would prefer to live with me and I would like to keep the 5 kids together for some kind of normalcy. Would I have any grounds to obtain and retain custody of the three older children?


Asked on 12/29/11, 7:28 pm

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

1. No, no CPO (Civil Protection Order) based upon the evidence you've offered and under the circumstances you've described (in my opinion).

2. Whatever grounds for your claim of custody over your step-children might be, such grounds would likely be found to be inferior to those of their biological father

(assuming no verified facts in his background pointing to his unfitness

to parent these children).

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Answered on 12/29/11, 8:22 pm


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