I am looking for an attorney. My eight year old granddaughter has lived with me all her life. Her father was paying $300 a month child support for a while, but has not paid in three months. We did not have a court order. I do not have legal custody because I did not want to go through the expense. I had legal custody but later found out it was temporary and needed to be renewed every year. Now I would like to have everything go through the courts and not have to deal with him directly. I know the first step is to get an attorney. Her father has eluded to taking her. I know he really doesn't want her but might try to get her anyway. He is in the military in another state. She barely knows him and has never spent much time with him. He doesn't call her, write her or anything. I guess I just need to hear from someone else that has faced a similar problem and get a recommendation for an attorney. TIA
Good morning B.! I have a child hood friend and her dad is an AWESOME attorney... he actually helped me with my divorce... he is very informative and gets things done in a very timely matter.... His name is Lee Motley ###-###-####... this is his cell number! Just let him know that I gave you his number! Hope everything works out for you and your Granddaughter! God Bless!
Call John Haugen at the Haugen Law Firm at ###-###-####, www.haugenfamilylaw.com, he is former military himself so he'll know what to do to accomplish your goals best. You need to make all your papers official or it's going to cause problems later, regardless of the child support issue. He can come any time and take her. Or when she becomes a rebellious teenager, you'll have no leverage or authority, the list goes on... Best wishes and God bless!
Sounds like you may no longer have custody legally? Just he has left her w/you? See if TX is a state that has de facto laws - that might really help you!
(and the military would be making darn sure his support was paid!)
If you can get a child support order, and he doesn't pay it, then I have heard (in previous messages on this forum) that you can contact his commanding officer who will make darn sure it happens. Good luck!
Ask the attorney who did the guardianship agreement to please check the laws. If he had the guardianship moved to the different court, like from general court to family court or vice versa you never have to go back to court again. I also do not believe it stops being legal at the end of one year. The court must me involved for a court order to be stopped.
We had the same issue in Oklahoma. We went back at the end of the first year, showed documentation the kids were being taken care of, that we had spent their child support on the proper things, that they were attending school, etc...and then after the judge said good, let's set a date in one year our attorney said something along the lines of "this family has shown they are able and willing to provide acceptable care for these children and we ask that the court move this case to XXX court so the family does not have to pay additional court fees......" and a lot more about the hardships it would be for us to have to return each year. So he granted it and we have not been back in 5 years.
ALL guardianship is temporary. ALL the parent has to do is go to court, file the paperwork, ask for a hearing, ask the judge to terminate the guardianship, if the judge says they have to show they are now able to provide the proper environment, etc...then the judge will say yes or no.
Once that issue is resolved you will have the legal right to go to child support enforcement and request they seek the court ordered child support that the attorney would request. They will seek it and have it deducted from his pay check before he gets paid.
If he has lost his job there isn't anything they can do to make him have one. He may be looking every day but the economy is horrible. I would make sure that he knows you need to know when he isn't going to be able to pay so that you can budget for it. I let my grand kids dads know that right off the bat. The one always sends me an email but he is a steady worker and I can say I can bank on that money coming every week but I truly try to live without expecting it and count it as a bonus for groceries and other stuff like pizza night or something like that. I do need the money and it is a huge chunk of our food budget but if I store food properly and buy up when things are on sale then if there is not money that week I do have enough food, maybe not a lot of fresh stuff but enough canned ravioli and spaghetti O's to feed an army. My daughter has never paid a penny and is now on state assistance,
So, to make a long story short...find the original attorney and find out about doing the guardianship thing then in a year requesting it be moved to the other kind of court. Once that is done he would have to spend tons of money to hire his own attorney and then pay for yours, etc...to terminate the guardianship.
Every family situation has special circumstances and that is why you need a lawyer that specializes in Family Law. I am in a business goup with a great lawyer named Jill Setzer and she only does Family Law. She is very straight forward and has helped many people in our group. Let her know that I referred you. Call her today ###-###-####
B., being in your situation would scare me every single day of my life. The father can walk in at any time and say "thanks so much, see you later" and take her!
I don't have any recommendations for an attorney in your area but you have to obtain guardianship. I did when my niece (now daughter) was an infant and did not have to renew it and was fine until she was adopted by us. During that time my sister did try to reverse it but we were found to be in the best interest of the child. Very early on (prior to guardianship) she did show up and demand that I "give her her f-ing baby" and I had to. Heartbreaking!!
