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Child Custody, Grandparent, Move-away

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jonr

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California / Massachusetts

First off, I'm posting here to try and get some advice on behalf of my stepson. I think this is long and complex; if you take the time to read, my thanks to you.

My stepson had a child five years ago. To give a brief snapshot of the history: he was in a very bad patch in his life at the time, and was using drugs. He met a woman with similar problems, and they had a child. The mother never took an active role in the child's life, and the mother's mother (maternal grandmother) ended up being given guardianship of the child, with the consent of both parents. My stepson and the mother broke-up within a short period after this arrangement began.

Problems rapidly emerged. The maternal grandmother neglected the child (resulting in physical injuries, extreme dental problems, etc.) and a criminals (drug dealers--and worse--who mostly associated the mother) were frequently at the grandmother's house, creating a terrible and dangerous environment.

Meanwhile, my stepson cleaned up his life. He hasn't taken drugs in over five years and understands the mistakes he made. So what happened: he hired a lawyer (I have paid for the legal costs--hence my role in this) and had the maternal grandmother's guardianship terminated, at which point custody of the child defaulted to the mother. The grandmother received some visitation rights along with the termination of the guardianship. Immediately after the guardianship was terminated, my stepson sued for sole legal and physical custody, which he succeeded in obtaining (the mother, who continues to have serious drug problems, didn't even show up in court to contest it).

My stepson's lawyer advised him that he no longer needed to provide the grandmother with visitation because all of that ended when he obtained sole custody. Nevertheless, he continued to allow the grandmother to visit with the child.

My stepson recently lost his job in Riverside California (he was in the construction industry, hurt hard by the current economy). His mother and I offered to help him out by having him move in with us and his child, out here in Massachusetts. My stepson's lawyer advised him that moving away was a good option because she said that he didn't have any visitation obligations to the grandmother and that there was nothing in any court documents restricting his relocation. So that's what he did. I'm a corporate executive with substantial resources who can help support the child with a good home, community, health care, education, etc. for as long as necessary while my stepson seeks to improve his situation by either getting new employment out here, or going back to college for a better education--and we can help him a lot more in proximity to us than we can if he's in CA.

The problem: days after he relocated to MA, the maternal grandmother found out. She filed (pro per -- she has never had a lawyer) to assert her "visitation rights" that our lawyer said she didn't have. Apparently the judge thought it had some merit because at a hearing he continued it rather than simply tossing it out...and so now it looks like our lawyer was wrong and that her visitation rights going back to the period when her guardianship was terminated (but before the mother lost all custody) might still be in effect.

We are very concerned about the situation. I'm somewhat concerned that this might be a case of legal malpractice and we need independent to look at what has transpired and find out what we should do. Or perhaps I'm just overreacting. But we're very worried because, although we'd be fine with the grandmother traveling here to visit the child as often as she likes--we're very worried about a situation in which she might now gain visitation rights that include long overnight trips to her home: historically, the grandmother has been unable to prevent the child from interacting in an unsupervised manner with the criminal associates of the mother. Example: according to the mother's own financial disclosures, she is currently living with a man with no identifiable source of income--but who has a criminal record including convictions for drug trafficking, armed robbery and theft. It makes us sick to think that the child would be exposed to this, and we know the grandmother is incapable/unwilling of preventing it from happening. The grandmother also has a history of trying to manipulate the child by frequently asking her questions like whether she'd rather live with her all the time...this will get worse in any long-duration stays.

My stepson has made bad decisions in his life. Terrible decisions. But he's also turned things around for himself in the last few years. We don't want the mother/grandmother who are still stuck in this old lifestyle to harm his child.

My feeling is that the lawyer he currently has might have given bad advice, or simply isn't on top of all the issues in this case. I also don't feel like she's being aggressive and proactive enough given the seriousness of the situation. The lawyer has not been a good communicator, acts annoyed when we ask questions, and hasn't even able to give us an understanding of what transpired at the last hearing (the one that was continued) and what the next steps should be. Again, her communication style suggests to me that there's been some legal malpractice and she knows it.

Should he look at getting new representation? Are there risks that this might only make things worse? The next hearing on the grandmother's visitation is six weeks away (back in California). Since we don't even know what the potential outcome of this hearing is (due to poor lawyer communication) we don't know if this is something we should be doing a wait-and-see on, or whether we need to act quickly to obtain more capable counsel. Is there a discrete way for us to get a "second opinion" by reviewing the court documents and case to provide an analysis of whether the case is being litigated aggressively enough?
 


sarann_h

Junior Member
My understanding is that grandparents have NO rights. I thought that was in all states, but I could be wrong. I don't see how they could make him move back for vists or send the child to her, seeing as she abused the child.
 

Ohiogal

Queen Bee
My understanding is that grandparents have NO rights. I thought that was in all states, but I could be wrong. I don't see how they could make him move back for vists or send the child to her, seeing as she abused the child.
You are wrong. Grandma was AWARDED visitation rights and those should have continued unless the court ordered that they stopped.

The stepson needs to get new counsel and quickly.
 

LdiJ

Senior Member
You are wrong. Grandma was AWARDED visitation rights and those should have continued unless the court ordered that they stopped.

The stepson needs to get new counsel and quickly.
I am not sure that the stepson necessarily needs new counsel.

Dad cannot be forced to return to CA with the child in order to facilitate visitation rights for grandma. Nor, if grandma's visitation rights remained in effect could the judge take custody away from dad for moving.

I am also not certain that grandma's visitation rights actually remained in effect. They may have, or they might not have.

However, the judge could order a long distance visitation schedule for grandma...and it very possibly could include some extended visitation for grandma in CA.
 

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