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Do I have enough to file for a custody modification?

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What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Indiana

I would like to file for physical custody of my daughter. Last year her dad was awrded ohysical custody after I had had it for 8 years. We had a horrible long hearing that spanned months. Our custody evaluation took almost 4 years. It was awful. My attorney did not use all of our evidence, and failed to present my case effectively. She also failed to file for a motion to present facts and findings, so our CO was unaoppealable due the way the judge wrote it. My attorney left town when the order ca,e in, and called me the last possible day to submit the appeal. She told me that she had the notice of appeal written, but that I'd never win, and she would withdraw if I filed. I spoke to several attornies about the judges order before my attorney told me this. They all told me that I'd never win an appeal because of the lack of facts and findings, so I choose to not appeal.

When our daughter moved in with her dad she was reading above grade level, and getting straight A's. Her dad also told the court that he wanted to raise her in the Catholic Faith, and that I was treating our daughter for a medical condition that he didn't believe she had.

Our daughter does have serious allergies and was prescribed 4 medications when her dad took her to the doctor. He refuses to give her the medication. As he did when I had sole custody. My daughter and her dad do not go to church anymore since the custody hearing is over. She is not being raised a Catholic.

The biggest change is that our daughter is falling behind in school. She is in 3rd grade, and is reading at a second grade level. She is having a hard time with her school work. The principal is willing to communicate with me, but the teacher is not helpful. She knows Stepmom, becasue she has another child in the school.

Dad tells our daughter that she must call stepmom Mom, and stepmom refers to herself as Mom. I have notes written to my daughter by her that she signed Mom.

Dad told our daughter that she has 2 choices, that he doesn't want her. Our daughter was told that she can live with him and see me EOW and during the week, or she can live with me, but she will never see him again. I don't have anyway to prove that...

For those of you who will ask why Dad got custody.... The Evaluator recommended it. I left him when our daughter was 6 months old. I was tired of being beaten,. and one night he knocked me out temporarily. I had him arrested. Several months later he assaulted me at a visitation. I had him arrested again. He pled guilty to the charges, and he was sentenced to a suspended sentence and fine. He now claims that he never laid a hand on me except in self defense! He is very convincing. So the evaluator said that in her opinion I made up the abuse, and coerced friends in the local police dept. into arresting him. I don't have any friends in the local police dept. I am a victim of DV, and I am also concerned that he is exposing our daughter to DV. I hope he is not beating his new wife infront of our little girl, but I don't know.

Anyways, do I have enough of a change in circumstance to file for a custody modification? We haven't been to court yet, but dad refused to allow me the first right of refusal for 2 days in June. I hope that the court finds him in contempt. I know that would give me more.
 


LdiJ

Senior Member
You may have enough to justify filing for a custody modification. However, jursidiction is not going to change, and that same evaluation report is probably going to be brought up by the opposing attorney, and you will likely be in front of the same judge.

In addition, anything that happened prior to the last modification, won't be considered in this modification, only those things that have happened since.

You will need a good attorney, and NOT the attorney that you had the first time around. The previous evaluator should have been impeached because the evaluator came to conclusions completely unsupported by the hard evidence.

I am still shaking my head that an evaluator would have the nerve to say that an actual CONVICTION for DV was based on false evidence. An arrest that did not result in a conviction possibly yes, but not a conviction.
 
The attorney I had at the time tried to impeach the evaluator, but the judge wouldn't do anything. I wanted another evaluation, but the judge wou;dn't do that either. She was not the judge who ordered the evaluation. We have a special judge, because we were moved out of the family courts by my attorney when she requested a change of venue.

If nothing prior to the last custody hearing can be brought up at a hearing for a new petition to modify then how could my ex's attorney bring up the evaluation?
 
Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions? Between all listed above and the 5 mintue phone calls do I have a case?

BTW - My ex has an attorney, a BAD attorney. Another attorney said in front of me that they can't believe the attorney I had actually lost a case none the less to the other attorney. I guess she has a BAD win record. If she is a bad attorney would I have a chance representing myself? She is underhanded and sneaky.
 

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