Renegotiating my case.

[Stiffler30132]

Hello, my name is Steven and I currently reside inn Georgia. So starting about 5 years ago I've had visitation rights for my daughter (she turns right in January). So I'm court ordered to pay child support every month and have never missed a payment. Now, my visitation legally is that I get my daughter Ella every other weekend. That lasted about a year, then I started getting her every weekend. At that time I saw no reason to go through the hassle of more court hearings so i saw no reason to change anything. Well eventually every weekend turned into 50/50 time between me and her mother. Well now her mother has had to leave her parents house because she says they are emotionally abusive and didn't feel like it was in our daughters best interest to stay there. So I've been taking care of my daughter full time for going on three months now. Her mother now has no job, no place to stay, and no idea when she will be stable again. So since I'm court ordered to pay child support im really starting to feel the financial burden because I'm still having to pay child support even though I have my daughter full time. It's frustrating because her mom doesn't want to talk about giving me custody. But is fine with me paying her every month. In my eyes she's stealing money that's supposed to be going to our daughter.

So I'm just wondering what steps I need to take to renegotiate my current situation.

Thanks, steven.

 

[CTU]

Hello, my name is Steven and I currently reside inn Georgia. So starting about 5 years ago I've had visitation rights for my daughter (she turns right in January). So I'm court ordered to pay child support every month and have never missed a payment. Now, my visitation legally is that I get my daughter Ella every other weekend. That lasted about a year, then I started getting her every weekend. At that time I saw no reason to go through the hassle of more court hearings so i saw no reason to change anything. Well eventually every weekend turned into 50/50 time between me and her mother. Well now her mother has had to leave her parents house because she says they are emotionally abusive and didn't feel like it was in our daughters best interest to stay there. So I've been taking care of my daughter full time for going on three months now. Her mother now has no job, no place to stay, and no idea when she will be stable again. So since I'm court ordered to pay child support im really starting to feel the financial burden because I'm still having to pay child support even though I have my daughter full time. It's frustrating because her mom doesn't want to talk about giving me custody. But is fine with me paying her every month. In my eyes she's stealing money that's supposed to be going to our daughter.

So I'm just wondering what steps I need to take to renegotiate my current situation.

Thanks, steven.

Timing might be your biggest question.

You can file to modify custody now, based on you essentially having custody for the past three months. Some judges will prefer a status quo of 6 months or more, and some will be fine with 3 months; there's really no guarantee which way it will swing. Mom will likely fight tooth and nail though if it means she won't get child support and would likely end up paying you child support instead so as far as that goes, the longer the situation stays the same as it is now the better. You'll need to argue that your daughter is settled, happy and thriving with the current arrangement and it would not be in her best interests to be uprooted at this point.

If it were me, I'd probably hold on for another 3 months - even if I'm paying child support.

Having said that, you should get a consultation with a local attorney who can give you an idea of how your judge/s tend to rule.