Aunt needs help

[babydoll_is]

What is the name of your state? Arkansas
My sixteen year old neice has been living with me since July of 2005. Prior to moving in with me, she had lived with her father for the 2 years since her parent's divorce. While living with her father, she was hospitolized for self-mutilation, suspended from school for fighting, and failing school. Her mother has been unable to afford a lawyer to get her back so I asked if she could live with me. He dumped her belongings off in my garage, moved away and has only seen her a few times since. My sister is consistently paying child support to her ex-husband for my neice. How is this fair!? He is getting child support for a child that isn't living with him. Child Support Enforcement takes money out of my sister's paychecks and he has offered us less than $200 of the money since July of 2005.
Her ex is agreeing to sign my neice over to her mother. How can we get this done legally without actually going through the expense of a lawyer and court fees?

 

[LdiJ]

What is the name of your state? Arkansas
My sixteen year old neice has been living with me since July of 2005. Prior to moving in with me, she had lived with her father for the 2 years since her parent's divorce. While living with her father, she was hospitolized for self-mutilation, suspended from school for fighting, and failing school. Her mother has been unable to afford a lawyer to get her back so I asked if she could live with me. He dumped her belongings off in my garage, moved away and has only seen her a few times since. My sister is consistently paying child support to her ex-husband for my neice. How is this fair!? He is getting child support for a child that isn't living with him. Child Support Enforcement takes money out of my sister's paychecks and he has offered us less than $200 of the money since July of 2005.
Her ex is agreeing to sign my neice over to her mother. How can we get this done legally without actually going through the expense of a lawyer and court fees?

Go down to the courthouse in the county/state that has jurisdiction. Get the forms to petition to modify custody. Fill them out. Make sure that child support is addressed. Both parents need to sign off on them. File them with the courts and wait for a court date. Court fees will have to be paid.

Or....be smart and use an attorney to draw up an agreement and submit it to the courts. If both parents are in agreement the cost should be reasonable. Maybe even less than what your sister would pay in child support while the case muddles through the system while she is trying to do it herself.