Child Abuse, Please Help (Long)

My sister pass on last September, on April my brother in law moved in a woman and her three kids to his apartment where my two nieces were living with him. Last month they all moved to Florida.
Last week I received a call from one of his friends to tell me that he was in jail, for beating his girl friend, and for me to decide what to do with the girls because he did not want them going with the girlfriend.
I spoke with the Police Oficer on scene and asked him to make sure the girls were safe and proceeded to call another adult niece and made arrangements for her to pick up the girls, which she did.
Naturally Child Services got involved and it turns out, according to the girls, that he was abusing them as well and they don't want to go back with him.
The Social Worker told my niece that she would get temporary custody of the girls, and she is due in court tomorrow (monday).
What we want to do is to petition the court so we get permanent custody and can move them back east and have them live with me and my husband.
What step should we take? Do we need a lawyer?
The girls are 12 and 9 years old.

If the father is in agreement to you having custody and them moving out of state, there should be no problem. The problem will be if he contest them being out of state. Once the children are out of state and can claim residence in another state, the father will then have to petition the courts in that state for custody and visitation. Once they cross state lines and gain residence it will be very difficult for him to get them back. This will work in your favor as long as he doesn't have an attorney and doesn't understand how the laws work. It is doubtful they would send the kids back to him, but stranger things have happend. An attorney would be the best advice.

My cousin had 2 children ages 2 and 5. She was a drugie and was classified schizophrenic. My parents tried to gain custody from a state other than that in which the children resided. My cousin was willingly going to sign over custody to my parents until the judge informed her once they went over state lines it would be hard to get them back and he would no longer have jurisdiction. She backed out. Over the last several years she has lost and regained custody so many times we've lost count. One is an adult now, the other is in high school. They have seen so much....from there mother getting beat within a inch of her life, over drugs....to watching her shoot up....the school use to call the grandmother to bring clothes to school because the kids hadn't had a bath in days and had urinated in there clothes and slept in them.....the list goes on.

Get and attorney to fight for the kids!!!

Good luck and God bless.

Paula