Custody Modification

My son is almost 16, he wants to live with me. The ex is fighting it, if I am respectable and a good father can't he make the choice to live with me? I had a court date and she retained a lawyer who postponed it and had the court state that my son can't appear until after the "status hearing".
Is there anyway I can file papers to have him appear to speak his mind? His mother is verbally abusive and they are always is arguments. He and I get along so well, he and I are Christians and I teach Sunday School and very involved with the church and he loves it to.

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JB

Our situation is similiar. My husband has a child that lives in PA. He was never married to the Mother. We live in FL, and although he has shared legal custody with visitation, the Mother has not permitted the child (who is now 5 ) to visit us. We have only been allowed to see her, ander the Mothers terms, times, locations and sometimes not at all when we are up Morth. My husband has permitted this to go on far too long, and now that I am in this picture, I want him/us to have the rights we deserve. The child wants to visit us, and it is in her best interest to have a relationship with both parents. I have filed a modification of the custody oder to permit her to visit with us, and have a schedule for stability. I am hoping this does not get drawn out into a huge (& expensive battle) It all sounds a little too simple, just fill out a request to modify, and it will be heard by a mediator. Does anyone have comments on this as to what I should expect? Also, he was told by the Mother that the child could not legally leave the state until she was 5. I cannot find information to substantiate this.
Any thoughts?

Thru my research I haven't found any age limit(as far as Indiana goes) for a child to go out of state for visitation. The non-custodial parent has the right for such visitation. She wants to manipulate and control the child and you two.
I wouldn't hire a lawyer, you can do most paperwork on your own, but being so far away and different states it sounds best if you got one involved. Good Luck.


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JB