Custody & Support

My brother and ex-sister-in-law were divorced just over 4 yrs ago. My brother was awarded sole-physical custody, with supervised visitation and joint legal custody. His ex was diagnosed with manic depression, she attempted to commit suicide 2 times (once while she was home alone with the 2 sons, at the time aged 2 yrs and 6 months, luckily she didn't do anything to them). His attorney, at the time, told him to not ask for child support, so she would not ask for alimony. He was told that he could, in the future, go back to court and ask for child support, but her rights to alimony would be terminated once she waived them. His attorney told him, that if he ever did go to get child support, she may get unsupervised visitation. Over the past 4 years, she has not bothered to show up to proabley about 70% of her visitations (for a long time, she claimed she didn't have a car to get there, however she lived 3 blocks from my brother, court has allowed him to be the supervisor). My question is...was the attorney correct when he said she would proabley get unsupervised & overnight visitation with my nephews, if my brother took her back to court for child support? $ was not an issue for him until recently since the boys are getting older and wanting to be more involved in sports and such. My brother does not feel that it is safe for them to be with her unsupervised, due to the manic depression, her mother (who she lives with) threatened to kidnap the kids and she is currently living in a 2 bedroom apartment with her mother, her boyfriend, their son, her boyfriends 3 kids, her mothers boyfriend and herself. We live in California.

Yes, he can petition the courts for child support. There's no reason the courts would not order it. On the issue of visitation, tell your brother to document everytime she has visitation with the boys, this will help to show her real interest in their lives. She in return can at anytime ask for revision on visitation, wether or not he asks for child support. Doesn't sound like this is something she would really want, since she doesn't use the visitation priveleges she has now. Especially considering her living arrangements. If she were to do this, your brother can request the court to order a psychological evaluation to be done, and that no unsupervised visitation take place until the evaluation is complete and heard by the court. With her past history in this area, and her current living arrangments, I don't think your brother will have to worry. More than likely, she will not want to be put through the evaluation, nor will she want to hire an attorney, sounds like there is not much money avalible to her. Does she work? If she does, and your brother gets an order for support, he needs to request wage assignment. That way the CS is taken out before she ever gets her check. If she does not work, he may get the order for support, but it is going to be hard to collect. The courts don't go after dead beat moms like they do the dads. The courts are a little bias in this area.

Good luck and God Bless!