Son has a change of heart

my husband is the non-custodial parent in florida of his 12yr old son. He does have joint custody..for the last 8 years his son has been living with his mom. Now he wants to live with his father and asked for a meeting between both sets of parents. His mom refused the meeting unless he reveals what its about. He knows she'll be very angry, and has not told her yet. what should we do next. Do we have to go to court for this? Or do we get a mediator?

[LegalBeagle]

The first step is for the child to tell his mother what is going on and then see what happens. If you suddenly serve her with custody papers or force her into mediation (which you can not do anyway) then you will make it worse.

If after telling his mother he wants to live with his father she point blank refuses, then discuss it with the child and make him realise that the only way forward is full court action. You then have to decided what you want to do.

To be honest, unless the child has a really good reason, a judge is unlikely to take the evidence of a 12 year old and change custody.