child custody

texas is our residence. oklahoma is now our grandaughters residence. Our son who was a single parent ,he and childs mother were never married. He had been raising our grandaughter for 20 months when he was killed. The mother immidiately came forward on day of sons death. Texas court granted joint managing conservitorship to my husband and I with the childs mother. She had physical custody we had very liberal visitation. The judge told us we stepped into our sons shoes at his death. The mother has rarely allowed us our visitation, recently her mother (maternal grandmother) is seeking custody of the child stating the mother has abandonded her child (our granddaughter).We feel that we should have custody not the maternal grandmother. the mother ,our grandaughter and the maternal grandaughter are members of an Indian tribe. Did my husband and I truley step into our sons shoes ? What chance do we have for custody of our grandaughter?

joseph fox said:

texas is our residence. oklahoma is now our grandaughters residence. Our son who was a single parent ,he and childs mother were never married. He had been raising our grandaughter for 20 months when he was killed. The mother immidiately came forward on day of sons death. Texas court granted joint managing conservitorship to my husband and I with the childs mother. She had physical custody we had very liberal visitation. The judge told us we stepped into our sons shoes at his death. The mother has rarely allowed us our visitation, recently her mother (maternal grandmother) is seeking custody of the child stating the mother has abandonded her child (our granddaughter).We feel that we should have custody not the maternal grandmother. the mother ,our grandaughter and the maternal grandaughter are members of an Indian tribe. Did my husband and I truley step into our sons shoes ? What chance do we have for custody of our grandaughter?

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Jurisdiction is going to be a big factor in your case..

If the Indian Tribe gets involved and takes jurisdiction, then your chances are virtually nil.

If the maternal grandmother has filed for custody in OK then your chances are a little better and it may come down to how long the MG has been involved. Since Texas rarely gives up jurisdiction these days, your approach should be to petition the OK court and state that Texas has jurisdiction and it should be referred back to the original court. If you lose this, then you file your own custody petition to this case.

If nothing has been filed, then you should file a petition in the original county court that gave the original decision. Your chances of success are much better there since they had already recognized you as a large part of the child’s life.

Messy situation..