Need Advice On Georgia Law

[sandysmom]

What is the name of your state?GEORGIA
My husband has a 14 year old daughter who has decided she doesn't want to come to our house for visitation. She started this the weekend her 10 year old brother came to live with us along with her 15 year old brother. She hasn't been for two months. She has never in the least seemed unhappy at our house during past visitation. She won't tell us what's wrong if anything. We don't know if it's her or her mother influencing her. When she's asked about coming to our house all she says is "I don't know" which means no she's not coming.
Our attorney say's there isn't a lot we can do about making her come. We can file contempt charges but risk having visitation denied. How is that possible? If there is any one out there familiar with Georgia law do you really think a judge would let a 14 year old girl tell her father what she is going to do. We both miss her terribly and we've told her this.

 

[legalcuriosity]

What is the name of your state?GEORGIA
My husband has a 14 year old daughter who has decided she doesn't want to come to our house for visitation. She started this the weekend her 10 year old brother came to live with us along with her 15 year old brother. She hasn't been for two months. She has never in the least seemed unhappy at our house during past visitation. She won't tell us what's wrong if anything. We don't know if it's her or her mother influencing her. When she's asked about coming to our house all she says is "I don't know" which means no she's not coming.
Our attorney say's there isn't a lot we can do about making her come. We can file contempt charges but risk having visitation denied. How is that possible? If there is any one out there familiar with Georgia law do you really think a judge would let a 14 year old girl tell her father what she is going to do. We both miss her terribly and we've told her this.

Was your attorney smoking pot at the time s/he made this comment? Your hubby can certainly tell the mom that, per the court order, the daughter IS to come for visitation. She doesn't get to choose.

A judge *might* listen to a 14-year old, but a Judge will not make a decision solely based on what the teen says. Child must go on visitation and the mother needs to do what she's supposed to to encourage that -- not discourage it.

 

[stealth2]

However.... GA does have that quirk where it pretty much allows a 14yo to decide which parent to live with (during the original custody determination). It's possible that the lawyer is aware of situations where judges extend that to making decisions regarding visitation.

 

[sandysmom]

I don't think he was smoking pot. If fact he did an excellent job in getting custody of my husband's son's. He is one of the best and well respected attorney's in town. I have done a good bit of research and have found that Georgia is the only state that will allow a 14 year old to decide whether they wish to visit with the non custodial parent with some limitation. Unless I am misunderstanding which is highly likely, it's all beginning to run together.

 

[I AM ALWAYS LIABLE]

I don't think he was smoking pot. If fact he did an excellent job in getting custody of my husband's son's. He is one of the best and well respected attorney's in town. I have done a good bit of research and have found that Georgia is the only state that will allow a 14 year old to decide whether they wish to visit with the non custodial parent with some limitation. Unless I am misunderstanding which is highly likely, it's all beginning to run together.

My response:

Georgia has many laws that other States don't have. For example, Georgia is the only state that will allow a 14 year old female to get pregnant, and no one even thinks that's strange. Also, Georgia is the only state that will allow a 14 year old to get married to their grandfather - - assuming, of course, the child even thinks about that before getting pregnant. Additionally, Georgia is the only state that will allow a 14 year old to live in a trailer park without adult supervision.

It's a wonderful State!

IAAL

 

[sandysmom]

My god. Didn't know all that.

 

[Whyte Noise]

My god. Didn't know all that.

IAAL was just being snarky. None of that is true.

Georgia is the only state that will allow a 14 year old to choose which parent is the custodial parent, and as long as that parent isn't found unfit the judge is bound to accept the child's preference and rule accordingly. There's nothing in the statutes, however, about a 14 year old choosing to go on visitation or not. Whether or not a judge would allow that custody statute to "spill over" into visitation issues, I'd simply ask the attorney. It may be that your judge does listen to them and if she said she didn't want to go, then she wouldn't have to.

Although, I kinda did the Scooby Doo head-tilt at this comment you made:

"We can file contempt charges but risk having visitation denied."

If she isn't coming to your house anyways, would it really matter if visitation was denied? You'd just file more contempt charges unless and until a judge allows her to make her own decisions about coming to visit or not.

 

[sandysmom]

I wondered if you weren't pulling my leg.
I told my husband the same thing last night. What have you got to loose, she's not coming to see us anyway. A judge would have no reason to deny him visitation rights, except for the fact that she doesn't want to come to our house. I feel sure it's because her mom lets her talk to her anyway she wants to (I've heard their screaming matches over the phone), go and do whatever she wants and her dad doesn't and won't.
Oh, you need a smiley for the scooby doo.

 

[LdiJ]

I wondered if you weren't pulling my leg.
I told my husband the same thing last night. What have you got to loose, she's not coming to see us anyway. A judge would have no reason to deny him visitation rights, except for the fact that she doesn't want to come to our house. I feel sure it's because her mom lets her talk to her anyway she wants to (I've heard their screaming matches over the phone), go and do whatever she wants and her dad doesn't and won't.
Oh, you need a smiley for the scooby doo.

Think about this one....she just saw dad get custody of her brothers. She may resent that....or she may be afraid that dad will get custody of her, and she doesn't want to live with dad. There may be a self-preservation thing going on.

Maybe what dad should really do is try to convince the judge to order he and his daughter into joint counseling....to sort out the root of the problem.

 

[brisgirl825]

Think about this one....she just saw dad get custody of her brothers. She may resent that....or she may be afraid that dad will get custody of her, and she doesn't want to live with dad. There may be a self-preservation thing going on.

Maybe what dad should really do is try to convince the judge to order he and his daughter into joint counseling....to sort out the root of the problem.

I agree with this. I was reading and wondered how would I feel if my dad got custody of my brothers.

I might resent dad for taking my brothers
I might question why dad wanted my brothers and not me....which by the way, why didn't dad get custody of the daughter. If there was a change of circumstance for the boys, why not the girl?

I realize that it's easy to always blame the other parent for every emotional episode of a teen, but teens really do have their own minds. Counseling could help very much.

 

[sandysmom]

His brothers and daughter had the opportunity to talk with both attorneys and her brothers wanted to come and his daughter said she didn't want to. Her dad very much wanted her to come also, but he was advised by his attorney to let her stay with mom if that's what she wanted to do. She said she wanted to stay because all her friends were there. The boys had to change school systems but that was fine with them. Dad wishes now that he would have insisted.