Would a parent need to go to court to have a child returned from a third party?

[happybug]

What is the name of your state? CA

I want to start by saying, I am asking this for a friend who has no internet access at home.
If you have any questions about the specifics of the orders, please ask. I have copies.

Parents divorced in 2003. Joint legal custody of 2 children. Son is 16, Daughter is 14. Mother has primary physical. Father has EOW and one night per week visitation. Son fell in with the wrong crowd. Doing poorly in school and smoking pot. Mom can't cope and wants to move son to dad's. Dad thinks that would be best too. He gets off work at 2-2:30 so he could better supervise son in the afternoons. Son asked to finish the school year with mom and move in June. Both parents agreed to this.

Sunday, mom and son got into it. Mom decides she is done. Monday, she moved the son to her brother's house and enrolled him in the uncle's local school. Dad was told this after the fact and now mom will not return phone calls.

Since dad has joint legal and uncle has no legal custody, can dad just go pick son up or would he need to go to court first?

Also, mom thinks dad should continue to pay cs and she would forward it to the uncle. She does not think she should be paying any support on son.

I tried to keep this as short as possible. Please ask if you have any questions.

Thanks

 

[acmb05]

What is the name of your state? CA

I want to start by saying, I am asking this for a friend who has no internet access at home.
If you have any questions about the specifics of the orders, please ask. I have copies.

Parents divorced in 2003. Joint legal custody of 2 children. Son is 16, Daughter is 14. Mother has primary physical. Father has EOW and one night per week visitation. Son fell in with the wrong crowd. Doing poorly in school and smoking pot. Mom can't cope and wants to move son to dad's. Dad thinks that would be best too. He gets off work at 2-2:30 so he could better supervise son in the afternoons. Son asked to finish the school year with mom and move in June. Both parents agreed to this.

Sunday, mom and son got into it. Mom decides she is done. Monday, she moved the son to her brother's house and enrolled him in the uncle's local school. Dad was told this after the fact and now mom will not return phone calls.

Since dad has joint legal and uncle has no legal custody, can dad just go pick son up or would he need to go to court first?

Also, mom thinks dad should continue to pay cs and she would forward it to the uncle. She does not think she should be paying any support on son.

I tried to keep this as short as possible. Please ask if you have any questions.

Thanks

If mom does not want the child living with her then dad can file to change custody. This is not moms decision to make. He also has to keep paying support until he gets that modified also or he could be held in contempt.

He can get his son from the Uncles house if he wants to. The Uncle has no legal standing to withold the child from him, however mom could then come over and get son from him and this could start all over again.


Stay tuned for the experienced lawyers to possibly tell you how to file for emergency custody

 

[ezmarelda]

you can go to http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/forms.cgi and get the forms to file for an ex-parte order to show cause for custody

good luck

 

[casa]

you can go to http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/forms.cgi and get the forms to file for an ex-parte order to show cause for custody

good luck

Exactly. And Dad OR Mom can go get son at any time. No one can change the Custody OR child support order without modification through the courts.

 

[happybug]

Thanks so much. I looked through the forms. Is it FL-260 he should submit? There are so many Family Law forms and this one looked the closest to what he needs.

Should he hire a lawyer for this, or would it be straightforward enough to just submit the forms to the court that handled the divorce?

He would never stop support without a new order. I just thought it was a bit funny that mom thought only one parent needed to be responsible for support of the child and she was not that parent.

Thanks

 

[casa]

Thanks so much. I looked through the forms. Is it FL-260 he should submit? There are so many Family Law forms and this one looked the closest to what he needs.

Should he hire a lawyer for this, or would it be straightforward enough to just submit the forms to the court that handled the divorce?

He would never stop support without a new order. I just thought it was a bit funny that mom thought only one parent needed to be responsible for support of the child and she was not that parent.

Thanks

The Family Law Facilitator's office should have the packet needed to file. If there is no FLF office in his courthouse, write back to me.

 

[happybug]

Thanks so much! There is a Family Law Facilitator's office in that courthouse. My friend is going to call and try and get the forms on his way home from work today. Hopefully, he can get this resolved quickly.

 

[casa]

Thanks so much! There is a Family Law Facilitator's office in that courthouse. My friend is going to call and try and get the forms on his way home from work today. Hopefully, he can get this resolved quickly.

The only issue I can foresee is if the teen son feels 'schlepped around' and doesn't want to live with Dad...then it's a whole 'nother mess.