Visitation with mental illness related to child

[Kaleytenna]

I'm currently separated and have been for over a year. I plan on filing for a divorce soon but I am afraid my husband will get unsupervised visitation of our 2 year old child. My husband has never been alone with our child and has seen them once in the last 8 months.
He has a history of mental illness including an in patient stay directly related to thoughts of our child being hurt. Since then myself and our child have never lived with him. We now live in different states. I'm afraid that he will get unsupervised visitation and try to harm our child out of spite for me leaving.
I have never wanted to keep him away from our child and I have never denied him visitation with me present in the same area/house, phone calls or photos. However, if I don't offer them he rarely asks.

Does anyone have experience in a case like this? Would it be likely that the "it's best for the child to have significant time with both parents" idea play a part in this scenario?
Would a 2 year old be made to go to a different state for visitation?

 

[LdiJ]

I'm currently separated and have been for over a year. I plan on filing for a divorce soon but I am afraid my husband will get unsupervised visitation of our 2 year old child. My husband has never been alone with our child and has seen them once in the last 8 months.
He has a history of mental illness including an in patient stay directly related to thoughts of our child being hurt. Since then myself and our child have never lived with him. We now live in different states. I'm afraid that he will get unsupervised visitation and try to harm our child out of spite for me leaving.
I have never wanted to keep him away from our child and I have never denied him visitation with me present in the same area/house, phone calls or photos. However, if I don't offer them he rarely asks.

Does anyone have experience in a case like this? Would it be likely that the "it's best for the child to have significant time with both parents" idea play a part in this scenario?
Would a 2 year old be made to go to a different state for visitation?

It's not likely that he would get immediate unsupervised visits with the child since the child is only two and he has only seen the child once in the last 8 months. Its likely that he would have to start off visiting in your community. However under normal circumstances that would only last for a short time as long as he visits regularly.

His mental illness, if you can properly establish it in court, would make a difference. However, what kind of difference it would make would be based on what you could prove. It might be necessary to ask for psych evaluations which unfortunately are expensive.

Since you will be filing where you live, there is also the possibility that he won't show up for court and that you will get whatever you want by default.

You really need a consult with a divorce attorney in your area.

 

[Just Blue]

I'm currently separated and have been for over a year. I plan on filing for a divorce soon but I am afraid my husband will get unsupervised visitation of our 2 year old child. My husband has never been alone with our child and has seen them once in the last 8 months.
He has a history of mental illness including an in patient stay directly related to thoughts of our child being hurt. Since then myself and our child have never lived with him. We now live in different states. I'm afraid that he will get unsupervised visitation and try to harm our child out of spite for me leaving.
I have never wanted to keep him away from our child and I have never denied him visitation with me present in the same area/house, phone calls or photos. However, if I don't offer them he rarely asks.

Does anyone have experience in a case like this? Would it be likely that the "it's best for the child to have significant time with both parents" idea play a part in this scenario?
Would a 2 year old be made to go to a different state for visitation?

What state?

 

[Kaleytenna]

What state?

North Carolina

 

[stealth2]

Whether Dad is complying with treatment may also factor in.