scottw said:
Hi my name is scott, I am a resident of florida, I have been seperated for 7years and want to get divorced, My wife is a resident of Indiana and we have a 8 year old child. I pay support but she will not let me talk to or see my child. I would like to get partial custody of my child to come stay with me in the summers. How do I go about this as inexspensivly as possible. Can I file for divorce in florida? Is there a form in Indiana for partial custody. Can someone help? Thank You
My response:
Until there are court orders in place, she can do this to you. She must really be pissed off at you.
Anyway, while you can file for divorce in Florida, that will do you no good as far as visitation is concerned. You see, you need to file where the child resides in order for a court to have jurisdiction over the child and visitation is concerned. So, you may as well file the whole thing, divorce and visitation issues, in Indiana.
There's no "cheap" way of doing this - - especially because they live in another State. C'mon, we're talking about the law, and attorney's fees. You really shouldn't do this yourself because when a child is involved, litigation gets really complicated.
Your best bet is to scrape up the money - - family, friends, bank loan, whatever, and then hire an Indiana attorney. Call an Indiana Family Law attorney, get a free intitial phone consultation and an estimate of fees, and then take it from there.
Good luck to you.
IAAL
