Going for temp custody?

[trnoon]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Michigan

I won't bother with past details since I know most of you will check my posting history.
But recently I found out that my sons mother became homeless and lost her job. While she is bouncing from couch to couch, my son is living with her parents.
Her mom still seems to be following the court order as far as my visitation is concerned. But I'm nervous about my son living there without having his mom around. Her parents have a history of domestic violence and drug use as well as growing and selling marijuana.
I don't want to wait until something bad happens to get him out of there. How easy would it be to get a temporary custody order without an attorney, given the current circumstances? And what steps would I take to do so? I've looked online at the forms our state offers and can't find anything about temporary emergency custody.

 

[gam]

The emergency would be what? Unless the child is immediate danger there really is not an emergency. I did read your posting hx, did you move over 140 miles away? How long has the child been staying with the grandparents? Is the child still in school? Are the grandparents getting the child to school? By living with the grandparents did the child have to change schools? Have the grandparents had any recent convictions on domestic violence or drugs? Is mom still living in Bay County and is the child also? Do you have joint legal custody?

 

[trnoon]

I do not know how long my son has been staying with her parents. I only recently found out. She's not always honest and upfront with people about things that make her look bad. But based on the information I have it's been at least two weeks.
Yes the grand parents do have recent convictions. My ex's dad was just in jail at the end of march for domestic against my ex. Which led her mother to legally evict her so her dad could move back home when he got out.
As for the drugs, the last I knew about was that their house was raided earlier this year where police recovered 6 marijuana plants. I don't know the proceedings on that one, there are no court records available yet. Only the arrest records and police report. Which leads me to believe its an ongoing matter.
I know he is a crack smoker. I've known their family since I was very young. It's a well known fact that he will go off and spend all of their money on crack and either stay away for weeks until its gone or he'll nearly kill himself in the basement. When my ex was younger she'd walked in on him multiple times.
I did recently move approximately 150 miles away. My wife and I both work full time. So if my son were to come stay with me he'd be in school (daycare/preschool) for the summer with our other children.
His school is actually out for the summer. I thought his mom was still taking him when she moved (before he went back to stay with Grammy and Papa) but I found out he hasn't been at school for months. Despite me offering (when I still lived in that town) to drive him because she moved across town from his school and doesn't have transportation. I was told numerous times that "she got this" only to find out later she just quit bringing him. (Head start)
She also quit her job. She quit over having her speech corrected multiple times. (She is white and did not grow up in "the hood" she didn't start talking like that until she moved into the projects a couple years ago.)
She quit after becoming homeless. So that tells me that she's not serious about getting her life together and has no immediate intentions of taking back the role if caregiver to our son. Last weekend when he was here he said he hadn't seen her in a long time. Her mom said she sees him once every two weeks for a few hours. She lives less than 15 miles from him no matter who's couch she's crashing on.
I'm 150 miles and I've had him almost every weekend since I moved here.

 

[trnoon]

We do not have joint custody. She has sole custody and I have visitation. I showed up to court a day late. I realize that makes me an idiot. But I think I really have stepped it up for him the past couple of years.

 

[ecmst12]

So why on earth would you be going for TEMPORARY custody? You need a lawyer to have any chance of getting what you want.

 

[trnoon]

I figured I'd get temp custody and give mom a chance to get her **** together before going for full.
I really cannot afford an attorney at this point.

 

[gam]

Unlikely your going to get far without an attorney. Many in Mi will work with you on a payment plan, after a retainer is paid. Retainers run $1500-$2500 probably the lower end for Bay County.

Might be possible to file for an emergency, however hard to get that granted, normally it's sent to the Judge. Either right then or the Judge decides within a day on the emergency. Your going to need to be ready to file for a change in custody if the emergency filing does not work. You really need to be there in person or have an attorney filing this to start. Bay County will take about 2-4 months to get a regular hearing. You can't screw it up again either, there is no excuse for showing up at the wrong date. Your papers you file will have the date and time stamped right on them. Bay County also has all hearing schedules online so you can check often to when the date is.

Your asking to change custody, with that your asking the court to allow the child to relocate out of state over 100 miles from where the child has lived all this time. Big change, big move away, really can't be done on your own.

If your only doing this to get mom to get herself together, then why not just call and tell her either get your crap together, get the kid out of there or I am filing. Same thing, either she moves fast on it or she does not, at which point you then can file. Perhaps that will give you enough time to get money for the attorney you will need, or perhaps mom will do up paperwork giving you custody and then you just file that signed by both parties with the court.

Another idea would be to ask mom for your some of your summer parenting time now, get the kid in your home. Then give her the get your crap together bit or your filing. That way at least for a few weeks the child has your roof over its head.

 

[trnoon]

Unlikely your going to get far without an attorney. Many in Mi will work with you on a payment plan, after a retainer is paid. Retainers run $1500-$2500 probably the lower end for Bay County.

Might be possible to file for an emergency, however hard to get that granted, normally it's sent to the Judge. Either right then or the Judge decides within a day on the emergency. Your going to need to be ready to file for a change in custody if the emergency filing does not work. You really need to be there in person or have an attorney filing this to start. Bay County will take about 2-4 months to get a regular hearing. You can't screw it up again either, there is no excuse for showing up at the wrong date. Your papers you file will have the date and time stamped right on them. Bay County also has all hearing schedules online so you can check often to when the date is.

Your asking to change custody, with that your asking the court to allow the child to relocate out of state over 100 miles from where the child has lived all this time. Big change, big move away, really can't be done on your own.

If your only doing this to get mom to get herself together, then why not just call and tell her either get your crap together, get the kid out of there or I am filing. Same thing, either she moves fast on it or she does not, at which point you then can file. Perhaps that will give you enough time to get money for the attorney you will need, or perhaps mom will do up paperwork giving you custody and then you just file that signed by both parties with the court.

Another idea would be to ask mom for your some of your summer parenting time now, get the kid in your home. Then give her the get your crap together bit or your filing. That way at least for a few weeks the child has your roof over its head.

First of all, thank you for a thorough reply.
I also have another question that was brought to my attention a few minutes ago.
Am I obligated to return my son to the grand parents if his mother is not present?

Though, I would love for mom to get her life together, it's not something I'm holding my breath over. I have always wanted to have full custody of my son, but his mother is in fact a fit mother. Or was, anyway. My intentions are not to steal her son away, like she believes. I just want to give him a stable and happy home life. I would never keep him from his mother.

 

[gam]

I honestly don't know the answer to that question. I've not personally seen a case where it has happened. All the cases I know, kids are dropped off all the time with grandparents, but then those cases there is not a question of who is actually raising the kids either. Wait and see if one of the senior members comes along and answers. Not following an order and not returning the child can turn this into custodial interference, so you need to know for sure before doing something like this. What does your order specifically say on drop offs and pick ups? Give the exact specific wording here.

Something else you should look into is that you created this long distance situation, so you could modify the current parenting plan also. If you were to not file for a change in custody, you could still file to modify the current parenting plan. You could also add that on to a filing for a change in custody in case that is denied, you would still get the part on modifying the parenting plan heard. Look up Bay County and see if they have the FOC handbook online, last time I looked the link they had for it didn't work. If not try Saginaw or Midland county, I know Genesse County does for sure. You want to look at the long distance plan. You should look into this anyways, because if you did get the change in custody, you really should be offering up a long distance plan to mom. The distance is not that great, does not involve air transportation, so you can modify a long distance plan to that could be done with the shorter distance.

Summer in Mi depends on the school district so look up Bay County school district and look up the school district you live in. The plan would run on whichever school district the child lives in, even when the child is not yet in school. But in my area they have 12 weeks off, I have seen anywhere from 6-8 weeks of summer time granted to the NCP. With a younger child like yours, that is often split into 2 sections. With the child going back to CP for a couple weeks between the blocks. Christmas break is often split in half instead of the way the standard does it(although some county's split it different in standard). Compare to your standard plan. Also you can add in any 3-4 day weekends the schools often have off.

You really need to look into this no matter what here, as at this time your entitled to seek to modify to a long distance plan. It would give you more parenting time or if you were to change it would give mom more parenting time with the distance. I'm not exactly sure what your current time is, but if your still trying to do eow, this is a way to make things a little easier, give you more time, and cut down on all that travel. But since you created the distance, you need to plan on doing all the travel for drop offs and pick ups.

 

[TinkerBelleLuvr]

Before you spin your wheels too much, find out about the CONVICTIONS involved. A change of custody does involve a MAJOR change of circumstances. Mom become homeless and putting the child in a home with a person of CONVICTED domestic abuse could certainly be used.

I suggest a PI to get the information on the convictions. The come back here. I've done considerable research on COC for Michigan because of my X.

 

[trnoon]

I honestly don't know the answer to that question. I've not personally seen a case where it has happened. All the cases I know, kids are dropped off all the time with grandparents, but then those cases there is not a question of who is actually raising the kids either. Wait and see if one of the senior members comes along and answers. Not following an order and not returning the child can turn this into custodial interference, so you need to know for sure before doing something like this. What does your order specifically say on drop offs and pick ups? Give the exact specific wording here.

Something else you should look into is that you created this long distance situation, so you could modify the current parenting plan also. If you were to not file for a change in custody, you could still file to modify the current parenting plan. You could also add that on to a filing for a change in custody in case that is denied, you would still get the part on modifying the parenting plan heard. Look up Bay County and see if they have the FOC handbook online, last time I looked the link they had for it didn't work. If not try Saginaw or Midland county, I know Genesse County does for sure. You want to look at the long distance plan. You should look into this anyways, because if you did get the change in custody, you really should be offering up a long distance plan to mom. The distance is not that great, does not involve air transportation, so you can modify a long distance plan to that could be done with the shorter distance.

Summer in Mi depends on the school district so look up Bay County school district and look up the school district you live in. The plan would run on whichever school district the child lives in, even when the child is not yet in school. But in my area they have 12 weeks off, I have seen anywhere from 6-8 weeks of summer time granted to the NCP. With a younger child like yours, that is often split into 2 sections. With the child going back to CP for a couple weeks between the blocks. Christmas break is often split in half instead of the way the standard does it(although some county's split it different in standard). Compare to your standard plan. Also you can add in any 3-4 day weekends the schools often have off.

You really need to look into this no matter what here, as at this time your entitled to seek to modify to a long distance plan. It would give you more parenting time or if you were to change it would give mom more parenting time with the distance. I'm not exactly sure what your current time is, but if your still trying to do eow, this is a way to make things a little easier, give you more time, and cut down on all that travel. But since you created the distance, you need to plan on doing all the travel for drop offs and pick ups.

I do all of the transportation as it is. I planned on that from the start because I realize it was my choices that lead to the long distance. The standard long distance plan for Bay County gives me such a small amount of time with my son. I was given the option to change the order when I moved and I opted not to. I can afford to provide transportation, and on some weekends, we just spend the weekend up there visiting friends and family. If I were to get custody and mom have visitation I would be willing to change the order if she wanted to. Depending on what was suggested. but I've been contemplating what her visitation should look like. Since she doesn't even have a place for him to stay now, how would she be able to have over night visits?

I am at work and do not have my court order handy so I can't tell you what it says word for word. It does state that the Father will provide all transportation and pick ups and drop offs will be done at the Mothers residence. When I get home tonight I'll come back and quote it word for word.

 

[gam]

I found this in the Bay County Handbook here is the link
http://www.baycounty-mi.gov/Docs/FoC/FOChandbook2013.pdf

What happens if I have custody according to the court�s order, but the other parent does not return the child to me as required by the order?
 You may contact the Friend of the Court and request that the order be enforced.
 You may contact your attorney.
 If you believe the other parent will refuse to return the child, you may contact the police or the prosecuting attorney and ask either to file a parental kidnapping charge.

Pretty much sums up what mom can do if you don't return the child according to the current order. Honestly your playing with fire if you don't return the child according to the current order. Your only option would be to file to modify that current order and get the courts decision on moms current situation. But don't be surprised if you file, that mom fixes her current situation to have the same roof over her and the childs head.

To answer your other question, mom can take the child on her time anywhere she wants, she could even stay with the child in a homeless shelter. Is there a child support order and if so how long ago was that done? Is mom on any state assistance? If not don't be surprised if she does not seek state assistance. If your child support order is more then a year old, well then they might just do a modification to make sure your paying all your suppose to be paying. I find it strange that you say you can afford to go back and forth every weekend to get the child. I don't know many that are in long distance situations that can do that. Between what they pay for child support and travel, plus having another family to support, they are barely making it.

 

[trnoon]

I honestly don't know the answer to that question. I've not personally seen a case where it has happened. All the cases I know, kids are dropped off all the time with grandparents, but then those cases there is not a question of who is actually raising the kids either. Wait and see if one of the senior members comes along and answers. Not following an order and not returning the child can turn this into custodial interference, so you need to know for sure before doing something like this. What does your order specifically say on drop offs and pick ups? Give the exact specific wording here.

Something else you should look into is that you created this long distance situation, so you could modify the current parenting plan also. If you were to not file for a change in custody, you could still file to modify the current parenting plan. You could also add that on to a filing for a change in custody in case that is denied, you would still get the part on modifying the parenting plan heard. Look up Bay County and see if they have the FOC handbook online, last time I looked the link they had for it didn't work. If not try Saginaw or Midland county, I know Genesse County does for sure. You want to look at the long distance plan. You should look into this anyways, because if you did get the change in custody, you really should be offering up a long distance plan to mom. The distance is not that great, does not involve air transportation, so you can modify a long distance plan to that could be done with the shorter distance.

Summer in Mi depends on the school district so look up Bay County school district and look up the school district you live in. The plan would run on whichever school district the child lives in, even when the child is not yet in school. But in my area they have 12 weeks off, I have seen anywhere from 6-8 weeks of summer time granted to the NCP. With a younger child like yours, that is often split into 2 sections. With the child going back to CP for a couple weeks between the blocks. Christmas break is often split in half instead of the way the standard does it(although some county's split it different in standard). Compare to your standard plan. Also you can add in any 3-4 day weekends the schools often have off.

You really need to look into this no matter what here, as at this time your entitled to seek to modify to a long distance plan. It would give you more parenting time or if you were to change it would give mom more parenting time with the distance. I'm not exactly sure what your current time is, but if your still trying to do eow, this is a way to make things a little easier, give you more time, and cut down on all that travel. But since you created the distance, you need to plan on doing all the travel for drop offs and pick ups.

Ok so my court order says this: "Effective January 4 and every other weekend thereafter, Father shall have parenting time from 6 p.m. Friday to 6 p.m. Sunday."
"Father shall provide round trip transportation to and from Mother's home for his parenting time."

Thats all it says about time or pick up drop off.

Could I get a record of her being evicted from her parents home?

 

[trnoon]

I found this in the Bay County Handbook here is the link
http://www.baycounty-mi.gov/Docs/FoC/FOChandbook2013.pdf


Pretty much sums up what mom can do if you don't return the child according to the current order. Honestly your playing with fire if you don't return the child according to the current order. Your only option would be to file to modify that current order and get the courts decision on moms current situation. But don't be surprised if you file, that mom fixes her current situation to have the same roof over her and the childs head.

To answer your other question, mom can take the child on her time anywhere she wants, she could even stay with the child in a homeless shelter. Is there a child support order and if so how long ago was that done? Is mom on any state assistance? If not don't be surprised if she does not seek state assistance. If your child support order is more then a year old, well then they might just do a modification to make sure your paying all your suppose to be paying. I find it strange that you say you can afford to go back and forth every weekend to get the child. I don't know many that are in long distance situations that can do that. Between what they pay for child support and travel, plus having another family to support, they are barely making it.

Yes there is a child support order. I was set in January of 2011. My ex is on every kind of state assistance you can think of. I pay 179 a month in child support. I know it isn't a lot. But all but 30 of it goes right to the state of Michigan. I make pretty good money. If they do review my child support it will most definitely get raised. I'm making at one job what I used to make at two. FOC never took my second income into consideration because I worked for cash and couldn't prove it. Plus my wife is a professional as well and make a good living. And she's amazingly frugal lol

 

[Silverplum]

Yes there is a child support order. I was set in January of 2011. My ex is on every kind of state assistance you can think of. I pay 179 a month in child support. I know it isn't a lot. But all but 30 of it goes right to the state of Michigan. I make pretty good money. If they do review my child support it will most definitely get raised. I'm making at one job what I used to make at two. FOC never took my second income into consideration because I worked for cash and couldn't prove it. Plus my wife is a professional as well and make a good living. And she's amazingly frugal lol

Q4P Option Activated.