help in florida

[lanora]

florida.i signed custody over to my x husband in may of 2000,the children wanted to live with him.now he has denied visits to me for almost 3 months and i was told that if i wanted to see them i had to do so at his brothers home(supervised).i had custody of both children since our divorce in 1992,and he was always allowed his visits although he didn't often.now this is his way of getting back at me,he told me he would ruin my life if it was the last thing he did.i love my children and i know this hurts them very much!do i have a leg to stand on in court?i want the girls back with me because he will continue to do this,i don't know what i was thinking by signing over the children.should i take him to court or not?

 

[StepMomNFL]

Did you sign away all your rights or just change custody? Was it done through the court or an agreement between the two of you?

If you signed away all of your rights, and legally gave up all rights to your children, you are back to square one. You are going to have to get an attorney and show that there has been a major change in circumstances and you want them back. This might prove to be difficult.

Now, if you just changed custody and made him the custodial parent, there should be some sort of visitation schedule set up and he can not keep you from seeing them. If the visiation is in the judgement papers you can take him back to court for contempt. In Florida refusal of visitation is automatic grounds for reversal of custody (my husband and I just got custody of his son on these grounds). If you are interested, I can provide you with the exact Florida statute stating this.

So, it all depends on just exactly what rights you gave up.

I hope this helps in some way.