Maternal Grandparents have temporary custody

[gsamper2581]

The maternal grandparents have custody of my daughter. The biological mother signed over rights to her parents. I am the biological father. And I didn't learn about this until after the fact , I was not sure how they were able to do that without my knowledge until I had the clerk of court in the county that they reside in send me all of the paperwork for the case. After reading the petition and the responses it shows where the petitioner and respondent acknowledge me as a biological father and said the whereabouts of the biological father were unknown. Now before the petition was ennard both of our logical mother and her parents had communication with me so they lied on court documents to get custody. There were no prior agreements betwixt the mother and myself. She ended up getting in trouble with the law and is now missing in action. I am being a difficult time trying to get custody of my daughter I cannot get assistance I can't get a pro bono lawyer and I have no money to retain legal representation for myself. And what makes it harder as I live 6 hours away from them. I'm at my wit's end and my daughter needs her daddy. I filled out a petition for custody but the grandparents lawyer put in a motion to dismiss since I didn't put the mother on the petition. I just put the grandparents since they have custody. I need help....my daughter needs me...im running out of options :'-(

 

[Zigner]

The maternal grandparents have custody of my daughter. The biological mother signed over rights to her parents. I am the biological father. And I didn't learn about this until after the fact , I was not sure how they were able to do that without my knowledge until I had the clerk of court in the county that they reside in send me all of the paperwork for the case. After reading the petition and the responses it shows where the petitioner and respondent acknowledge me as a biological father and said the whereabouts of the biological father were unknown. Now before the petition was ennard both of our logical mother and her parents had communication with me so they lied on court documents to get custody. There were no prior agreements betwixt the mother and myself. She ended up getting in trouble with the law and is now missing in action. I am being a difficult time trying to get custody of my daughter I cannot get assistance I can't get a pro bono lawyer and I have no money to retain legal representation for myself. And what makes it harder as I live 6 hours away from them. I'm at my wit's end and my daughter needs her daddy. I filled out a petition for custody but the grandparents lawyer put in a motion to dismiss since I didn't put the mother on the petition. I just put the grandparents since they have custody. I need help....my daughter needs me...im running out of options :'-(

Re-file the petition including mom.

 

[Zigner]

Also, please let us know the name of the state that the matter is being heard in.

 

[gsamper2581]

Re-file the petition including mom.

Thank you I will be driving to the FL panhandle to resubmit the petition this tuesday. A friend of mine told me to run a legal ad in the newspaper in the area where the case is searching for the biological mother and if she doesn't respond in 30 days I would get custody does that still apply if the maternal grandparents have a temp custody order?

 

[Zigner]

Thank you I will be driving to the FL panhandle to resubmit the petition this tuesday. A friend of mine told me to run a legal ad in the newspaper in the area where the case is searching for the biological mother and if she doesn't respond in 30 days I would get custody does that still apply if the maternal grandparents have a temp custody order?

You likely have to get permission from the court prior to be able to serve mom in that way. You really need to do what you can to get an attorney.

EDIT: And, even if you can serve her, you still have to deal with the fact that grandma and grandpa have custody.

 

[LdiJ]

The maternal grandparents have custody of my daughter. The biological mother signed over rights to her parents. I am the biological father. And I didn't learn about this until after the fact , I was not sure how they were able to do that without my knowledge until I had the clerk of court in the county that they reside in send me all of the paperwork for the case. After reading the petition and the responses it shows where the petitioner and respondent acknowledge me as a biological father and said the whereabouts of the biological father were unknown. Now before the petition was ennard both of our logical mother and her parents had communication with me so they lied on court documents to get custody. There were no prior agreements betwixt the mother and myself. She ended up getting in trouble with the law and is now missing in action. I am being a difficult time trying to get custody of my daughter I cannot get assistance I can't get a pro bono lawyer and I have no money to retain legal representation for myself. And what makes it harder as I live 6 hours away from them. I'm at my wit's end and my daughter needs her daddy. I filled out a petition for custody but the grandparents lawyer put in a motion to dismiss since I didn't put the mother on the petition. I just put the grandparents since they have custody. I need help....my daughter needs me...im running out of options :'-(

Does your daughter know you? Do you have a relationship with her? How old is she and how long has it been since she has seen you?

 

[gsamper2581]

Also, please let us know the name of the state that the matter is being heard in.

Florida

 

[gsamper2581]

Does your daughter know you? Do you have a relationship with her? How old is she and how long has it been since she has seen you?

yes she knows me. I have dealt with parental alienation by both her mother and grandparents both in the past and now as well. I was traveling to go spend the weekends with her on a consistent basis for a while. She is ten years old. And I haven't seen her since June 2018

 

[LdiJ]

yes she knows me. I have dealt with parental alienation by both her mother and grandparents both in the past and now as well. I was traveling to go spend the weekends with her on a consistent basis for a while. She is ten years old. And I haven't seen her since June 2018

You do absolutely have the right to have a relationship with your child. However, you haven't seen her for a year (and its unclear how consistently you have been in her life before that) and you live six hours away from everything that she knows. If you were to gain custody you would be taking her away from what she knows as her home, her school, all of her friends etc. That would be pretty hard on her.

You need to think about perhaps changing your focus so that the grandparents are forced by the courts to cooperate with you having parenting time with your child first, so that you can really evaluate what would be best for your child. It also sounds like it would be in your best interest to hire an attorney. You could get half of all school holidays, most of the summer and maybe more, easily.

 

[stealth2]

How long have the grandparents had custody? Why did you never pursue anything (parenting time, etc.) through the courts? What are the chances of your moving to your daughter's community (something which would greatly reduce the upheaval to your daughter)?

 

[gsamper2581]

I had petioned for custody before this. The mother had changed numbers and also moved without my knowledge. I found out about this when I sent my daughter a package and it was returned stating prior residents no longer lived there. During this time, the mother had gotten bad with substance abuse and had continued to get worse and I found all this out after the fact due to said alienation. When she eventually hit rock bottom I knew that she was going to be going to jail is when she finally reached out to me. I was going up on a consistent basis to see my daughter and visit her. I called to talk to my mother about going up there to visit and I didn't get a phone call back or any communication so I phoned the grandparents and that's when I found out that the mother had going to jail and this is was after a month or two of me not being able to reach the mother well in this time which is around spring of 2017 because of the mothers State and trouble with the law they file for temporary custody and this is. At which time I started to communicate with the grandparents to go visit my daughter being at the mother was in jail so I continue to go up there and visit her. The mother ended up getting out of jail went right back to her old ways and eventually was asked to leave the grandparents house. I was still phoning the grandparents to visit on a regular basis and for well over a month if not a month-and-a-half I couldn't get a call back from the grandparents to schedule the weekend to go up there and see my daughter. So now we're probably in September of 2017 finally got ahold of the cram parents and I was going back up to seeing my daughter in the Florida Panhandle on a consistent basis. And this is what I found out about everything that happened when I couldn't get ahold of anybody. That's when I was told that they had temp custody. I even asked the grandparents why nobody called me because I'm the father and I have a right to know these things. So for reasons unbeknownst to me I was never contacted. And a time. That I was going to the grandparents house to visit my daughter was when I heard that the mother had been completely bent with the substance abuse and that's when I found out that the mother is strange me from my daughter because if she knew that I knew that she had gotten bad on the substance abuse that I would go up there and get my daughter out of an unhealthy situation. So her estranging my daughter from you what's a completely self-centered decision on her part. so I continue to go up there to see my daughter on a consistent basis from the winter of 17 into the spring of 2018 and for some reason in March of 2018 they stopped returning my calls wouldn't respond to the text messages, and eventually they blocked my number so I couldn't call their house. So after about three months of not being able to reach my daughter I decide to go ahead and just go up there and visit her. and once I got up there before I went to the grandparents house I went to the clerk of Court to see if I needed to start a new petition for custody or proceed with the one that I had put in a few years back. That was when I found out that in the summer of 2017 when I couldn't get ahold of anybody was when they went back to the courthouse to get concurrent custody. So they didn't want to contact me until the concurrent custody had been granted. and yes you guys are right oh, I want to do what's best for my daughter. So I'm going to have to petition for visitation and go for a from there because completely removing my daughter from everything that she knows to be home is not I mean that's going to be too big of a change for her hurt coming to live with me would have to be a process so it's not hard on her and I'm willing to do whatever it takes. it's just an uphill battle due to the fact that I don't have enough money to acquire my own legal representation. I've applied more than once for Legal Services and even pro bono and was denied I do whatever I have to do and the court will make their decisions doesn't mean that if I'm not granted custody that I can still continue to work on that but my daughter needs me, and I need her she's been through way too much with her mother and grandparents and what they're doing is not fair to her. she did nothing to deserve any of this

 

[gsamper2581]

You do absolutely have the right to have a relationship with your child. However, you haven't seen her for a year (and its unclear how consistently you have been in her life before that) and you live six hours away from everything that she knows. If you were to gain custody you would be taking her away from what she knows as her home, her school, all of her friends etc. That would be pretty hard on her.

You need to think about perhaps changing your focus so that the grandparents are forced by the courts to cooperate with you having parenting time with your child first, so that you can really evaluate what would be best for your child. It also sounds like it would be in your best interest to hire an attorney. You could get half of all school holidays, most of the summer and maybe more, easily.

Yes, that is a good start. Maybe I was trying to go too big too quick. Why I was getting on here for suggestions so I can do things right. Thank you for that.