What is the name of your state? Virginia
My daughter and son-in-law are currently raising his 11 year old nephew. They had him when his mom could not care for him when he was 3 for a little over a year and then they gave gave custody back to her after the court was about to order joint custody. For many reasons, they didn't want to deal with joint custody. Fast forward 4 years or so and his mom overdoses and nearly dies. They went to court for legal custody and have had him for over 3 years now. When they cared for him before and now, it's been entirely at their own expense. Mom has and continues to contribute zero. Dad has never been in the picture.
The court is now siding with the mom once again. The have granted unsupervised visitation one day every week, on the weekend. She fails to prove that she's drug free by not taking her drug tests, but the court is not forcing the issue and has granted visitation anyway. They are now contesting her most recent request for weekend overnight visitation. Mom lives with her alcoholic mother and has been known to leave the child with his grandmother so she can go out with her friends. The child truly is in danger, but the court somehow doesn't see it.
Anyway, the real question I have is, do my daughter and son-in-law have the right to ask for child support? Mom isn't working. She is on disability that she gets from social security due to the injury she sustained from overdosing. (You can't make this stuff up.) Can part of that be ordered to be paid for the care of her child? I feel that if the court started ordering her to pay up, she would drop out of the picture on her own.
My daughter and son-in-law are currently raising his 11 year old nephew. They had him when his mom could not care for him when he was 3 for a little over a year and then they gave gave custody back to her after the court was about to order joint custody. For many reasons, they didn't want to deal with joint custody. Fast forward 4 years or so and his mom overdoses and nearly dies. They went to court for legal custody and have had him for over 3 years now. When they cared for him before and now, it's been entirely at their own expense. Mom has and continues to contribute zero. Dad has never been in the picture.
The court is now siding with the mom once again. The have granted unsupervised visitation one day every week, on the weekend. She fails to prove that she's drug free by not taking her drug tests, but the court is not forcing the issue and has granted visitation anyway. They are now contesting her most recent request for weekend overnight visitation. Mom lives with her alcoholic mother and has been known to leave the child with his grandmother so she can go out with her friends. The child truly is in danger, but the court somehow doesn't see it.
Anyway, the real question I have is, do my daughter and son-in-law have the right to ask for child support? Mom isn't working. She is on disability that she gets from social security due to the injury she sustained from overdosing. (You can't make this stuff up.) Can part of that be ordered to be paid for the care of her child? I feel that if the court started ordering her to pay up, she would drop out of the picture on her own.
