Questions about a warrant from another state

[Willjohnson80]

I have a friend that is going through child custody/visitation proceedings. during the dirt digging, an active warrant was found in another state and was submitted into evidence. my question, can the warrant be used against him in these proceedings?

 

[Taxing Matters]

Probably not, but the details matter. In order for the warrant to be admissible as evidence, the party seeking to get it admitted must show that the warrant would be relevant to some issue in the litigation. I assume that you mean it was an arrest warrant that was found. An arrest warrant simply authorizes the arrest of the person named in the warrant. It is not proof that any crime has been committed. As a result, the warrant is likely worthless in the litigation. It doesn't help prove him unfit to have custody or visitation, for example. So what would be the relevance of the warrant to the issues in the case? His lawyer will know what objections to bring if the other parent tries to get the warrant admitted.

 

[LdiJ]

Probably not, but the details matter. In order for the warrant to be admissible as evidence, the party seeking to get it admitted must show that the warrant would be relevant to some issue in the litigation. I assume that you mean it was an arrest warrant that was found. An arrest warrant simply authorizes the arrest of the person named in the warrant. It is not proof that any crime has been committed. As a result, the warrant is likely worthless in the litigation. It doesn't help prove him unfit to have custody or visitation, for example. So what would be the relevance of the warrant to the issues in the case? His lawyer will know what objections to bring if the other parent tries to get the warrant admitted.

I am going to disagree just a little. The existence of the warrant means that any contact with law enforcement could result in his/her arrest. There is the potential that an arrest could happen while the children are with him/her. Therefore its conceivable that the parent in question could be ordered to clear up the warrant before having any unsupervised parenting time.

 

[Taxing Matters]

I am going to disagree just a little. The existence of the warrant means that any contact with law enforcement could result in his/her arrest. There is the potential that an arrest could happen while the children are with him/her. Therefore its conceivable that the parent in question could be ordered to clear up the warrant before having any unsupervised parenting time.

The details of the warrant and charges do matter, of course, but I stand by my answer. The person seeking to get the warrant admitted must show relevance to the issues in the proceeding, and in a lot of cases that's going to be difficult to do.

 

[Just Blue]

I have a friend that is going through child custody/visitation proceedings. during the dirt digging, an active warrant was found in another state and was submitted into evidence. my question, can the warrant be used against him in these proceedings?

What is the warrant for? What state?

 

[LdiJ]

The details of the warrant and charges do matter, of course, but I stand by my answer. The person seeking to get the warrant admitted must show relevance to the issues in the proceeding, and in a lot of cases that's going to be difficult to do.

I may have explained myself poorly. Let me give you an example of what I was talking about. Dad has a warrant (for anything, it doesn't matter what) and is driving around with the children during his parenting time and gets pulled over for something (doesn't matter what), the police see that there is a warrant for his arrest, and therefore arrest him in front of the children. In a best case scenario mom will be called to the scene to collect her children and therefore the trauma to the children will be the act of seeing their father arrested, and nothing more.

In a worst case scenario social services ends up collecting the children from the scene, and mom has to jump through all of their hoops to get the children back, (which could take weeks or even a month or two) and there is a much greater level of trauma to the children.

It is therefore conceivable that a family court judge, realizing the potential for such trauma to the children, would require that the parent clear up the warrant prior to having unsupervised visitation. The judge could conceivably want dad to have another adult or adult family member present during visitation to ensure that nobody had to be called to the scene to collect the children.

 

[Taxing Matters]

I may have explained myself poorly.

I understood what you meant. My answer is unchanged.

 

[LdiJ]

I understood what you meant. My answer is unchanged.

I am not sure that you are considering the "best interest of the child" standards that family court judges must use in making those kinds of decisions.

 

[Taxing Matters]

I am not sure that you are considering the "best interest of the child" standards that family court judges must use in making those kinds of decisions.

I'm very sure you're not understanding my point: the person advocating for admission must show relevance to the issues in the case. Might a court consider the issue as you framed it? Maybe, but it is certainly not automatic. If I were the OP's attorney I would therefore consider raising the relevance objection.

By the way, it is certainly not the case that the warrant would result in the dire consequence of kids being held by CPS for weeks or months in my state when the other parent can be readily found to pick them up, nor would that be the case in any other state I've practiced. Maybe in Indiana it would, though that would be an indication of a very poor CPS system.

 

[TheGeekess]

Dad has a warrant (for anything, it doesn't matter what) and is driving around with the children during his parenting time and gets pulled over for something (doesn't matter what), the police see that there is a warrant for his arrest, and therefore arrest him in front of the children. In a best case scenario mom will be called to the scene to collect her children and therefore the trauma to the children will be the act of seeing their father arrested, and nothing more.

Umm, no, most LEO do not have time to follow-up on every warrant, especially if it is out of their jurisdiction. They are not going to 'arrest' Dad, unless the warrant is for some heinous crime, or the LEO where the warrant was issued ask for a hold and extradition.

 

[LdiJ]

I'm very sure you're not understanding my point: the person advocating for admission must show relevance to the issues in the case. Might a court consider the issue as you framed it? Maybe, but it is certainly not automatic. If I were the OP's attorney I would therefore consider raising the relevance objection.

By the way, it is certainly not the case that the warrant would result in the dire consequence of kids being held by CPS for weeks or months in my state when the other parent can be readily found to pick them up, nor would that be the case in any other state I've practiced. Maybe in Indiana it would, though that would be an indication of a very poor CPS system.

There have been lots of cases, on these forums where just something like that has happened. Maybe the system isn't necessarily designed to work that way, but once social services is involved, you are at the mercy of the caseworker involved in the case. If you don't have the money to hire an attorney experienced in dealing with CPS, you can find yourself with a long wait to get your children into your custody. Like I said, we have seen many examples of that on these forums.

This happened to my grandson's father. He has other children. Those children were with their grandmother when she was arrested for something. They called the children's mother and she was inebriated (was at a party, that is why grandma was babysitting). Social services picked up the children and put them in foster care. It took my grandson's father a month to finally get the children into his custody...and he had a 50/50 timeshare in place.

 

[quincy]

... This happened to my grandson's father. He has other children. Those children were with their grandmother when she was arrested for something. They called the children's mother and she was inebriated (was at a party, that is why grandma was babysitting). Social services picked up the children and put them in foster care. It took my grandson's father a month to finally get the children into his custody...and he had a 50/50 timeshare in place.

Your personal stories never cease to amaze.

 

[Just Blue]

There have been lots of cases, on these forums where just something like that has happened. Maybe the system isn't necessarily designed to work that way, but once social services is involved, you are at the mercy of the caseworker involved in the case. If you don't have the money to hire an attorney experienced in dealing with CPS, you can find yourself with a long wait to get your children into your custody. Like I said, we have seen many examples of that on these forums.

This happened to my grandson's father. He has other children. Those children were with their grandmother when she was arrested for something. They called the children's mother and she was inebriated (was at a party, that is why grandma was babysitting). Social services picked up the children and put them in foster care. It took my grandson's father a month to finally get the children into his custody...and he had a 50/50 timeshare in place.

Don't you thing that it's important to wait for the OP to come back and tell us what the warrant is for and what flipping state it is? For all you know LD, this could be a warrant for unpaid parking tickets in London, Ont. And even if it is in some as yet unknown state...if the warrant is for some very minor infraction it is really unlikely that an arrest will be made if the children are there. I highly doubt that the kids will end up in foster care because mom or dad had an outstanding warrant for parking violations or a speeding ticket.

So you really should hold off on your absolute certainty until you know more fact from the OP...because right now you seem foolish.

 

[LdiJ]

Your personal stories never cease to amaze.

It never fails to amaze me that you have known so few people that you haven't seen examples of most things in real life.

 

[Just Blue]

It never fails to amaze me that you have known so few people that you haven't seen examples of most things in real life.

What a stupid thing to post.