custody issue?

Question

I live in Florida, my ex lived in Ohio with our kids, in August I filed papers to get custody of the children. One hearing was in Feb. but he didnt show up. I found out he had a warrant for his arrest for probabtion violation. He has recently packed up the kids and moved to washington, is there something I can do to get the kids back in OHio until the final decision is made?

I live in florida, and its quite expensive traveling back and forth to ohio. I cant afford an attorney, and ohio legal aid doesnt assist with child custody cases. What can I do to get an attorney to help me?

Answer 1

Custody problems are a nightmare, to say the least.
My understanding of jurisdiction is that it REMAINS where it was originally...as LONG AS one party still lives there. So it would have stayed in Ohio..except now, neither one of you seem to live there. I don't think it means that there isn't any jurisdiction anywhere..but one person has to file elsewhere to create new case, and Ohio probably has to agree.
I personally see two arguments here.. one, the kids are now in WA, so he "could" petition to transfer it there. Or... since he left Ohio, it might be that you could try to get it moved to Florida, maybe on the grounds that he is not fit (probation issue?).
Another thought is that you filed in August (before the Feb hearing??), meaning that there was an ongoing case in Ohio, and not only did he fail to show for that, he left the state. So is he legally in violation of the custody terms already established?
In many states, even when a parent HAS custody of a child, moving from that state without the consent of either the other parent..or the court.. is possibly criminal. Especially if/when there is an action in process for modification. Maybe that fact alone is enough to ask for change of custody. Of course... getting a custody order is one thing. Enforcing it is another. I do think that you could ask the court for an order to appear, which may or may not involve orders to return the kids to Ohio.
As for an attorney... unfortunately thousands of illegal custody issues are probably out there in limbo, because you NEED a good lawyer to find the laws that apply, and also intelligent enough to make the right arguments for you. My research on this is due to my grandchildren being taken by the other grandparents, who I believe committed perjury, in claiming they did it to "protect the kids" and avoid kidnapping charges. Since the parents caved in, and didn't fight.. now they face thousands of dollars for a lawyer, to get back the children when it was illegal to begin with. They were intimidated into not testifying.
You have a problem with time, to insure that if he tries to transfer the case to Washington, it will be even worse. The fact of a warrant could work in your favor, big time. You might bring it all to the attention of the District attorney but make sure you do it, in a non vindictive tone. Of course.. you are doing it to get his posterior picked up. You just can't let that be apparent.
I turned into an unpaid and untrained legal researcher, using google. I made every effort to zoom in on the full text of the state laws.. ie Ohio custody law; UCCJEA (federal law about jurisdiction), and trying to find summaries of actual cases. It is very tedious, and you really have to study what you find (I printed things off).
I am not a lawyer... but I CAN read, think and online, find many resources to educate myself.
I don't know of any solution, anywhere for persons who desperately need a lawyer for custody battles.. your options are to somehow find the money for one, educate yourself enough to file the papers and represent yourself.. or give up. Hard options. Hard reality.

Answer 2

its not legal to leave the state of the custody decision w/o the other parents approval. file for kidnapping and ask the court to order the kids and him to return ot the state of jurisdiction or he give the kids to you. odd though that a father would have custody and mother in another state...makes me wonder if that is in the best interest of the kids to be ordered back?
almost forgot.....look up the uccjea ... its determining where jurisdiction lies. it lies in ohio still. he has to have the kids in WA for at least 6 months and have significant ties to wa (school works for example) but then he'd have to petition WA to move the case from ohio to wa. trust me ... that's hard. I did similar and the judge refused to sign my docs many many times and finally I got the right one and he said he'd never seen a case moved before and commended me for succeeding. it's VERY VERY hard to move a case. so i'd say jurisdiction liess in ohio and still will until someone changes it.

Answer 3

ask your attorney to file a motion to have the children brought back...or petition the court yourself and ask that he be given a date and time to bring the childfren back and provide proof of the warrant for hs arrest.

Answer 4

I can't give your aswer to this you should talk to a lawer but on the other hand I would hunt him down and make shore he can't run again for a long time..