Does my sons have any rights to take him from me and which state has jurisdiction TN or FL?

Question

My son was born out of wedlock we moved out of Fl when he was 3mos old I kept him until he was a year old His father never visited or paid anything towards him and I was struggling so I allowed him to stay with his dad in Fl through a written agreement he stayed there for 8 months.When my son was in Fl he was living with his Father in his Fathers mothers house she mostly took care of my son. I went down to Fl to pick my son up from his father which he voluntarily gave him back to me about a month ago.Then my sons fathers mother was upset about it and is using her son to try to take him back by making false allegations against me to prove I`m unfit and to take him back to Florida.I`ve already answered one of there motions which was for an exparte emergency pick up order and the judge down there dismissed their motion,but he is still filing other motions and I cant afford to keep a lawyer and continue fighting.How does Florida even have Jurisdiction if he is up here in Tennessee with me

Answer 1

make sure your life is in order and show that you are a good mother to your son.

Answer 2

First of all, usually in family court they give the mother the children. In my experience, even unfit mothers get custody and that kinda makes me mad. But anyway, first they have to prove that you are unfit. So if you do drugs, drink around your child, leave your child unattended to go barhopping or bring different men home every night then you have a problem. But if you are a good mom trying to work hard and support your child then they have no case. I mean you said it yourself the first judge through it out because he knew they were idiots and didn't wanna waste his time. You have your son now correct? Do you have the written agreement still? If so you should be fine. I wouldn't worry too much until they came up with something solid. He can file all the motions he wants it won't matter. To save you time and money on lawyers you could read up on it yourself at a library. My sister was a paralegal for a while and it's easy to get info from the law library and even online. Just stay out of trouble and don't give them anything to work with. Florida may have jurisdiction because he was living there and that's where the father is, but I really don't see how since you have a written agreement that it was only to be for a short while. Ask your lawyer that you have now and when he gives you information keep it and use it and research on it. Lawyers aren't any better than us, they just have people around to research the stuff for them. Be like Erin Brokovich :)