carol

I did not inform courts that i was relocating do to hardship and nowhere to live but father was aware and also agreed to my moving. Now i am receivng correspondence from courts and his attorney. That i didnt inform courts the children have visited with him on four occasion within our nine months of living in georgia. Now i responded to letter in which i don't have an address on him he moved and i cant correspond with him i sent a certified letter with my information to courts and to father but his letter came back and the courts letter stated that i had a "order of striking" then it said due to family law order but i tries to download proper court forms but i could only print them up.. Im so confused i don't want to loose my children and definitly don't want to mive back to indiana.

sheila said:

I did not inform courts that i was relocating do to hardship and nowhere to live but father was aware and also agreed to my moving. Now i am receivng correspondence from courts and his attorney. That i didnt inform courts the children have visited with him on four occasion within our nine months of living in georgia. Now i responded to letter in which i don't have an address on him he moved and i cant correspond with him i sent a certified letter with my information to courts and to father but his letter came back and the courts letter stated that i had a "order of striking" then it said due to family law order but i tries to download proper court forms but i could only print them up.. Im so confused i don't want to loose my children and definitly don't want to mive back to indiana.

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If the children are involved ina custody/visitation order in Indiana, you can't just up and reloacte to another stae (or even another county in many cases) without requesting the court's permission to do so.

Now you have created a difficult situation for yourself, and what you fear, LOSING YOUR CHILDREN, is very possible.

This is about far more than using a proper form.

You are in contempt of a court order, maybe more.

I suggest you return (with the kids) to Indiana ASAP.

How you get there, where you stay is your problem.

If you don't, you could be charged criminally, and then things get worse.

This isn't going to disappear, so you must fix it, or there will be some visitors one day with shiny jewelry driving big, black SUVs; and flaunting shiny gold badges in pretty leather cases.

You seem to have followed in a wrong way of thought. You are free to go wherever you want. Your kids, on the other hand, are supposed to live in the jurisdiction of the last court order. If you don't have any, it's still usually infer that you are to stay in the same state (sometimes county) where the decree was issued. Usually, moving the children out of state is reserved to a court decision. Sometimes, moving within state is possible, but not always. Check with a lawyer ASAP and consider moving back to avoid losing the kids.

I agree that talking to a lawyer is your best bet & then go from there.

Hang on a sec. This move happened NINE MONTHS ago and Dad just noticed?!

I'm probably one of the least relocation-friendly posters here. But sometimes...well, sometimes the non-relocating parent just wants to be a thorn in the relocating parent's side. Now having said that, some places are VERY strict about relocation laws. Yes, you messed up - badly. But I'm not sure it's not salvageable.

Do you have ANYTHING from Dad - an email, text, anything - indicating he was fine with the move?

Can you show that the kids have been sent to Dad for visitation?

Other than that, a quick primer :

States fall into one of these categories when it comes to relocation.

1. Presumption is against relocation - the relocating parent has to convince the court that the move is in the best interests of the child/ren. FL is an example of this.

2. Presumption is in favor of relocation - the NON relocating parent has to convince the court that the move shouldn't happen. WA is an example of this.

3. There's no presumption either way; both parents have to defend their reasoning. CT is an example.

Technically there is a sort of 3.5 category too - when the burden shifts. Indiana (go Colts even thought they're not my Steelers, coz we love a Manning. Except when I'm talking to cbg ) is a great example of this.

So with that said, Indiana falls into the "shifting burden" category. Not only is the burden of proof on Mom, but she failed to notify Dad and the court correctly.

While we can't guess what will happen - and I tend to fall into the "Well, the judge is going to be pissed but I doubt he'll punish the kids by uprooting them again" train of thought - OP really does need to high-tail it to an attorney.

You cannot mess around with child relocation. And Indiana made a really great pamphlet that comes in very handy: http://www.in.gov/judiciary/center/...relations-custody-relocation-presentation.pdf