Ex-wife took my daughter out of state

[mbuitrago]

Can anyone help me with some advice please...

about 2 months ago my wife abondoned me for another guy, she took my 4 year old daughterthen filed for divorced. I gave her the divorced with no contest and she has custody of our daughter with open visitration for me.

Little did I know, her plan was to move out of state (Texas) to her mother's
She left saying she was going to visit for 2 weeks and come back, now she is telling me that she is staying there for good.

My question is, can she do this? is there anything I can do to get her back here legally?
She is telling me I willnever see my daughter again. she is the one that commited adultery and left me for another guy for the reason that I did not give her everything she wanted.

Can anyone advice please?

 

[Duranie]

You should file for custody. If she took off out of state without you or the courts permission, there is a good chance you can have her return with the child but you need to act now.

See an attorney or go down to the courts law library and see if someone can help you.

you really need to play hardball since your know Mom doesn'r care about the relationship with your child. Keep documentation of everything. If you can record a phone conversation in which she tells you you will not see the child again I would be seeing an attorney. A judge probably will not be too impressed with her.

 

[2geez68]

I'm not a lawyer but does your court order that defines custody and visitation specify anything about residence? It was my understanding that in Texas you can only move with a child within the county that has jurisdiction or an adjacent county. e.g. Dallas county has jurisdiction you can move to Denton county or Tarrant County or within Dallas county). I've seen some orders that specify only the county with jurisdiction.

I would look at your papers and file something quickly to have the judge who handled your divorce make a ruling on getting your child back in the county with jurisdiction.

Also, look on the state departments website. When I was doing research for a Hague case on there I did see a lot of information on parents taking kids to other states. I do know that all states must give full faith and credit to your court order for visitation.

One way or another you must get your child back into your state quickly. There are many ways to do that in Texas. What county are you in? There are some good attorneys that work with fathers rights as their primary practice. She can not put her own needs before y'alls childs needs and expect to keep custody.

If you are in Texas you do not have to tell her that you are recording a conversation as long as you are part of that conversation. and I wouldn't. The whole purpose is to impeach her if she lies in court and to give proof that your rights need to be protected as a father.

Just becareful what you say otherwise you will not be able to use that recording. It's use it all or use none of it. Get yourself a digital recorder and tape all conversations. I generally tell parents to wear it like underwear because you never know when you are going to get something that makes your case or can be used to impeach the other party later.

She can not just move away with your child. Think smart, don't tip your hand to her or disclose too much and even if she yells, cries and screams at you do not retaliate.Stay calm and get what you need. Also, start gathering all the documents you need, e.g. copy of the latest or all court orders, make a list of all your visitation dates, attempt visitation if you can even tho she is out of state. But take action asap.

If you can not hire an attorney that will fight for your rights and also believes that fathers can get custody than at least find out if you have a local fathers for equal rights chapter and join to get the help. Or find someone like me that does documentation in your area if you don't think you can or want to do it yourself. You can start this process while you are working on getting the funds together to hire an attorney.

Good luck.