Please tell me if you can help me or if you can please refer me to someone in the legal profession. I am a single, divorced mother with one child, and I need to change my marital settlement agreement. I need to change a section in the agreement, which states that I "cannot move 50 mi. out of Sarasota County" and would like to change it to "...out of the State of Florida." First questions are - Is it possible to change this and if so, how?
Back
ground: When X and I first separated in 2002, I moved back to my hometown of Cocoa (3 hours drive time) to be near my mother, and live where I am most happy, and because of this, X harassed me on the phone, threatened me, (ie:"if you don't move back here...I will NOT PAY CHILD SUPPORT!!!) and bribed me with false promises ("If you move back we would get along, no more fighting, I will help you out financially when you need it, and pick up my son on a whim, in addition to set visitation, to spend extra time with him").... until I finally caved and agreed to move back to Sarasota.
As soon as I moved back, the harassment only got worse. Nothing I did was good enough (ie: He complained about our living situation for example. I first moved us into a one-bedroom because I was only making $10 an hour in 2003, but I got a 2BR when I got a better paying job.) In the same month that he got remarried last year, X began harassing me nonstop about everything you can imagine, nitpicking about things that weren't even true, like claiming that I don't give my son his allergy medicine, for example, just because he would develop a cough. X kept repeatedly telling me any time we talked that my son would be much better with him and his new wife, since there are two of them, and only one of me, and they own a house, and are supposedly more stable.
The harassment progressively became so great, I ended up filing a police report against my ex-husband. He was calling me night and day, rattling my nerves to the point of panic attacks, and would even call me at work since I stopped answering his calls on my cell. His retaliation was calling DCF to make a false claim that I was "neglecting" my son. Everything he told them were lies, like the one I mentioned above. They closed the case with no evidence of neglect. So his next step was serving me with Contempt papers so I hired an atty and fought him in court, and won.
To bring us up-to-date, my ex and his new wife have just had a baby. So now, child support is later and later, and the money is less and less. In the meantime, I have purchased a 2BR condo, trying to get ahead in life. However, I am finding it extremely difficult to pay my mortgage, the cost of living is very high here in Sarasota, and now I can't even rely on child support. To make a long story short, I have gone from unhappy to completley miserable living here. I cannot afford to live a normal life here as a single mother, I have difficulty meeting people, and my situation with my ex-husband has not improved at all since being back, nor has he upheld any promises or even take my son when he is supposed to (He only takes him every other weekend, if that, even though it states in the agreement that he is to take him every Tues, Weds and every other weekend). I want to move back to Cocoa so I can enjoy living close to my mother and good friends, with a cheaper cost of living. However, my ex-husband is still trying to control me, and keep me here even though his promises that life would be better for me here have proven to be untrue. I asked him 2 weeks ago during a "heart-to-heart" talk if he would agree to let me move back to Cocoa, and he said "No." So now my only way to break free from his control is to legally change the agreement. My question is how to go about this in an organized, legal manner without jeopardizing my custody rights. Thank you and I apologize for the length of this posting!
Back
ground: When X and I first separated in 2002, I moved back to my hometown of Cocoa (3 hours drive time) to be near my mother, and live where I am most happy, and because of this, X harassed me on the phone, threatened me, (ie:"if you don't move back here...I will NOT PAY CHILD SUPPORT!!!) and bribed me with false promises ("If you move back we would get along, no more fighting, I will help you out financially when you need it, and pick up my son on a whim, in addition to set visitation, to spend extra time with him").... until I finally caved and agreed to move back to Sarasota. As soon as I moved back, the harassment only got worse. Nothing I did was good enough (ie: He complained about our living situation for example. I first moved us into a one-bedroom because I was only making $10 an hour in 2003, but I got a 2BR when I got a better paying job.) In the same month that he got remarried last year, X began harassing me nonstop about everything you can imagine, nitpicking about things that weren't even true, like claiming that I don't give my son his allergy medicine, for example, just because he would develop a cough. X kept repeatedly telling me any time we talked that my son would be much better with him and his new wife, since there are two of them, and only one of me, and they own a house, and are supposedly more stable.
The harassment progressively became so great, I ended up filing a police report against my ex-husband. He was calling me night and day, rattling my nerves to the point of panic attacks, and would even call me at work since I stopped answering his calls on my cell. His retaliation was calling DCF to make a false claim that I was "neglecting" my son. Everything he told them were lies, like the one I mentioned above. They closed the case with no evidence of neglect. So his next step was serving me with Contempt papers so I hired an atty and fought him in court, and won.
To bring us up-to-date, my ex and his new wife have just had a baby. So now, child support is later and later, and the money is less and less. In the meantime, I have purchased a 2BR condo, trying to get ahead in life. However, I am finding it extremely difficult to pay my mortgage, the cost of living is very high here in Sarasota, and now I can't even rely on child support. To make a long story short, I have gone from unhappy to completley miserable living here. I cannot afford to live a normal life here as a single mother, I have difficulty meeting people, and my situation with my ex-husband has not improved at all since being back, nor has he upheld any promises or even take my son when he is supposed to (He only takes him every other weekend, if that, even though it states in the agreement that he is to take him every Tues, Weds and every other weekend). I want to move back to Cocoa so I can enjoy living close to my mother and good friends, with a cheaper cost of living. However, my ex-husband is still trying to control me, and keep me here even though his promises that life would be better for me here have proven to be untrue. I asked him 2 weeks ago during a "heart-to-heart" talk if he would agree to let me move back to Cocoa, and he said "No." So now my only way to break free from his control is to legally change the agreement. My question is how to go about this in an organized, legal manner without jeopardizing my custody rights. Thank you and I apologize for the length of this posting!
