kjclaridge
New Member
I have a friend that is having some serious difficulty with the court system in Florida. He is trying to get custody of his two children. He is more than willing to share custody with his wife. They split up about a year ago. She was having an affair and decided to leave. She took the two children, age 15 and 3 and moved in with her mother across town. She lost her job and has no income. She told the court she was taking care of her mother who was ill and that was why she could not find new employment. Her mother passed away about 2 months ago and she still has no income. She has continually denied him access to his children. Law enforcement has not been of any help either. I kept trying to convince him that as soon as he got a court date that it would all work itself out. He has an attorney. Well, he went to court for a mediation. The judge did allow him to have custody of the children for half of the summer, but she also claimed financial hardship and was awarded $400/mo in child support. She has worked throughout their marriage and has always made more than him. She has a Master's Degree. It seemed ludicrous to me that she left the home and left all the financial responsibilities to him, denied him access to his children, and remains unemployed by choice, yet the court gave her primary custody and ordered him to provide support. He was barely able to keep up the mortgage payments on their house before, but with the child support he has been forced to put the house on the market. On top of all this, he received a call from her last night telling him that she wants to move out of state. He does not have a problem with this as long as the children can remain with him, but she is not being cooperative. It just seems as though there is no reason for her to be. The court has sanctioned her behavior and now even provided funding for it. There is another mediation scheduled for 7/28/05. Does he have any recourse in getting custody of the children, or at least some type of shared custody where she can not leave the state and no child support is owed?
