My question involves a child custody case from the State of: PA
Hello. I have primary custody of my 7 year old son, & his father has custody every other weekend and Wednesday evenings. In the summer, dad has him overnight on Wednesdays, & his weekend extends from Thursday until Sunday.
There is a previous post pertaining to my circumstances under this account.
Last fall, my son called me several times at various times of day to tell me that he couldn't wake his father up. After asking questions to try & figure out what was going on, I reacted. The first time, I picked my son up from his dad's house & brought him home. The previous post was in regard to that incident. There were two more incidents, & both of those times, I called the police to do a welfare check at Dad's house. Both times the police spoke to dad, & told me everything was fine.
CYS did investigate by coming to my home, speaking to myself & my son, looking at my house, & they told me that they were going to do the same with dad. I got a letter a few weeks later saying that they were closing the case.
Shortly after, my son told me that his father beat their dog with a stick. My son often tells me things about his dad's house, but it always adamant that I not tell his dad because he has been told not to tell me anything, & not to call me when he's at his dad's house. Most of what my son tells me is just disparaging remarks about me, lots of name calling, saying that I'm a terrible mother, I'm the devil, etc. He tells me that he's not allowed to eat or drink anything besides sink water without permission, that his daddy sleeps "like a machine", that his daddy says "mean and heartbreakable things". He recently told me that he doesn't know why I let his daddy pick his name because daddy is so mean to me. I have never said anything negative to him about his father, I don't have to, he sees his father's behavior himself. I've tried every angle to try & coax a more positive relationship, but the man is extremely angry at me, and it's just impossible. Our interaction is strictly by text message. He recently changed his cell phone number, refuses to give me the number, or an email address, and says if I need to tell him something, I have to call his house phone. We don't talk on the phone, or in person because he's really nasty. He RAGES at me over the phone, in person, in front of our son, it doesn't matter. I don't get out of the car, or roll the windows down to avoid him, and sometimes he sticks his head in the door when my son gets in, & screams at me while my son sits and holds his ears. It's really pretty bad.
When I picked my son up on Monday, my son told me that Daddy beat the dog up with a metal stick again, and I made an appt. with my attorney. My attorney remembers him from 5 years ago when we got the custody order, he blew up in every hearing we had. We went to trial because Dad wanted full custody, with supervised visitation for me. He was escorted out of the court house at a support hearing because he got up, walked over to me & screamed right in my face that I am the devil, and I'm going to burn in hell. He doesn't want to pay support.
My attorney wants to file a special exception to go right before the judge, & request dad's medical history. She also said I might want to get a psych assessment. The goal is to remove overnights from his custody time.
My lawyer wants $5k retainer, and she said that the psych assessment will cost about $4.5k. I can get the money, but it's going to hurt me to the point if I need to replace my furnace or roof, I'm screwed.
I don't know what to do. Does that sound like too much? She's not cheap. Her court rate is $400/hour.
Do you think I can get his overnights removed? Dad is going to be extremely angry if we file, and I worry about how that will impact my son. Opinions?
Hello. I have primary custody of my 7 year old son, & his father has custody every other weekend and Wednesday evenings. In the summer, dad has him overnight on Wednesdays, & his weekend extends from Thursday until Sunday.
There is a previous post pertaining to my circumstances under this account.
Last fall, my son called me several times at various times of day to tell me that he couldn't wake his father up. After asking questions to try & figure out what was going on, I reacted. The first time, I picked my son up from his dad's house & brought him home. The previous post was in regard to that incident. There were two more incidents, & both of those times, I called the police to do a welfare check at Dad's house. Both times the police spoke to dad, & told me everything was fine.
CYS did investigate by coming to my home, speaking to myself & my son, looking at my house, & they told me that they were going to do the same with dad. I got a letter a few weeks later saying that they were closing the case.
Shortly after, my son told me that his father beat their dog with a stick. My son often tells me things about his dad's house, but it always adamant that I not tell his dad because he has been told not to tell me anything, & not to call me when he's at his dad's house. Most of what my son tells me is just disparaging remarks about me, lots of name calling, saying that I'm a terrible mother, I'm the devil, etc. He tells me that he's not allowed to eat or drink anything besides sink water without permission, that his daddy sleeps "like a machine", that his daddy says "mean and heartbreakable things". He recently told me that he doesn't know why I let his daddy pick his name because daddy is so mean to me. I have never said anything negative to him about his father, I don't have to, he sees his father's behavior himself. I've tried every angle to try & coax a more positive relationship, but the man is extremely angry at me, and it's just impossible. Our interaction is strictly by text message. He recently changed his cell phone number, refuses to give me the number, or an email address, and says if I need to tell him something, I have to call his house phone. We don't talk on the phone, or in person because he's really nasty. He RAGES at me over the phone, in person, in front of our son, it doesn't matter. I don't get out of the car, or roll the windows down to avoid him, and sometimes he sticks his head in the door when my son gets in, & screams at me while my son sits and holds his ears. It's really pretty bad.
When I picked my son up on Monday, my son told me that Daddy beat the dog up with a metal stick again, and I made an appt. with my attorney. My attorney remembers him from 5 years ago when we got the custody order, he blew up in every hearing we had. We went to trial because Dad wanted full custody, with supervised visitation for me. He was escorted out of the court house at a support hearing because he got up, walked over to me & screamed right in my face that I am the devil, and I'm going to burn in hell. He doesn't want to pay support.
My attorney wants to file a special exception to go right before the judge, & request dad's medical history. She also said I might want to get a psych assessment. The goal is to remove overnights from his custody time.
My lawyer wants $5k retainer, and she said that the psych assessment will cost about $4.5k. I can get the money, but it's going to hurt me to the point if I need to replace my furnace or roof, I'm screwed.
I don't know what to do. Does that sound like too much? She's not cheap. Her court rate is $400/hour.
Do you think I can get his overnights removed? Dad is going to be extremely angry if we file, and I worry about how that will impact my son. Opinions?
Modification of Custody: Modifying Custody Due to Contempt, Medical Issues, and Inappropriate Behavior
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire