I need help with a child custody question. have talk to alot of different people but still dont know what is right!!!!!

Jackie - posted on 11/09/2011

the thing of it is that the dss case has been closed since i have full custody. so they will not help me anymore. the judge said either me or his mom was to supervised but it is not in the court order and his mom has pass since then. he will call and have reasons not for coming to see the children. i have it set up right now that he goes to my mom and dads house on friday's and sat. for 2 hrs each day but he will only show when he wants to. needless to say mom and dad are sick of this and or now saying that they dont want to do it anymore that it is not right for them to clear thier plans and he dont even show up. i see their point. and their is no place in my county that will do the supervised visits that i am aware of i was told that i would have to go to a different county.but my main thing is does he have to go by the court order or can he get around it somehow. i would assume that he had to do what the judge said but he seems to think that he dont. also since i have full custody can i move out of state. just wondering not plaining on doing this but i was told that i could not move with out his say so. should i hire a lawyer just to be on the safe side or should i leave well enough alone. mom thinks i should take all rights away since he has had since 09 to do what was order and he has fell to do so. and since he has not pay a dime for 2yrs in child support and at the most only spends 2 1/2 hrs each month with them

Antoinette - posted on 11/09/2011

There are agencies that supervise access and where I'm from if it's court appointed it's either free or the visiting parent has to pay (depending on the reasons behind supervision being required) You should be able to get a list of these from the courthouse. When I went to court my sons father didn't show and I was granted "day to day care" and father had to have supervised access, the judge specified that the father could apply to the court to have the parameters of this supervised access defined (when and where etc).
The supervised access that I know of here (NZ) is at a day care, outside of normal open hours, where one parent drops the child off with the childcare workers and leaves, 15 minutes later the visiting parent arrives and spends about 1.5hrs with the child then leaves, 15 minutes later the other parent arrives to collect the child. There are also rules in place about the visiting parents state of being (can't be deemed to be under the influence of anything), they can't bring friends with them, and they can only bring gifts on birthdays and other such occassions. Because the focus is on the time and the relationship between the parent and child. And access is scheduled to be regular and routine eg every saturday at 2pm not whenever one feels like it.
Sometimes courts apply review dates to these sorts of things, but if he hasn't met the conditions of the previous court proceedings then I doubt his luck in getting a different outcome another time round.
Good Luck.

Alana - posted on 11/08/2011

If im not mistaken, he cannot actually do anything without standing in front of a judge who will review your entire case. Until a judge along with the social workers who will decide hes actually fit to have any type of legal custody. They will see that he has made one payment. They will ask how many hours he actually spends with the children. To see if there is an actual schedule. Being that you are the sole provider and you already won custody he really could not do anything before actually setting a court date. i would advise you contact your social worker who actually works your specific case. i know in the county i am in, i have a case worker who i can contact about any questions. If this is true he or she can direct you in the proper circuits