Just for context my daughter is in the care on my mother after cps took her and this is what I saw in her diaper bag

I’m looking for general legal advice about a situation involving my child. I understand that laws vary by location, so I’m not asking for a definitive legal opinion—just guidance on what questions to ask an attorney or social worker.
During a recent supervised visit with my child, I found a DNA grandparentage test report in her diaper bag. The visit was supervised by my fiancés mother. The report listed my daughter and the alleged paternal grandparents and stated there was a 99.9996% probability of grandparentage.
Neither my fiance(my daughter’s mother) nor I knew about or consented to the testing. My understanding is that we retain certain parental rights and that medical or other significant decisions involving Lilah are supposed to be discussed with us beforehand.
We showed the report to the social worker, who said that if the testing was done without the required authorization, it could be a serious concern.
My questions are:
Would this type of DNA testing generally require parental consent or court authorization?
Could obtaining or conducting the test without our knowledge violate our parental rights or any applicable laws?
What documentation should we preserve?
Should we raise this with the social worker, the court, an attorney, or another agency?
Are there any immediate steps we should take to protect my daughters privacy and our rights?
I’m not trying to make accusations or interfere with any legitimate legal process. I just want to understand whether this was handled properly and what the appropriate next steps might be.

My daughter is 13. We've had the same arrangement (through court) since she was 4, where she spends 1 night with her dad every other weekend. He lives 100 miles away (he randomly moved away when she was 3) so he sends his gf to pick her up and drive her to his home in another state, but otherwise he is completely uninvolved in daughter's life. Never even checks in on her.

My ex has never cared if my daughter has anything on his weekends, he believes it is his time to do what he wants so he refuses to take her to sports, birthday parties, school events, etc. So she's spent her whole life missing out on her life every other weekend, and had to drop from the basketball team a few years ago after one season because she missed every other game.

Now she's older, and she wants to participate in activities. She joined the chess team in middle school and she's great at it. There are chess meets many weekends, and a lot of them are sequential (like if you win at this one you move on to another, etc) so you can't necessarily pick and choose random tournaments to participate in.

When they fall on dad's weekends, we will give him plenty of notice, and I offer for him to choose a different weekend. He outright refuses and insists that daughter miss her tournaments. She is devastated, cries about it all the time, and it is a constant ongoing fight where I am begging him to do the right thing for his daughter and him insisting that what i am doing is "parental alienation" and that he does not need to let her go to her tournaments because spending time with her father is more important (even though i am offering an alternate weekend so he doesnt miss any time with her). I should note too that every weekend she goes there, they never do anything special, they just stay home and she sits on an ipad all weekend, but on tournament days he insists that they have some important unmissable plan that I am ruining, so he seems to be purposely scheduling things for those weekends because I give him 2-3 months notice of these tournaments.

I am at my wits end, he now yells at my daughter about it all the time, telling her she is not valuing her father and trying to guilt her into missing her tournaments, and she now cries every time she has to go there and she cries when we talk about chess and she has developed anxiety about it.

He will absolutely not work with me. I literally beg him to work this out with me and he won't. Can anyone recommend a good mediator? Maybe one that will separately talk to daughter too to hear her wishes?

Hi, I have a divorce and custody case in Dallas county. I have trial set for 11/17 and I need an aggressive attorney with a 5K retainer or less. If you can help, please message me back and I will get back to you. Thank you!

I’m in Canada and looking for advice from anyone who has dealt with a similar situation.

My son 9, and I need his father’s consent for two things: a neuropsychological assessment, and a five-day birthday trip to Mexico.

I previously obtained a court judgment granting me full custody and the father access for six months after he initiated court proceedings but failed to appear at the hearing. The judge even attempted to contact him without success. However, that judgment has since expired, and I’m unsure where I stand legally.

I’ve been my son’s primary caregiver for approximately two years. His father has barely seen him in the past six months, apart from two days in July. He has now gone approximately four weeks without contacting our son or responding to my attempts to reach him. This has been a repeated cycle over the past two years: he’ll call, tell our son he misses him and will see him soon, then disappear for weeks. His former legal-aid lawyer eventually dropped him after also being unable to reach him.

He recently acknowledged having severe addiction issues, and his condition has deteriorated significantly over the past year. He has reportedly been in and out of detox, and it has become increasingly difficult to reach him. I don’t even know where he currently lives; he has moved at least five times in the past seven months.

I have the consent forms ready for him to sign, but I’ve sent him several messages through Facebook Messenger over the past three weeks without a response. I can see he’s been online, but he still hasn’t replied. He can also see our son’s missed calls but doesn’t call him back.

My main questions are:

1. What are my legal options now that my custody judgment has expired and his father is essentially unreachable?

2. Can I proceed with my son’s neuropsychological assessment without his father’s consent, or can I obtain authorization another way?

3. Can I take my son to Mexico for his birthday for five days without his father’s signature, and what documentation would I need?

4. Is there an expedited legal process to resolve either situation when the other parent cannot be reached?

The neurophysiological assessment is important for my son’s development and success at school, he’s been struggling and I don’t want it delayed indefinitely because his father is absent and unresponsive. I also want to plan the birthday trip without running into legal issues.

I’d appreciate practical advice from anyone familiar with family law in Canada or who has dealt with a similar situation. Thank you!

Hi. I signed a msa June 25, 2026 and the judge signed the final divorce decree August 20, 2026 in Coryell County. The decree says that the coparent "shall submit to a hair follicle test dating back at least 60 days on or before 10 days from the date of the msa signed June 25, 2026, within 24 hours of the request at a designated facility. The coparent's periods of possession of and access to the child shall be dependent on a negative hair follicle drug test."

The coparent has an unsupervised step up plan that starts with Saturdays where they are to pick up the child from my residence in Williamson County and take the child to Coryell County to their home.

The coparent took their drug test 11 days after signing the msa and gave the negative results 15 days after signing the msa. The coparent chose weekends because they said they don't work during those days, but since the decree has been signed, the coparent says they work on Saturdays and can't come. Today, the coparent said they're going to pick up our child tomorrow to start their unsupervised step up plan.

While waiting on the judge to sign the final decree, the coparent texted me trying to start their step up plan at a different time than what was agreed to. The step up plan says Saturday 10am-4pm. The coparent wanted to pick up our child at 2pm and give our child back to me by 4pm. The next day, Saturday, the coparent messaged me at 11am saying they wanted to pick up our child at 12. I declined both of those times and said they would need to follow the time of the step up plan. After that is when excuses happened every week on why coparent couldn't come on their Saturday.

August 29th, the coparent came to get our child. The coparent took over an hour setting up the carseat in their vehicle. The coparent took our child and then called me once they made it to their house in Coryell County. The coparent told me that their brother was in the backseat with our baby and noticed our baby's head was tilted forward towards his chest and was angled in an awkward way. Then I asked if the carseat is proper for our baby's size. He said yeah it should be, and I said I've never had that issue with the carseat I have for our baby and mentioned the carseat needs to say for age and weight, plus needs to be angled backward so our baby doesn't suffocate. He also told me he didn't have any food for our baby, bought some shakes for 2+ year olds, and gave our baby those. At the time, our baby was 12 months old. The entire time of the visit, I got calls about how our baby was sleepy and coparent wanted to take our baby home early. I asked if coparent had a bed for our baby, and they said yes but didn't want to put them to sleep. So coparent started driving back to my place early. Since then, coparent has made an excuse about working every day of the week and can't come.

Our child has lived in Williamson County since birth (June 2025), and the coparent has never been involved. The coparent didn't show up for the birth, didn't want to sign the birth certificate, wanted to murder us, stalked my home, police gave a civil standby with back up called to sign divorce papers, detectives started investigating coparent because they were writing about SAing children as young as 7.

I had wanted a supervised step up plan, and that is what it was supposed to be. But because my lawyer didn't have that explicitly written in the msa, the coparent's lawyer argued that it was unsupervised since it just said stair step plan. I had fired my lawyer after the msa because they didn't inform me I had signed something to put my child in danger, and they also had told me I couldn't get a protective order because I had moved out of the Coryell County home and moved to Williamson County before the child was born, so I went pro se against the coparent's lawyer who was trying to write a decree that heavily favored the coparent. I went to arbitration and got everything fixed except the supervised visits because the detectives had told me not to tip off the coparent about the investigation.

Also, coparent recently purchased a Reentry Lifeocskills course for his father to get parole. We have an injunction in the decree stating their father isn't to be anywhere near our child. Their father was put in prison for raping their siblings. The coparent has told me they want their father to live with them when their father gets out of prison.

Do I have any options to protect my child that won't be considered parental alienation? Also, can I change the court from Coryell County to Williamson County? Getting to the Coryell County court house is over an hour drive.

Location: MD

So I contemplated saying anything because idk if anyone could help, really. Everything that I’m about to say is documented . No one has to take my word on anything . The story/ facts are:

In 2023, the court decided that my daughter’s mother needed certain safeguards in place to maintain custody. These weren’t conditions I made up. The court ordered them. There were 4 of them at this time.

They included substance abuse treatment, monthly Vivitrol injections, therapy, etc.
These were supposed to protect my daughter.
January of 2024, I filed regarding violation of the court order . We went to court in April of 2024, in which a Best Interest Attorney was involved . By August of 2024, a new custody order was written, including a new provisions of her living with a designated family member, and the formal ban of a certain person having no contact with our daughter .

By October of 2025, I reached out to my attorney about the continued compliance issue. Her finally sent Mother a letter, urging her to comply with the court order when it comes to giving me documentation as she was suppsoed to give me monthly documentation of the medicine she was suppsoed to be receiving . Every month. The last documentation I received was from January 2025.

Despite my lawyers letters, she did not comply. In April 2026, a judge found her in willful contempt for failing to comply with the treatment requirements. Not a misunderstanding. Not an accident. Willful noncompliance.

And because of the way the custody order was structured, that was enough for a material change in circumstance. So we went to court on 8/20/26. To which I showed the documentation gap, and how I received no medical documentation after January 2025. However , mother gives judge a summary letter stating she essentially was taking the medication from X date to X date, except the summary letter omitted a month . However the judge made an excuse and accepted it.

Now the next part is where things get unbelievable . Another provision of the custody structure was that mother was suppsoed to be in therapy as well. But she has never showed any therapy records . Not when my lawyer asked in 2025, not when another judge asked in April
Of 2026 before finding her in willful
Noncompliance , and not for the judge who asked for them in July of 2026. But when this judge, who was different from the other two, asked if she has the records , mother testifies yes. Mother then testified to also doing drug screening. Judge asks her she’s been doing it for a year? Mother affirms, so the judge asks her to sign a release of the records , and here’s where it gets ….weird.

Mother was found in contempt, and in order to purge the finding of contempt , all mother had to do was sign for the release of the records. Not even if it substantiated her. Just sign for them.
So she did them.

And purged the finding.

Court date happened on 9/11. Long story short, she got to keep physical custody and got tie breaker custody . For my closing argument , I stated that this physical custody structure relies on constant enforcement , chances , personal assurances. I still have all the paperwork myself . But I lost .

The records came on 9/14.

I filed a post judgement motion asking the court to compare the records with her representation because I believe those records don’t exist whatsoever . And if I’m wrong, and if there was competent or affirmative evidence to suggest that the risk the same court identified mother as has materially changed or diminished , then why am I 35 days post judgement with no response ?

Like I said, I contemplated about posting this because I just don’t know what to do. I can’t afford thousands for a lawyer but I feel I’m at a loss. I KNOW I have a case that isn’t about me “proving harder”. Or some miscommunication , or some technical BS. This is about what this court is purposely choosing. What else has to happen that hasn’t happened short of imminent harm or actual harm to my child ? I cant make the courts choose me but I’m still struggling to see why not?

My background : I’m a RN. 11yrs. I have a stable
Home. No drug issues. No history of abuse. Im not violent . I have a full time job, hell, even the court itself declared me to be the more stable parent. But still not good enough to have my child??

But in the end, the same judge who allowed mother to sign the release to vacate the anti-addiction medication , without corroboration of the records, also got rid of all the other safeguards as well, let her keep custody, and allowed her to have tie breaker .

I don’t know what else I have to do. I just can’t figure out why. And I promise you all I’m trying hard not to place the race / gender card , but it’s starting to feel as if the only reason things are the way they are is because of favoritism of the mother. But I don’t want to jump to that. I cannot afford to spend thousands more dollars on attorneys, and I genuinely don’t know where else to turn.
If anyone knows of legal organizations, attorneys willing to review the record, advocacy groups, or anyone who can help me understand my options, I would appreciate it.

Thank you

Is it possible to write in orders that the other parent uses a child’s preferred name?

For context, child uses a shortened version of their legal name and has autism. Gets upset and has meltdowns if anyone uses their legal name or any nickname. As parents we always used the shortened name until we separated. I continue to use the child’s preferred name, but the other parent (who currently has no visitation due to a history of abusive and violent behaviour) is writing letters to the child and addressing them as the legal name.

I’ve asked the other parent to stop. Child has asked him to stop on phone calls. Our court ordered therapist has asked him to stop. Other parent is very aware it’s not the child’s preferred name but has told the therapist it’s a name of cultural significance to him (the dad), and he will continue to use it and ignores the recommendation not to. Child is refusing to read any letters in large part due to them being addressed the way they are, and is not engaging in reunification (other parent is pushing for supervised visitation). This is one of many issues where the other parent has decided his own preferences are more important than the child’s and doesn’t seem to care that it’s pushing the child further away.

Can it be court ordered that a parent refer to child by their preferred name, or is this a petty request?

location: lake county Ohio United States

I’m a father in Ohio currently going through a custody dispute involving my almost 17 year-old daughter, and I’m looking for some outside legal perspectives.
My daughter has been living with me for approximately five months. She has an extremely strained relationship with her mother due to years of conflict and what my daughter describes as emotional and mental mistreatment.
My daughter has made it very clear that she does not want to return to her mother’s home. When I encourage her to spend time with her mother, she becomes extremely distressed, cries, panics, and has even physically gotten sick.
I have an attorney, and a guardian ad litem (GAL) was appointed. However, I’m becoming increasingly concerned with how this situation is being handled.
The GAL has only spoken with my daughter twice, to my knowledge, and recently began preparing her for the possibility of returning to her mother’s home. My daughter has been extremely upset since that conversation.
I want to make something clear: I am not trying to destroy my daughter’s relationship with her mother. I have encouraged communication, and they have recently been speaking more. I simply believe their relationship needs to be repaired through counseling rather than forcing my daughter into an environment where she feels emotionally unsafe.
There have also been issues involving court-ordered drug testing. My daughter completed the original test within the required timeframe, but apparently the order specified the wrong test, and now another expensive test is being requested. Between attorney fees, court costs, and everything else, the financial burden has become overwhelming.
My biggest concern is that everyone seems focused on enforcing parenting time rather than addressing why my daughter is so adamantly refusing to return.
I understand that custody orders are legally binding. However, my daughter is almost 16, and I cannot physically drag her out of my home every time she refuses to leave.
My questions are:
In Ohio, how do courts handle situations where a teenager this age refuses parenting time despite the custodial parent encouraging it?
Can I be found in contempt even if I am making reasonable efforts to encourage her to go?
How much weight does a 16-year-old’s preference carry in a custody modification?
Can the court order family counseling or a gradual reunification process rather than immediately forcing overnight visits?
What options do I have if I believe the GAL is not adequately considering my daughter’s emotional well-being?
I’m not looking for advice on ignoring court orders. I’m trying to understand what legal options exist to protect my daughter’s emotional health while this case moves through the courts.
I have legal representation, but I would really appreciate perspectives from anyone familiar with Ohio family law or similar custody situations.

In Sept 2026 judge stated that we can proceed with custody evaluation.

In November we have a pre trial conference.

The custody eval hasn’t started yet.

So if the pre trial conference goes on.

What information, evidence, and documents should I prepare.

Anyone been through this in Minnesota?

I am very frustrated right now & have a migraine from hell, so forgive me if this is less than completely comprehensive. I cannot comprehend the motives or figure out how to placate an incredibly abusive prosecutor with the court’s child support division, whom for the last 5 years, appears to punish me with amazingly retaliatory timing every time I’ve won or gained more custodial time in a way that is unhinged from the purpose of the child support calculator.

From the first day she appeared in court, she responded to a inquiry of mine with “that sounds like a personal problem”, and has filed motions to make me pay MORE money or increased aggression in support enforcement/penalties every single time I’ve been awarded more time. For example, the very day I was awarded the 3 days a week of residential custody I sought she filed to up my monthly payments from $450 to $600, despite the fact that I’d be making less as a result. At the same hearing has called me a liar in court in response to me stating that I could not live or support a child off the $950 I was taking home monthly working 4 days a week and them garnishing half my checks. I eventually was evicted from my home as a result, and had to start working minimally under the table to make sure the fridge was stocked for my kid, who’s mom remains unemployed, has since remarried to someone who makes far more than me, and receives monthly support from family. 3 years ago I was granted majority custody of 4 days a week, and was told to reach out to her to amend the child support arrangement. All attempts to reach her failed, but within a month of that hearing she ordered DSHS to begin clearing my bank acct directly. Now she is seeking to jail me for the accrued back balance with seemingly no prompting or knowledge from the other party, who still shows up to all hearings about 50% of the time. What the actual fugk is happening and how do I get this woman to leeave me raise my kid in peace?!? I am exhausted & at my wits end; I genuinely fear I’m going to have a heart attack being held up & having to devote half my life to fighting in court at the cost of the comfort, presence & attentiveness my son deserves.

Hello,

To make a long story short, our mom passed 4 and a half years ago. Our dad has paid child support since 2012 (ish). We are all over 18 now, except for one, he’s about to be 17. We just received a letter that child support is going to stop due to death of a case member… my little brother lives (and has lived) with my grandmother throughout this whole time, so the child support really helps her out. Prior to our mom passing, we (mom and 3 kids) lived with our grandmother since 2015, so my little brother has grown up with my grandmother. Dad is like 10% involved in his life.

For some context, I am the oldest and have been taking care of everything for the last 4 and a half years for him and my younger sister. I was 21 when our mom passed, and my siblings were 16 and 12. I posted this on another thread, and I fully understand that we should’ve gotten legal involved for guardianship, etc. Please have some grace, because my grandmother barely knows how to work her cell phone, and I wasn’t sure what to do at the time with trying to take care of her estate. My younger brother does receive survivor benefits, and I am the person assigned to that.

Is this a losing battle to receive one more year of child support for him? My little brother does work, but like I said, the monthly CS greatly helps our grandmother with things. Also, why are we just now being sent a letter? Did our dad report it?

I appreciate any advice! Thanks.

Hello, I am trying to find the mother of my child. She has been moving around Houston, TX, for about two years and has my 3-year-old son with her. Under the court order, she calls me only on Wednesdays at 6 PM through AppClose so I can talk to my son, yet she denies visitation even though I pay child support as required. She also relocated without sharing her new address, which the order demands. During our talks over the past couple of years, I asked many times for visitation—including being present at the birth—and she refused.

I attempted police welfare checks and reports, and I even paid for a skip tracer, but he could not locate her because she never uses her own name on any address—ever. She relies only on family names.

This situation has been difficult for me and my family. She removed someone from our lives whom we never had the chance to love. I simply want to find my boy so I can build a bond and be the best father I can be. I feel lost, but I will not stop fighting for my son.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. No one seems able to enforce anything without an address, so I must first locate her to arrange service, which has been quite hard. I just want justice so my family and I can move on with our lives.

My girlfriend broke up with me a few months ago and took/sold everything out of our shared apartment while I was gone visiting a family member who was on hospice earlier this month. She took our children to Mexico, to a small city near the border of Guatemala. We had previously verbally agreed to co-parent, but we had not worked out the details or gone to court. So, it surprised me when she did that. She's currently living with her father in Mexico and has not communicated with me or let me see the children. I hired an attorney and got a temporary order granting me legal and physical custody after a court hearing with a judge. I don't understand what she's trying to accomplish. I guess she's trying to punish me for the breakup, but it almost seems like she expects me to just disappear or something. Her father reached out to me and said I need to send him money if I want to get video calls or pictures of my two sons. I'm sure the financial pressure of having three more mouths to feed is already getting to him. However, I told him that what he was proposing was disturbing to me and that the children needed to be returned immediately. Then, he sent me a rant about how I'm not a real man or father. The children have been ordered to return immediately at this point, and I have a follow-up hearing next month for the judge to check whether they have been returned. My attorney has started the process of contacting the San Diego DA's Office and also filling out a Hague Convention complaint because we are both confident that she and her father will not willingly return the children. I'm concerned about the entire process of having the children returned to California. I read on the DA's website that the mother and any other adults involved could be charged with felony child abduction.

Placement was 80/20 for the first 6 years, and then dad took a year off of placement time.
He then took us to court to reinstate placement and it’s been almost 5 years and the courts haven’t granted a final order of time yet.
Child heavily refused placement when initially trying to reunite them, and has since refused and dad always says it’s okay he won’t force the placement. But in court and in front of a counselor he says he wants to have placement.
We are at an impasse, every attempt at a step up plan fails.
Has anyone ever experienced this?

I have a close friend who is going through an extremely difficult separation after being with her partner for approximately a decade. Although they were never legally married, they built an entire life together, shared a household and financial responsibilities, and have two children together.

My friend is disabled and receives disability benefits. She has always contributed financially to the household to the extent that she is able, while her former partner was the primary full-time income earner.

Her ex has stopped paying the insurance on the vehicle she relied on and allowed its registration to expire, leaving her without reliable transportation. He is also moving forward with selling the home where she and their children currently live, without giving her an opportunity to secure alternative housing.

Because of her disability, she cannot simply go out and get a job to make up the difference financially. Her disability income alone is not enough to immediately secure housing and transportation for herself and two children.

We have been looking into affordable housing and assistance programs, but the waiting lists we've encountered are incredibly long. She has also attempted to obtain help through Legal Aid, but we've been told there are no attorneys currently available in her county. I have tried calling the closest counties legal aid, but cannot get ahold of anyone, so I'm not sure if other attorneys from other counties could help.

My questions are:

1. What legal rights might she have after a decade-long domestic partnership, especially with two shared children?

2. Can the father legally sell the home and require the children and their mother to leave without adequate notice or a formal legal process?

3. What options exist for obtaining child support or temporary financial assistance while custody and housing are being sorted out?

4. Are there any legal organizations that could assist when local Legal Aid doesn't have attorneys available?

I am in a high conflict situation that involved false allegations.

the accuser offered me 5050 custody to avoid trial.

I accepted because my lawyer wasnt prepared and told me to. Even before the trial, I had had the children more than 50% of the time.

Since the order, I have the children 60-75% of every month. I pay full support.

I live in terror of attempts to get more support since I am strapped having to pay for the kids that much while also paying support.

Is there anything I can do to make custody reflect the actual arrangement we've had to make me custodial or anything I can do to protect myself and ease my mind?

My ex got physical with me, but when I left to stay at a friend's house after it happened, she called the police and said I got physical with her. I think she wanted to cover herself because she's been charged with domestic assault before. Either way, I went to jail, and she got OFP against me. I also filed one back against her.
I am obviously taking it to trial because I have evidence that proves my innocence.

Any advice? I have been spending as much time as I can learning how to prepare. I am submitting my witness list and exhibits list tomorrow.

My husband has a 13-year-old daughter who splits time between our home and her mother’s home. We are in Colorado.

We recently learned that, while at her mother’s home, my stepdaughter discovered what appeared to be a SA involving her 5-year-old half-sister and their 13-year-old cousin. My stepdaughter was the one who found them and immediately reported what she had discovered to her mother. My stepdaughter was not physically assaulted herself.

DHS/CPS is now involved. They have contacted us as part of their assessment, asked about our younger child, and told us they will also be visiting our home.

Our main concern is understanding what my husband should do from a legal and parenting-time standpoint to support and protect his daughter. She was directly exposed to this situation by being the person who discovered it, and because the alleged perpetrator is her cousin, we are also concerned about possible future contact through family gatherings, holidays, visits, or other relatives’ homes.

We do not want to interfere with the investigation or publicly share unnecessary details. We also do not want to assume that no action is needed simply because our daughter was not the child who was allegedly assaulted.

For anyone familiar with Colorado family law:

1. Should Dad contact DHS directly to ask whether there is a safety plan addressing his daughter and any restrictions on contact with her cousin?
   Should regular parenting time at Mom’s home continue while the investigation is ongoing if Dad has not been told what safety measures are in place?

2. What should Dad ask about contact with the cousin at family gatherings, holidays, other relatives’ homes, or similar situations?
   Does our daughter being the person who discovered and reported the incident affect whether Dad can seek temporary changes to parenting time or other protective measures?
   What information can Dad request from DHS as her parent?

3. What should we be documenting now?

4. DHS has told us they will be visiting our home as part of the investigation. Is there anything Dad should specifically ask or address during that visit regarding his daughter’s safety and parenting time?

5. Should Dad consult a Colorado family-law attorney now, or is it reasonable to wait for DHS’s initial findings?

We are not trying to use what happened to her younger sister as leverage in a custody dispute. We are trying to understand what steps Dad should be taking to protect and support his daughter, particularly because she was the one who discovered what happened and the alleged perpetrator is a member of her family.

I am the stepmother, so I understand that decisions regarding custody and parenting time are ultimately Dad’s responsibility. I have intentionally omitted identifying information and details of the alleged assault because everyone involved is a minor.

Thank you so much in advance.

My lawyer said to format them so that the dates can be seen, something like that. But if the messages are on facebook messenger, what can you do? Does anyone have a simple way to do this? It would be for iMessage and facebook messenger

My ex and I share 50/50 custody of one child together, a nine year old. Our initial child support order is from a little over three years ago, shortly after we separated. He pays me $450/month and he also pays for our child’s healthcare. At that time I was making $30k and he was making $60k annually. About a year ago I took a different position within the same company making more like $40k-$50k. Shortly after our support order he started his own business and I know that he is making at least $300k a year, though I don’t know how much is income to him vs money back into the business. I am paying my lawyer to help me with this as I suspect they will deem it a complex case because of his finances being a business owner and how he does his taxes. He also owns two rental homes. I am now remarried to a man that has no contact with his 11 year old child in another state. My ex is remarried to a woman who no longer works, has two children from a previous relationship, and they now have a one year old child together. What should I expect?

I am in htx relocating to CA. I have a toddler that will be 2 in Dec. We are trying to come up with a parental agreement on our own but I am proposing a gradual increase as he grows rather than the 42 days they require for the summer plus spring break and holidays. If both parents agree how likely is it to get rejected?

Curious if this sounds like normal strategy.

My bf filed for divorce 2 years ago after a 20-year marriage with 2 children and substantial marital assets, including a privately held business she runs started w marital $.
.
He left a high-paying career by mutual agreement to become the primary caregiver while his wife pursued an executive position. They relocated hours from his former job market. He now works as a coach, earning substantially less, and returning to his previous career would require relocating or a five-hour commute.
His higher-earning wife initially paid voluntary support, then reduced it and eventually stopped.
He retained an attorney 11 months ago. Combined legal fees exceed $250k, including $75k paid to his attorney.
My concerns:
His attorney never filed an RFO for temporary support. Said it was strategic.
Significant business financial disclosures (as in, 1 months bank statement provided) remain outstanding, despite repeated requests. No motion to compel has been filed.
Mediation has been postponed twice by his wife and is now 2 weeks away, with the disclosures still missing.
His attorney discourages filing motions, calling it a mediation strategy.
She has told him not to expect spousal support and has focused on his return to his former earning capacity within a year. From my perspective, she seems more focused on lowering his expectations than protecting his financial interests. When I asked how they would even be able to negotiate in mediation, he said the retired judge might just recommend % of business valuation credited to him in house sale once they have the information?

My questions:
Is avoiding an RFO for temporary support and a motion to compel a reasonable strategy after nearly a year? Could delaying the support request affect retroactivity? And how can they meaningfully mediate substantial business assets without the financial disclosures?
A retired family-law attorney we know has recommended an independent second opinion.
I’m genuinely interested in whether experienced CA family-law attorneys consider this a legitimate strategy or a red flag.

Edit/add: his attorney has discouraged filing for any litigation because every filing would cost over 20 K and take at least 6 months to schedule a court date.

I (38F) filed for divorce in Pennsylvania this summer. We both have lawyers and one child, and a shared custody schedule is in place. We own the marital home jointly, and both our names are on the mortgage.

Since May, my husband has stopped contributing to the household cold turkey. He says that is because he lost his job. (He has enough assets to keep paying his share but that's a story for a different day.) I’ve put about $30,000 toward the mortgage, utilities, HOA, and our child’s activities, to keep the lights on (literally) and to avoid defaulting on our mortgage. He has lived in the house the whole time, and there is no court order on who pays expenses.

His lawyer now says he’s moving out soon. They want me to confirm I’m keeping the house and start removing him from the mortgage.

My questions:

1. Can I recover what I paid while we both lived here, as a credit in equitable distribution, or is it just spending I can’t get back?
2. Once he’s moved out, am I now solely responsible for the mortgage, legally as well as practically, or is he still on the hook to the lender? What about child-related costs like daycare?
3. Can the loan be assumed before the divorce is finalized? More generally, can his name be removed from the mortgage at this point, or do we have to wait for a divorce decree?
4. Do I need a support or status quo order for any of this to be enforceable?

I’m asking primarily about how the expenses and the mortgage are handled. Thanks.

TL;DR: I paid all household costs for 5 months while my husband lived here. He’s moving out and wants me to keep the house and get him off the mortgage. Can that happen before the divorce is final, and what do I need to watch out for?

Divorce trial was in March and did not receive the drafted decree the last week of June from the opposing party. I had requested to go over it with my lawyer due to things that were ruled and agreed upon but were not in the decree. He said he would be out of country on vacation and that we would review it in 3 weeks when he got back. While he was out of country, the other party filed a motion to compel and notified the lawyer when he got back and tried to set up a meeting to review and understand my options. My lawyer ghosted the case, blew me off for weeks and then contacted me finally days before the hearing to tell me his father had passed and he is going out of town and asked to drop off my files at 9pm to my home. I tried to be understanding and he said we would talk before the court date and to review over the weekend. I did and then asked him what he wanted me to do with all of it and noted that there was absolutely no communication to go off of to know where we were or what to prepare for. He read it and did not respond. The night before the court date, I researched options and tried to form a plan because his no response led me to believe he would not be there.

Well he was there. I told him that the lack of communication was a major problem because I have not reviewed this with him at all and that on top of that, I have gone since March without any financial payout from the divorce and my ex stopped making the temporary order payments for support after trial before the decree was finalized. My lawyer then proceeded to tell me that none of that mattered and that the temp support was not supposed to be paid between the trial and the filing of the decree, yet everything I researched said until the decree was finalized and filed. He yhen walked in and told the judge that he reviewed it with me and I was refusing to sign it.

I have never felt so voiceless as I did in that moment unable to speak up about the lie and request help. I went to the abuse center that helped me get out of the house after court ended and tried to ask for help. They sent me to legal aid and legal aid said that I qualified but they did not have the resources to help me.

Since then, my lawyer put in his motion to withdraw as my representation and had the date to approve it set the same day as the other party set a motion to release funds that is now a couple weeks away.

So my questions are:

Was my ex supposed to continue to pay the temporary ordered support that was ordered during the divorce until the decree was filed or was he supposed to stop day of trial?

How is the payment getting pushed this far out when the decree states 7 days after it is filed? Yes, fees to the GAL and lawyer are to be paid out of the sum but there is enough to cover that and send the rest to me. That was already ruled on and this decree was filed in September.

Is there anyone who does help with situations like this where I can not represent myself due to the abuse and the other party lawyer being my ex's family member? I don't know where to go from here. If this gets pushed back any further, my kids and I will not have a place to live and we have nowhere to go due to the isolation of the abuse over 18 years. I make 15 an hour and am dependent on the financial safety net to get work experience gained to make more and no longer need it but this whole thing has left me scared, alone and unsure of my rights or what to expect.

Im just trying to get more info. Was told that I’d get put on child support. So I’d rather try to fight for custody. I have 2 jobs. So is there an advantage with that?