Trying to find out if a judge in Dallas County will listen to an 11 year old on switching custody from mom to dad if she has reasonable reasons, mature and clearly thoguth out. She won't be 12 until the end of 6th grade and it is a really crutial time in a child's life before middle school. Let me know if anyone has gone through this. THanks..
You can ask for a law guardian to be assigned to your case. The LG is for the child and will interview the child and ask then what is going on. Then the LG goes to the judge with their finding. The child probably will not see the judge.
You may consider joining a group known as Father's for Equal Rights (FER) or may still be known as Texas FER (TFER). They meet in downtown Dallas on ? Thurs. evenings and it is probably best not to tell any attorneys you plan to contact them.
You can expect the members to be both men and women (2nd wives, sisters, mothers,etc) and to focus on the well-being of the children. The members should be very familiar with the Dallas county judges as well as policies and proceedures. It is likely to receive free legal advice from attorneys that have been recommended and pre-approved by the members.
Best to your child.
It really depends on the judge.
With EX#3's case, his son was allowed to testify even younger than that. I'd have to sit down and really think to be exact, but I think his son was 9. In the end, Judge was a friend of the family (though he denied it), and that may have had something to do with it.
With EX#2's case, my EX requested our son be allowed to talk to the judge years ago. Let's see, if I remember correctly, it was in the spring of 2002, and that would make our son 9. I objected and judge said nope. Later, two summers ago, son was 14 and judge talked to him.
With EX#3's case (again), his children made that decision, and the court system supported at ages 17, 17, and later 13. Yep, all three left mom due to her antics, and then the youngest went back after 6 months thanks to his father's behavior.
I'm facing that again now, son will be 16.
I think we all have to remember that a child's wishes is only part of the puzzle.