SPARC Forums

Hi there,

  My 3 children came to Turkey ages, 11, 13 and 16 for their summer visitation.  I just recently spent about 6 months in court in Calif to force visitation and my 13 year old son wanted to live with me.  Judge changed custody for him effective 1 Jul.  Now all three are here (2 just for a visit) and the 16 year old has changed his mind and wants to live here with me.  Where do I start?  What needs to be done.  He is due to go back to Calif in 4 weeks and I assume this is not a quick nor easy process to get it changed before that so he could just stay.

Any and all help will be appreciated.

Hi,

You'll need to petition the court in California (presuming it still has jurisdiction) for a change of custody for the 16 year old, based upon the child's wishes.

The fact that the judge allowed 13 year old to live with you is pretty good for your chance that the same will happen with 16 year old.

You'll need to lay out a best interest argument, in addition to the kid's wishes.  The 16 year old may want to stay with you because you let him skip school, drink beer, and watch porn.  Not really, but you get the jist that you need to argue best interest, with the catalyst being the oldest's desire to stay.

If his school starts at end of summer (roughly six weeks), it would be reasonable that you should be able to get a hearing within 4 weeks, depending upon the court.

Use the same attorney you had for the 13 year old... obviously that attorney was effective.

That attorney would give you best advice on timing of it all.