I seen the posting rules on here and yes, I am the stepmom, but if we can do thid bio mom is giving me rights to adopt as she is critically ill with no chance of survival. I hope you can still offer any advice on this.
This story is so close to many many of the one's on here. First off we are in TN., and SS, grandparents and jurisdiction are in FL. Mom gave maternal grandparents (grandfather and stepgrandmother) power of attorney over herself and children as she knew she was going to be in big trouble. DCFS investigated mom after this for abuse charges, of which she was found guilty.
Grandparents along with DCFS told court Dad's wherabouts where unknown and for some reason no visitation was even ordered for dad. Meanwhile dad was never notified of dependancy action and son was placed in long-term relative placement.....
To move ahead further, when dad did find out by being served with papers for child support he automatically started arranging for an attorney to get custody. However, DCFS had already closed case and when we petitioned to have case reopened it was denied because dad was non-offending parent. At this point judge informed dad to sue grandparents for custody.
Of course, at this point attorney wanted more money, which we could not afford... Moving further along dad has stayed in constant contact with his son as much as he is allowed to thanks to son not being home or in bed already at 8 p.m.(14 yr old). We where able to have SS here summer of 05 but grandmother said no to last year because she didn't like SS saying he wanted to live with us.
Now we receive phone call Januaury 1st, notifying us stepson was put in a detention facility, failing miserably in school, on probation, sniffing aerosol cans, and tested positive for dope. We can not afford another attorney, and are doing this pro se now.
Grandmother is saying we can not do anything until SS gets off probation. We are trying to convince her it would be best to allow him to live here since he is getting out of control with them. Stepson (now 15) wants to be here with dad, myself, and other siblings. We have witnesses in Florida, (other grandparents and even Mom) that say we have to get him out of this situation before he does something bad and noone can help him.
(1)My question is, can this be classified under an emergency petition for change of custody?
(2) Does a change of custody have to wait until he gets off of probation?
Sorry so long I tried to shorten it up as we are more worried about now more then what happened back with the lies in court.
This story is so close to many many of the one's on here. First off we are in TN., and SS, grandparents and jurisdiction are in FL. Mom gave maternal grandparents (grandfather and stepgrandmother) power of attorney over herself and children as she knew she was going to be in big trouble. DCFS investigated mom after this for abuse charges, of which she was found guilty.
Grandparents along with DCFS told court Dad's wherabouts where unknown and for some reason no visitation was even ordered for dad. Meanwhile dad was never notified of dependancy action and son was placed in long-term relative placement.....
To move ahead further, when dad did find out by being served with papers for child support he automatically started arranging for an attorney to get custody. However, DCFS had already closed case and when we petitioned to have case reopened it was denied because dad was non-offending parent. At this point judge informed dad to sue grandparents for custody.
Of course, at this point attorney wanted more money, which we could not afford... Moving further along dad has stayed in constant contact with his son as much as he is allowed to thanks to son not being home or in bed already at 8 p.m.(14 yr old). We where able to have SS here summer of 05 but grandmother said no to last year because she didn't like SS saying he wanted to live with us.
Now we receive phone call Januaury 1st, notifying us stepson was put in a detention facility, failing miserably in school, on probation, sniffing aerosol cans, and tested positive for dope. We can not afford another attorney, and are doing this pro se now.
Grandmother is saying we can not do anything until SS gets off probation. We are trying to convince her it would be best to allow him to live here since he is getting out of control with them. Stepson (now 15) wants to be here with dad, myself, and other siblings. We have witnesses in Florida, (other grandparents and even Mom) that say we have to get him out of this situation before he does something bad and noone can help him.
(1)My question is, can this be classified under an emergency petition for change of custody?
(2) Does a change of custody have to wait until he gets off of probation?
Sorry so long I tried to shorten it up as we are more worried about now more then what happened back with the lies in court.