Aunt/Uncle Seeks Custody

[AuntNeedsAdvice]

My family's situation seems to be very unique. We have only spoken with one lawyer at this time and was basically told that we did'nt have a leg to stand on. So I am putting this out here to see if anyone knows of a similar situation or can offer and advice or refer us to a reputable lawyer. Here is our situation:

My sister passed away on Feb 15 this year. She was only 29 years old and left behind two children, a 7 yr old Daughter and a 2 yr old son. The children have different fathers. My nieces father (my sister's ex-husband) has not been in his daughters life on a regular basis. He would sporadically show up during the year and ocassionally my niece would stay the weekend with her father. He cannot seem to keep a job for very long periods, and he lives with his parents in Texas. My sister had sole custody of her daughter. The father would not continuously pay the court ordered child support. It got to the point that the court ordered his paycheck to be garnished. This could possibly be one of the reasons that he wouldn't keep a job for more than a few months (no job, no child support being garnished). I know of at least two domestic violence charges on record that were brought up on him by my sister (both after their daughter was born). This past week, my nieces father came to Oklahoma and took her back to Texas with him. We were told by the lawyer that there was nothing we could do to stop him.

As for my nephew, his father hasnt had a job in months. The only reason he had the last job he had was because a Judge ordered him to get one, and said that if he lost the job for any reason, he was to find another job or go to jail. This was after he had already spent time in jail on felony charges. How he managed to go so long without a job and stay out of jail is beyond me. My sister and her sons father were never married and her son took her last name (that being the same as her ex-husband). Even though they were not married, they lived together for about 5 or 6 years. Legally he is married to another woman who lives out of state. They had been separated for many years, but never legally divorced. Being in the situation that he is in (no job, etc..), he has signed Temporary Guardianship papers to my biological father and his wife. The papers were neither certified by anyone nor witnessed by a third party. There are plenty of verified stories amongst the family of my father being very physically abusive towards my mother and brother. I have my own experiences with emotional/mental and some physical abuse by my stepmother when my sister and I were kids.

My family feels very strongly that the kids should never have been separated in the first place and that they are both in terrible homes. My brother and his wife ( the kids' aunt and uncle) would like to seek custody of both children. We have spent many days and nights researching Oklahoma Custody Laws and all we have found reference to is Mother/Father custody disputes.

If anyone has any information that could help us, please let us know. We are terribly worried about the well-being of the children and dont know which way to turn. Are our chances of gaining custody unheard of?
We are trying to save our money for actual lawyer fees instead of spending what we have on consutation fees seeking out the right lawyer.
Any information or advice would be greatly appreciated.

I posted this in the Custody Issues forum and It was suggested that I post it here also.

[socrateaser]

You're making this too difficult. File a petition with the probate court requesting that you be named the children's permanent guardian. Serve both fathers and then wait and see how they respond. Maybe they won't care. If so, then you're done. If they want to fight, then let them.

The mistake would be to do nothing, because the fathers can just show up, grab their child by the hand and leave, and there won't be a damn thing that you can do about it, because as soon as the mother died, the fathers' fundamental rights to their children trump everyone else's, unless they don't act to establish the parent-child relationship, and you do.

So, get moving!

[AuntNeedsAdvice]

Thank you for your response. I havent got a single doubt in my mind that the fathers would respond by fighting us.  Its the grandparents that I am more concerned about.  Oklahoma has a Grandparents Rights Law.
However, your answer did give some hope.  Thank you.

I have just one other question that I can think of right now.

Would it be of any benefit to us to hire a private investigator to do some sort of surveillance on the fathers/grandparents, or would it do more harm than good in the long run?

[socrateaser]

>Thank you for your response. I havent got a single doubt in
>my mind that the fathers would respond by fighting us.  Its
>the grandparents that I am more concerned about.  Oklahoma has
>a Grandparents Rights Law.
>However, your answer did give some hope.  Thank you.
>
>I have just one other question that I can think of right now.
>
>Would it be of any benefit to us to hire a private
>investigator to do some sort of surveillance on the
>fathers/grandparents, or would it do more harm than good in
>the long run?

Regardless of the OK grandparent law, the fathers have the greatest inherent law to custody of their children. After them, no one has any better right to be guardian of the children. The court will act in the children's best interests and the judge will attempt to ascertain who, if anyone has developed the best relationship with the child.

You should spend your resources on proving that you have a close and continuing relationship with the children. That is your best course of action.