Daughter's father has filed for emergency custody

[ABCaesar]

  I have been planning to move to Georgia from Maryland for some time now. I told my daughter's father over a month ago I would be moving in May and today I received a voicemail from his lawyer informing me that Emergency Custody was being filed.

  I know he did not file for it himself, his mother did. I have read online that Emergency Custody is for removing children from an abusive environment. I am not entirely sure what this all is or what exactly I should do about it.

  He doesn't see our daughter a lot and that is his choice. His parents have her every other weekend and usually on Wednesdays. We never went to court before to file for custody and we had had an agreement on how we were doing this between us.

  When I told him I was moving he was fine with it. I informed him she would be in Maryland for the major holidays (my family is all in here, too) and that he would have her in the summer.

  So, any advice and what this means would help, thanks.

[ocean]

The emergency order will not allow you to move with her until a decision is made (if it is granted). See if you can e-mail dad or call him a tape him (if you are allowed in your state) and ask him what happened to the original plan? See if you can get something in writing..How did you tell him? E-mail? (to prove that you told him).
Here it is very hard to move away. Judges do not want children moving away from their parent. You need to prove it is in her best interest to go and have a generous visitation plan to offer with you paying transportation costs.
Good luck!

[Kitty C.]

Depending on your state laws, it's possible that the reason a petition for 'emergency custody' was filed was to stop you from leaving the state with the daughter until a formal custody order is agreed on.  And it doesn't make any difference who was behind it, only the father could have filed it.   

So if you have no custody order filed with the courts now, you will have to do this before you leave.  Or the court may order in the emergency hearing that you are free to leave the state, but the child stays put until a custody order is agreed upon.  It can vary between jurisdictions.

Regardless of what the father is or isn't doing, it is extremely unwise to just up and leave with the child without something in place legally to protect the rights and responsibilities of all parties involved, specifically the rights of the child.  If you are moving to GA because of a job, you may either be forced to delay it or go without your child and come back for any legal proceedings until you have a permanent order in place.

There is such a thing as 'case law', where certain legal cases have outcomes that are so significant, many jurisdictions will consider it as 'law'.  One in particular (I can't remember the exact names at the moment) ruled on move-aways, in which it was determined that uprooting a child just for the sake of a parent's job (and essentially taking that child deliberately away from the other parent) was not in the child's best interest.  Another thing to keep in mind is that it could be ordered that since you are the parent making the move, you will be ordered to pay for all transportation for the child to see the other parent.

I strongly recommend retaining an atty. and following through with all that is required of you to resolve these issues.

[ABCaesar]

  I haven't been served with papers yet.

  And his mother is the driving force behind his decision. He agreed to let me go before and I know he wouldn't care if his mother weren't up his butt telling him to do this. There were no witnesses to the original conversation and we were in person talking about it.

His mother had our daughter for 8 days while I was in Georgia house hunting the other week and he saw her 2 of those days. They've known about this and when they have our daughter, he doesn't see her very much.

This is just frustrating and I want to be able to work it out, but I know his mother and she is going to make it as hard as possible.

[ocean]

You don't have anything through the court now? No visitation or child support is through any court?
Maybe ask to meet him and have a visitation plan written down to show him that you will have the child available any time he or his parents come into your town, plus long breaks, father's day weekend, holiday schedule, and summers. Add it up and show him how it will be the same but at longer intervals. See if you can compromise with HIM. If he has a lawyer though at this point you are going to fight this move in court.

Why do the Grandparents get so much visitation now?

[ABCaesar]

 He lives at his parent's house so when he has her, she is there with them.


And as far as talking to him goes, at this point he isn't answering my calls.