Child advocate?

[prouddaddy74]

I will try to give you a quick run down of the situation, hope its quick anyways.

BM wants to move to the other side of the state (7 hour round trip for us) we got a lawyer , wrote a letter said we didnt agree with it. We right now have joint legal and pysical custody of the child. She never did anything with it, this was all done last September. Now she ishell bent on moving again, we have filed for full custody 3 weeks ago, havent gotten papers in the mail as of yet though. She dont know about this as of yet. Basically she is wanting SD mon-fri , knows we will not be able to afford to get SD every weekend (cost about 100 dollars for a trip not including meals for our other children and not including time we would have to take off work) Says she will give SD to us for allholidays and all summer vacation. We feel its to much time away from her siblings. (We have 2 other children still in our custody, Bm has 2 other children that she gave up at seperate times about 5 to 7 years ago, never sees them and moving farther away from the one she is allowed to see) So we want us to have SD for school she can have summers, but we get one week a month basically. Ohh and we live in Pennsylvania

Okay now that you got a bit of background, my question. She just told us today that she has a child advocate on her side.
1. don't a court have to appoint a child advocate tobe used in court?
2. Would the child advocate not have to speak to us as well?
3. Isn't a child advocate there for hte child and not for the parents feelings or beliefs? (she makes it sound like the child advocate is there for her not for hte child)
4. If she can use this child advocate in court, can we have testimony thrown out since she did not speak to us and also is a highschool friend of the BM?

Thanks for taking the time to read this and any answers you have for me!

[mistoffolees]

>
>1. don't a court have to appoint a child advocate tobe used in
>court?

No. "Child Advocate" isn't a legal term and anyone can claim to be a child advocate. Often, you might refer to a psychologist as an advocate for the child.

>2. Would the child advocate not have to speak to us as well?

No. Of course, it makes their testimony much less valuable.

>3. Isn't a child advocate there for hte child and not for the
>parents feelings or beliefs? (she makes it sound like the
>child advocate is there for her not for hte child)

In principle, they should be.

>4. If she can use this child advocate in court, can we have
>testimony thrown out since she did not speak to us and also is
>a highschool friend of the BM?

You can't have it thrown out because he/she didn't speak to you, but you can clearly impeach their testimony for both reasons.


You need to continue with your filing for full custody and ask the court to appoint a Custody Evaluator who will be obligated to look at both sides.