custody change

[helpingdad]

Mother lives in OH. Dad lives in Fl. They have 2 kids aged 15 and 17. Mom has legal and residential custody. Dad got kids for summer. Mother also came to vacation in Fl. with new boyfriend for 5 weeks. Mom did not want to see kids during the time she was in Fl. Dad asked her to change custody and she said fine. She signed for them to enroll in high school in Fl. She has made no changes legally with the court.

Dad hired attorney is Sept. for change of custody, modification of child support, and wage withhold stopped. Mom conveniently had an emergency on the pretrial date in Oct. New pretrial date set for Dec. We know she will have another emergency on that day. We know she wants to prolong this until son turns 18 in Feb. Son doesn't get along with new boyfriend. We know she actually only wants daughter to live with her and boyfriend. Any suggestions for us in this situation? Thanks.

[socrateaser]

>Dad hired attorney is Sept. for change of custody,
>modification of child support, and wage withhold stopped. Mom
>conveniently had an emergency on the pretrial date in Oct. New
>pretrial date set for Dec. We know she will have another
>emergency on that day. We know she wants to prolong this until
>son turns 18 in Feb. Son doesn't get along with new boyfriend.
>We know she actually only wants daughter to live with her and
>boyfriend. Any suggestions for us in this situation? Thanks.

You're entitled to a retroactive mod, back to the date of filing of the motion to modify. So, you will eventually get a judgment of arrears against the other parent for support not paid since that date.

I would ask the court for a temporary support order based on minimum wage, with a reservation on the calculation of the final support owed, pending a hearing on the merits,  if she doesn't show for the next hearing.

Or, you could offer her a settlement now. I don't know what her financial circumstances are, or whether should would suffer from being completely cut off from the kids due to failing to pay support and then failing to appear at a subsequent contempt action in FL (because if she did come to see the kids after this happened, you could have her arrested and incarcerated for the failure to appear, until she paid the arrears owed).

Anyway, those are some ideas for you to ponder.