The Gaming Den

So I'm wondering just how long one parent can keep their child away from the other parent. Let me describe the current scenario and maybe the more legally inclined here can give me some insight into what's going on here. So my little sister has two kids by a certain man. One day, about 2 months ago now he shows up (as he occasionally does) to sweep up his daughters and to spend some quality time with them. Well this particular time, after he left he immediately opened a case with CPS against my sister and then just didn't bring them home. Now, luckily, the older of the two is in school so she was easy to get back but unfortunately the younger one is not.

They are not married, never had a custody battle. He'd pretty much just left one day and left his kids in my sister's care which, because of their living situation, caused her and them to be homeless for a time. I've been told he's waived his parental rights so there's that too. Now my sister has tried several things, calling CPS on him, getting money together to start a custody battle, and attempting to drag him into child support court.

None of these have worked. She's been told that, despite the length of time she has not seen her daughter that she can't call it a kidnapping since he is also the father and they don't have a custody thing set up. She's also been told that no one has to tell her where her daughter is (which is something I can't wrap my head around). Now today she went to child support court but the case was dismissed because they do not know where he is and apparently couldn't get in contact with him to tell him he had to come to court. Now this boggles my mind because apparently 'other' people were able to find him (including CPS) and there's just been another court date set but he still has to be contacted for it.

I've no reason to believe that they will be able to contact him for it so what I'm wondering (and what no one has been able to tell me or her) is what can be done anywhere between now and very soon about AT LEAST finding out what house he's keeping her daughter in and whether or not it is actually legal to keep her child away from her for this amount of time.

Laws vary by location. Where does your sister live?

If you can obtain the child back, just sort of do that. Older child should know where they are right?

Legally, what various people (CPS, schools, ect.) should do when no initial custody order exists is basically incoherent mess, so they all try to pass all problems and ignore both parents requests until the initial custody order.

It obviously is parental kidnapping, but the only solution is to in fact, get a custody order. You can get the default custody order as long as they have good reason to believe he was properly served, which, if they set a second date, they believe they have at least an address for that. If he really doesn't show up, that's honestly for the best for her, because you are very likely to be able to make your case, and get an advantageous custody order, after which, everyone will suddenly cooperate with you.

Chamomile wrote:Laws vary by location. Where does your sister live?

Indiana

And I thought that was the case. Every time my sister or I talk to another person in the system some suggest that we go talk to someone else or that nothing can be done.

Get a lawyer. If you have a lawyer, even a cheap one, they will be able to get the court to subpoena the father's address from whoever knows in order to serve him a custody hearing.

Grek wrote:Get a lawyer. If you have a lawyer, even a cheap one, they will be able to get the court to subpoena the father's address from whoever knows in order to serve him a custody hearing.

She has one, that's how she started the custody thing. Problem is finding the man. He has no official address, no 'real' job, or anything. He uses his mother's, gf's, and other extended family's addresses. Getting a hold of where he is seems to be a major issue.

If you already have a lawyer, and he hasn't asked the court for a subpoena, he is probably going ahead with a motion to serve by publication. That's where they publish a notice saying that he's to come to court in the newspaper and outside the courthouse as a last ditch attempt to let him know he's wanted in court. But that seems like a very strange choice to me, given that CPS, the school, your older niece and assorted other people all know where he is.

If you haven't engaged a service of process agency yet, maybe you should get a quote. Those guys are cut from the same cloth as repo-men and private dicks; skiptracing is entirely their milieu. A photograph of the guy plus his girlfriend's address would probably be plenty enough for a service dude to go park his van for a few hours and get this shit done.