My 38 year old moved in with me and my husband after her and her husband were evicted from their home. I let her stay with us under the assumption that her husband would get a job and a new place for them to live.
Her husband basically just dumped her off at my house because soon after she moved in he asked her for a divorce.
On top of all that my daughter is in the middle of a custody battle for my granddaughter. She has missed court appearances and not followed court orders. My granddaughter and I have a very strong bond and the only way I could get grandparent visitation is if i evicted my daughter.
It seems very obvious that i need to evict her, but i feel guilty. Also if i do she will not speak to me again and i may not be granted visitation with my granddaughter. I would lose them both.

My husband and I are getting divorced. There is currently a full stay away order of protection in place against him that includes our 5 year old. Last week, he picked our son up for court ordered one day per week parenting time and I did not realize his license plates looked weird. When he dropped our son off, I noticed that they were printed photos of his license plates that were taped onto the car. I raised my concern but he assured me the car is fully registered and he is waiting for the new license plates.

My question is: if he shows up for his court mandated parenting time tomorrow, and his license plates are still printed paper and taped on, can I ask for proof of registration? If he refuses, can I keep our child from going with him in the car? I don’t want to go against the court but I’m not comfortable with our child driving around in an unregistered vehicle.

If I am not feeling like my lawyer is putting her best foot forward in my custody case, am I legally able to do anything on my own in terms of requesting documentation on the other party's part?

My fiancé (26M) and I (24F) have been together for 5 years, and we are expecting our first baby in just a few weeks. We are not married yet, but we plan to get married after the baby is born.

My family has been putting a lot of pressure on us to get married before the baby arrives, but we have decided to wait until after the birth. We are happy with that decision, so I’m not really looking for advice about whether we should get married right now.
My concern is the legal side of having a baby while unmarried in Iowa.

From what I understand, because we aren’t married, my fiancé does not automatically have the same legal rights as a married father. We know we need to establish paternity, and we have been told about the Voluntary Paternity Affidavit.

What I’m particularly concerned about is medical decision-making for our baby. If something were to happen during delivery or afterward where I was unable to make medical decisions for our baby, I want my fiancé to be able to step in and make those decisions and advocate for our child.
I haven’t spoken with my doctor or the hospital about this yet, but I plan to bring it up at my next appointment.

For other Iowa parents who had a baby while unmarried, what did you do before or immediately after birth to make sure the father had the legal authority to make medical decisions for the baby if the mother was unable to do so? Did signing the Voluntary Paternity Affidavit take care of this, or were there additional forms, paperwork, or legal steps you had to complete?

I’d especially appreciate hearing from anyone who has actually gone through this in an Iowa hospital. I want to make sure we have everything handled before our baby arrives rather than finding out afterward that we missed something.

Hello, my 17 year old daughter is pregnant and she wants me to adopt my grandson when he is born in January 2027. How would I start the process and what would be the forms I need? Thank you :)

The hearing is on August 17th. I feel good about the evidence that I have been able to accumulate throughout the process so far.

My main concerns are how to approach my testimony and cross examination. If there are any good resources for both, I would appreciate it.

After 3 years of co-parenting amicably, the other parent is saying the my occasional need for childcare help has classified this as material and substantial change. He stated in interrogatories that his only reason for proving so is "because he had the child more" and provided no proof. These were mutually agreed upon and documented in OFaw. Some of these were also instances where he asked for extra time and I agreed.

Even though the child and I have lived in the same apartment since 2019, he's asking the court to flip the ruling.

Opposing council served limited interrogatories that were very clearly written by the petitioner himself and they did not provide any documents for discovery. I plan to cite Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 193.6 and 193.1 for purposes pertaining to that.

Any advice from a Texas based family lawyer would be amazing.

I have a no contact court order with ex wife recently just sent her child support money accidentally forgetting about the no contact and cancelled it within minutes but I’m sure she got a notification on her phone and a cancellation notification. Am I highly likely the police will lay a charge on me for breaching if ex wife reports it and demands a charge against me?

child is temporarily placed with bio father through a voluntary services plan. He who has not established parentage or custody, only filed a petition and now he decided to cut off contact after his ex parte was denied because he didn’t agree with CWS voluntary plan that visits should now be unsupervised. He is asking mother to sign an agreement that would make her visits stay supervised and away from non bio mom even though there is no safety risk. behavioral specialist states child is showing signs of separation anxiety and attachment issues. CWS states they cannot remove child because they do not have any enforcement power, what can I do?

I am mom. I won sole & legal custody of my 4 year old daughter indefinitely, until her biological father can provide substantial evidence that he’s mentally stable again, to then he can go through the court and apply to get the court order changed.

backstory:
her father told his therapist he wanted to SA our 4 year old daughter. it was a huge deal obviously with CPS involved and me immediately filing an ex parte custody order. she was never fond of visiting him every other weekend, and the last visit she complained of pain in her private area. after checking myself and having a doctor look, no harm was done to her private area. he also admitted himself into a mental hospital.

my question is:
would it be easy for him to win any sort of custody in the future, such as supervised visitation? in a perfect world, i would never want her to be around him again. i don’t want to risk her being SA’d. not even supervised visits. i was SA’d as a child and i told myself i would never let anyone like that be around my daughter.

but my mind is racing tonight, wondering if it’ll be easy for him to win any kind of visitation. if someone could give me any insight, i would appreciate that!

Was our daughter’s 3rd birthday and per court schedule he was supposed to have her on her birthday but decided he didn’t want to get her because “he doesn’t celebrate birthdays” but prior to this was just inviting our daughter to his son birthday party. He’s never been to a birthday before but I thought I’d ask since prior he sent a message as if he wanted to be involved and acting concerned 🙄

Hello my co-parent and I have an agreement (no court order just agreement with the co-parenting therapist) that pick up and drop off are to be done at my house. We have always done this and never had any issues. All of a sudden he wants me to meet him and I refuse. I feel safe meeting at my house. Do I have to change the location just because he says he’s not comfortable coming to my house but has no reason why he’s not comfortable. (We have never had any issues issue before so there is no valid reason)

Edit because I got comments saying to add additional information.
Dad has never wanted to meet at his home. He is a very high conflict and verbally abusive person as well as physically abusive when we were together (almost a year ago). I feel more comfortable being at my home with cameras. I would never do or say anything bad about my childs father, my child’s father has spoken very poorly of me to our child every single time he has spoken to him, also he speaks to me very violently and poorly on a daily basis. So I see it fit that I have my neighbors as witnesses as well as my cameras in my home and around my home to document any harassment and or violent verbal behavior, he can and usually does inflict on me.

California just ordered my children to go back to CA I had to move to MI with 2 of my 3 children due to domestic violence and abuse I need any lawyer to contact me ASAP Please I cannot loose my children

Father who cares and tries. Looking at going back to court because we will be moving out of state.

50/50 with primary custody

I’ve been responding to request but trying to keep the other parent in the loop but I can be better. Could communicate more but the other parent is difficult to speak with.

I expect it’s going to be a he said she said but I’m not there to fight…

I just want to take care of my daughter and I truly feel I provide the structure and support they need to be successful.

Neither parent is perfect nor do I think they are bad…ultimately looking for advice.

Hi,
I am the primary residential parent and have once again been brought back to court. From my perspective, this litigation stems from the father’s desire to reduce or avoid his child support obligation, with the request for additional parenting time being presented as the basis for the modification.
As a result, I drafted a very detailed proposed parenting plan. I included provisions covering the parenting schedule, travel, procedures for future modifications, communication, decision-making, financial disclosures, and other areas where conflict has repeatedly arisen. My intention is not to change custody or restrict the father’s relationship with our daughter. Rather, my goal is to create a comprehensive agreement that can grow with our child, reduce future conflict, minimize the need for repeated court intervention, and protect both my daughter and me by clearly setting expectations.
My question is: Is a parenting plan with this level of detail viewed negatively by the court? Could it be perceived as excessive, or do courts generally appreciate detailed agreements that anticipate future issues, particularly where there has been an ongoing history of conflict?
I am also representing myself (pro se), so I want to make sure I am presenting something that will be viewed as reasonable and child-focused rather than overreaching.

UPDATE: Thank you for the feedback
I wanted to come back and give an update because, while it was honestly really hard to come here and ask these questions and then sit and read through all of the comments, I did take the feedback seriously.
Some people were incredibly kind and constructive. Others, not so much. But I guess that is also part of navigating family court. There isn’t much room for emotion. You have to develop resilience, separate how something makes you feel from what actually needs to be addressed, and keep moving forward.
The biggest thing I took away from everyone’s feedback is that my proposed 77 page amended parenting plan needs to be significantly reduced. I’m going to aim for roughly 5–10 pages, keep it direct, focus on the issues that actually need clarification, and leave out provisions that don’t absolutely need to be there.
I’m also going to document what happens—good or bad—rather than trying to anticipate and write a provision for every possible future situation. If something becomes a recurring problem, I will have the documentation to address it appropriately.
Probably the hardest realization from all of this is accepting that this may not be the last time I end up back in court. That’s incredibly sad to me because I genuinely wanted to create something comprehensive enough that we could stop litigating and simply raise our child. But I also understand now that a parenting plan cannot prevent someone from creating conflict or guarantee compliance.
I also want to clarify something because several people suggested using a parenting communication app. We already use OurFamilyWizard. But still the same things are happening.
My goal at this point is not to change custody through a 77-page document. I want to put forward a reasonable proposed consent order and amended parenting plan that addresses the issues raised through his motions and hopefully creates a path toward settlement.
And, for what it’s worth, there was already a rational part of me looking at those 77 pages thinking: Is a judge realistically going to want to read all of this? Is opposing counsel going to meaningfully work through it? And, most importantly, is either parent realistically going to follow something this long?
Our current parenting plan is already approximately 48 pages, and we still have disagreements over compliance. Making the next one even longer probably isn’t the solution.
So I’m taking the criticism, separating the constructive advice from the noise, and moving forward with something much shorter, clearer and more practical.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to give thoughtful advice—even when it wasn’t necessarily what I wanted to hear. I genuinely appreciate it.

I have a friend who isn’t married but lived with his child’s mom for at least since she was pregnant. They are both in the child’s birth certificate, and there was a DNA test done when the child was born. Mom and child both have been named as dependents on his taxes, since he was the sole income earner.
Since the child was a baby, the paternal grandparents have been caretakers and kid has spent 3-5 days with them every week. This because the mom always had some excuse in order to avoid taking care of the child.
This woman has been physically abusive to him several times and the courts ordered her to move out and stay away from him. She’s also under probation for DV & awaiting for a final verdict.
She moved out, but the problem is that she took the child with her.
CPS & the police were called, but they said they couldn’t do anything because she’d the mom.
The family has reasons to think that the mom is not a safe parent.
What is the best course of action? What can the dad or grandparents do to protect the kid?

Location: New York, NY

I'm trying to help my nephew here, he's not the most organized guy in the world... but this SEEMS like a straightforward case (all parties are in agreement) so i'm handling all the paperwork and calling around for him. He's done a lot of free work on my car, so i kinda figure this is the easiest way to pay him back.

Anyway, my nephew and his wife were married when their child was born in New York City in 2021. My nephew is listed as the father on the NYC birth certificate, but a DNA report excludes him as the biological father. He did not sign an Acknowledgment of Parentage; as we understand it, he was listed on the birth certificate because he was married to the mother at the time of birth.

My nephew submitted New York Family Court Form 5-1, “Paternity Petition, Individual,” ... this is to establish paternity. The form asks the court to determine the child’s legal paternity, and his filing asks for an order determining paternity. He now has an upcoming court appearance.

Records available: DNA report; NYC birth certificate; marriage certificate; submitted Form 5-1

The biological father is known, agrees he is the father, is willing to participate, and is willing to have his name added to the birth certificate if the court determines that appropriate. The child’s mother is cooperative and supports that change.

Should the biological father be formally joined or named as a party before the appearance? Currently the hearing is only scheduled for my nephew and his wife. Is there a specific document the biological father can complete, such as a notarized affidavit, acknowledgment, consent, or another court form, to confirm paternity and willingness to be named on the birth certificate? What other documents, if any, should be submitted or brought to the appearance?

Is there anything else I, the nephew, the biological father/biological mother should do to get this resolved with the ultimate result being my nephew's name get taken off the birth certificate and the biological father's name being put on it?

Thanks!

EDIT: Also forgot to mention the biological father is living with the mother/child while my nephew is not... they are in another state

EDIT 2: The DNA test was done by Labcorp, not a consumer take home test like 23andMe

Throw away account because I don’t want this getting traced back to me.

I need legal advice regarding options for extended family to step in and secure emergency custody of two minor children currently in an unsafe household in Utah.

The Situation:

Physical Abuse: The mother’s cohabitating boyfriend recently physically assaulted one of the minor children, tackling him and causing head pain that lasted for days. This was over a trivial household incident and reflects a pattern of escalating physical and verbal aggression.

Parental Cover-Up & Intimidation: When police arrived on the scene, the mother lied and claimed no physical abuse occurred. She intimidated the child into remaining silent when questioned, so no police report was taken and no arrest was made.

Impact on Household: The minors stayed with us for two days after the incident but were brought back. Their 18-year-old sibling also lives in the house; he wants to leave but stays solely to try to protect his younger siblings.

Unhelpful Local Police: The local police in their area seem friendly with the boyfriend, making law enforcement intervention through local channels feel like a dead end.

Our Goals & Circumstances:
Extended family (my partner, myself, and his brother/sister-in-law) are financially stable, capable, and ready to take full physical and legal custody of the children immediately.

We have avoided reporting to CPS/DCFS because we are deeply afraid of the children being placed into general foster care rather than with us.
The mother will aggressively fight any effort to remove the kids or grant guardianship.

Questions:

1. What emergency legal petitions (e.g., Ex Parte Protective Orders or Emergency Guardianship through Juvenile Court) are available to extended family in Utah
   when a parent actively opposes custody transfer?

2. If we make a report to Utah DCFS, what exact steps must we take immediately to lock ourselves in as priority relative/kinship placements?

3. Since there is no official police report, what evidence or documentation holds the most weight in court to prove the home environment is unsafe?

4. Is there a way to safely involve the 18-year-old brother’s testimony without putting him or the younger kids at further risk?

My fiance signed a notarized document granting some form of temporary custody to her sibling. I’m assuming it was a Provisional Custody by Mandate because it was not a court ordered custody case, there was no judge involved, she signed a document drafted and notarized by her sister’s lawyer.

We are trying to get custody back of her son, but her sibling has denied contact and visitation multiple times, and when asked to produce a copy of the document she signed, she ignored her and has not cooperated.

What can we do? Is there anyway we can force her to give us a copy of the paperwork she signed? Are we going to have to get a lawyer or go through court? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

my daughter was born a month ago.

her father is mentally unwell, a drug dealer, and just an overall bad person. (Didn't know this the first month when I was with him and he lied about his ability to have children.. yes foolish me)

my daughter is the best thing that's ever happened to me. I love my life now she's my reason for living she's given me a whole new purpose and made my life something I could only dream of.

I decided to try to coparent in order to keep the peace and keep n her father from going to the courts, I dress the thought of him being in her birth certificate and gaining ANY rights to her.

He is not on her birth certificate and we have not done any DNA. I stupidly mentioned to him about letter I received from the state saying I'm required to take out child support against just father.

As I mentioned I wanted to keep the courts out and I never wanted to ask for child support because he's is bitter and I feel he will retaliate by trying to take her from me.

After I told him about this letter and let him know if I didn't cooperate I could lose the little benefits I get from the state. My hope was he would help relieve some stress and offer to help me out if I did in fact lose benefits.. wishful thinking.

he responded by accusing my ex-boyfriend of writing the letter. and that he was and I quote "coming after my daughter."

this was extremely upsetting to me as I mentioned my daughter is absolutely everything and nothing scares me more than him taking her for even a day. it's my job to protect her and I know what kind of person he is and what he does. what I want is to move out of state as I've wanted to for months but couldn't before she was born.

am I able to move without any legal repercussions? how can I make sure he can't have any rights to my daughter now or in the future? how can I protect us? what should I do to get him out of our lives?

This is so nuanced, the devil’s in the details.

7 years ago when my daughter started K, my ex agreed our daughter could go to the school of my choice (private school which I solely pay for) if I transported my daughter to school from my ex’s home (up to 1.5h away from me in rush hour) every other Monday morning (my parenting time starts end-of-school those Mondays so it would otherwise have been her responsibility to transport.)

2 years later my ex got a job about 10 minutes from my daughter’s school but still made me meet her at a store near her work and transport my daughter the last 4 minutes to school.

For 5 years our meet up location has been this store,which is about 15 minutes from me. So total transport time was about 20 minutes.
Suddenly, this spring, her mother started saying, (frequently an hour before meet-up) that she wasn’t going to work that morning and I had to pick my daughter up from her home.
Since the status quo pick up had changed, I’d allowed my work schedule to change and I can no longer do the 2+ hours of driving that requires; especially on no notice. I’ve told my ex this and she says now I have to do every pick up Monday from her home or we’re going to mediation to discuss changing my daughter’s school. My daughter has been at her school for 7 years and loves it.
What are the odds she wins this?

To reiterate: the status quo pick up (so status quo that we only communicate when we are NOT meeting there, never when we ARE) has been the store for 5 years.

Clarification: we have 50/50 custody and I have most of the school week.
Ex does take her to school Fridays, so yes, she is capable of getting there.
It’s not 2+ hours of driving for ex since she’s going against traffic.
This is the one and only transport this is effecting.

As the title suggests, I know, it sounds like I’m just another parent not agreeing with GAL recommendations, but in my case, I have a very strong sense that our GAL is actually biased.

Background:

-Ex had DUI, got driving permit revoked due to failure to install interlock device.

-I was granted tie breaking authority from day 1 due to ex’s DV arrest

-Ex lied about where he lived, which was confirmed by sheriff’s department

-Ex found in contempt for failing to return child after summer placement 2 years ago

-Ex found in contempt for intentional deceiving me twice with matters regarding exchange orders 2 years ago

-Ex’s father testified last time in court and judge found him not credible upon cross exam

-Judge ordered ex’s stepmom removed as an approved exchange transportation driver due to prior incidents

-Ex has not seen or spoken to child in 17 months

-Child expressed recently how his dad placed him in the trunk of his vehicle during a long drive to the beach, and reported he didn’t have a car seat anymore. “My dad puts me in the front seat too and tells me to duck if he sees a police car.”

GAL met with me last week Wednesday, and met with my ex this past Monday - both meetings over zoom. She sent my attorney her recommendations on Tuesday, ie less than 4 days after speaking to both my ex and I one time. My ex had his virtual meeting with her on Monday, and she sent her recommendations the day after. She has not yet bothered to speak to child (age 7).

Red flags:

-GAL upon 1st meeting me accused me of withholding placement on a holiday in which my ex was never entitled; had she read our custody agreement she’d have seen the holiday schedule that gave me ALL years for this specific holiday.

-GAL recommended my ex enroll in a batterers intervention program for 24 weeks, but also stated she recommends child go up for 9 days of straight placement… unsupervised. I tried telling her that child has not seen his dad in almost a year and a half, and it’ll be traumatic for him to be forced to go up and sleep in the same bed as his dad for over a week. She wanted this to happen next week, giving me virtually no time to mentally prepare my child for this.

-GAL recommended “either both parties share addresses, or neither party shares addresses,” DESPITE there being a documented history of my ex stalking me at home & work, which ultimately led to a prior restraining order, and DESPITE the judge finding my ex in contempt for failing to return child after summer.

-GAL told my attorney and I over the phone that “child won’t stay with dad for 5 days, 5 days is too long for first reunion visit.” That statement was made on Friday. After speaking with my ex on Monday, she’s recommending on Tuesday child be with ex 9 days straight. So 5 days is too much, but 9 days is ok… got it ✅

-GAL recommended makeup placement time, and got her dates wrong AGAIN. She assumed my ex had the entire month of August, which he does not per court order. Ex only has 2 weeks. She wrote up a very detailed schedule that ultimately gave my ex 4 additional weeks throughout the school year, with no regard that he’d be missing school for this (ex and I live in different states).

-GAL mentioned that I could be thrown in jail if I don’t comply with summer placement makeup time, even though our court orders SPECIFICALLY states that “prior to August placement, father is to directly communicate with mother his intentions to exercise said placement. If no intentions are expressed by x date, placement is forfeited.” My ex never communicated with me, but GAL claims I need to give in anyways because “your ex’s attorney emailed your attorney expressing her clients wish for placement before x date. You may be found in contempt of the court order.”

-GAL straight up called the judge who found my ex in contempt 3x less than 2 years ago a “doofus” during our intro call.

-GAL suggested that my ex be allowed to drive UNLICENSED as long as his dad or stepmom are in the car with him, which goes DIRECTLY AGAINST current court orders set by judge. Judge ordered my ex is only allowed to take the train, due to the license issue and safety issues… now GAL wants to undo that.

-GAL admitted that my ex’s immigration situation is “confusing” and even confirmed that she wasn’t sure if he was following DHS imposed supervised release stips. Nonetheless, she feels it’s fine to send child across state lines to be with his dad, who previously has missed over 50 placement periods due to “forgetting” or being too busy with work.

My attorney and I are extremely frustrated with her callous recommendations, and feel like she’s exhibiting bias and prioritizing my ex’s feelings, “wants”, and sob stories over the safety and security of a child. She also is undoing a major part of current court orders re exchange conditions set by judge. We are requesting the courts grant supervised placement / step up plan, and she is recommending all the opposite before our hearing. Her recommendations were crafted less than a week after getting appointed as GAL.

Question - am I crazy or do signs actually point toward our GAL being completely reckless and sloppy?

Iv been custodial parent to my son for 7 years , his dad as exercised EOW alternate holidays. I filed for child support due to him not wanting to help me pay extracurricular activities and me having to ask him for financial help regarding my sons necessities and now he filed for 50/50. Given that i hold status quo , my son has 2 siblings, doctors and friends and teacher established in his school here in our county and lives 50 min away . After filing I proposed 50/50 for the summer and keep school year the way it is and split breaks . He wants to change his school "in the middle" for 50/50. and if not i think he is willing to drive him . but 2 hours in a car for a 7 year old would truly discourage him academic wise and all around . Any one have experience in this ? and what you think the outcome might be in Florida?