State Jurisdiction and Child Custody

[sweetpatti144]

My fiance has two children with his ex (who lives in Texas) and had physical custody of them in Florida for just over six months. Once we hit the six month mark, he filed for divorce and custody of the children (filed 8/10/09). That same week he was admitted to the hospital due to a car accident and the childrens' mother came and forcibly took the children from their front yard. I say forcibly because the children were screaming as their mother was forcing them into the car. The police, of course, did not do anything because nothing was ordered by the court as to who had custody. During the time that the mother has had the children in Texas, she has refused to allow him to speak to them (has only let him talk to them a couple of times and it was to make the 8 year old lie to him about their whereabouts). She also dodged the process server (so our courts wouldn't do anything because she hadn't been served). Once she was finally served with the divorce and custody papers, we had an emergency hearing set for 9/9/09. Upon arrival, we were notified that she filed to dismiss the case in Florida stating that jurisdiction was not here because the children never lived here. We have now provided proof to the courts that the children did live here, attended school here, and had vaccinations here during that period of time. We now have another hearing set for 9/29/09 between the judge in Florida and the judge in Texas to determine jurisdiction.

Is there any reason you can think of that would give Texas jurisdiction over Florida? As I said, the children did live here in Florida for just over six months when the custody paperwork was filed with the courts here. They lived here when the papers were filed and were only removed after the filing. Could the mother get in trouble for removing the children after papers were filed here, and then filing in Texas? Could she get into trouble for filing false documents with the courts here in Florida?

I know this is a complicated and long explanation. Any answers and advice would be greatly appreciated.

[sweetpatti144]

I have another question related to this case.

Can a previous case that has been closed for custody of another child with another woman be used as a determination for the judgement in this case? What if the papers that were requested by this other woman to give to the current respondent (mother) are considered confidential by the courts? Can the woman who is not related or involved in the previous case use them?

[Attorney Howard Iken]

Your last question is a bit too vague to answer. I suspect those papers were generated in a Dependency Court - which are confidential. You cannot present them in another case.

Jurisdiction is going to be a tricky issue and the outcome will be unpredictable. I think a lot of this will hinge on which state has the greatest body of evidence concerning the children. It does not sound like the Mother was subject to Florida's jurisdiction because she never was served. So, no, she will not be in trouble.


Attorney Howard Iken


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