Oklahoma Child Custody Legal Questions

Hire counsel. If you qualify financially, you may be able to seek counsel through Legal Aid. File to adopt without consent of the parents. Serve notice to the parents. Once it is determined whether or not there consent is necessary, you can proceed with the adoption if it is not. If the ruling is their consent is required, perhaps an open adoption, where the adoption goes through but there are agreed parameters for one or both parents to remain in contact within those parameters, would be a possibility.... Read More

You, as the custodial parent, can unenroll her, enroll her where she is suppose to be enrolled, put on file she is not to be unenrolled without verifying custodial status, and then advise your ex it is done.. Once you show the school the appropriate court paperwork, he won't be able to play the game twice. Fix the issue, if it is the only one, rather than getting bogged down in court over one matter with a reasonably simple fix.... Read More

Perhaps, but the fact also remains there has been an absence of support. However, courts can be hesitant when the biological parent is making a sincere effort. Then again, the interest may be feigned and is designed to encourage a concession to wive all past due support, as, after all, a willful failure to pay support is punishable by contempt and even incarceration until the contempt is purged.... Read More

You are unsafe, according to you, but your little brothers are safe? One does not sound like the other. Your father is facing charges. Your mother is involved in drugs. How DHS is not already all up in your young life is a bit of a mystery. Your aunt could get counsel and seek an emergency guardianship as part of an effort to seek a more permanent guardianship. She doesn't have to ask for all children. Frankly, if you are being hit by your father, you might be better off in a foster home if your aunt can't or won't act.... Read More

DHS may consider asking the godparents if they would like to become foster parents for the children, but have no mandate to do so. Likewise, DHS may consider a kinship placement, but is under no mandate to do so. Unless a placement by DHS results in harm to a child, the court is not going to override decisions by DHS on placement.... Read More

You indicate he is not on the birth certificate. You do not indicate that any formal declaration of paternity exists. He is not legally the father until paternity is established. You may believe him the father, and he may believe him the father, but neither of you are doing squat about having him legally declared the father. Until he is, you do not have to permit him visitation, unless you choose to. Given that he has threatened to run off with the child, has no stable home, is believed by you to be using drugs, and is allegedly abusive, it is an absolute mystery why your child would ever be with him and you not present. Could he waltz away with the child and go establish paternity and ask you be declared unfit or allege you have abandoned your child. Yes, he could do that if he is actually the father and will step up to document that role. You would need to be given notice, but if he lies and says your whereabouts are unknown and he can not reach you, he might possibly get that by a court. So, what to do, what to do. For starts, get counsel, establish paternity in court and seek support from him. Seek sole custody,with only supervised visitation for him, based on past abuse, threats to take the child and flee, lack of stable home, lack of a valid license, insist on drug testing based on allegations of use, and be prepared to submit to testing yourself or supply a clean recent test up front. If he ants in her life, he can likely get in her life. If you do nothing, he may come in under his narrative and gain far more rights than might seem appropriate based on your statements. So, go secure counsel (see Legal Aid if you can not find counsel you can afford) but secure counsel and make things official and make him live up to his existing circumstances here, where they can more easily be verified.. . May attorneys do provide initial consultations at no charge, so you need to find one of us who does. Contrary to some opinions, many attorneys also work payments plans with their clients.... Read More

If there are no orders, what visitation order exists? However, absent a sound reason, keeping children from other parent 'just because' may result in treatment of custody/visitation question in a manner you do not like. Judges look at best interests of child, not personal preferences of adults.... Read More

If there is no judge order for grandmother to have legal guardianship, go say hi to grandma, thank her for watching and tell her you ahve it from here. She may try to go get a guardianship when you do, but she has no legal superiority to a natural aprent without a court sanctioned guardianship You might give the police a head's up as you head that way, and you can not wreck the house, but the child is your child, not the grandmother's ward, unless and until ac ourt says otherwise.... Read More

The court order for supervised visitation is valid until he persuades a court that a modification is in the best interest of the children. Your preference is not controlling at present, nor is his. You are both required to abide by the order of the court. If you were to decide to make up your own rules, and something inappropriate were to transpire, how would you explain your decision to disregard the existing order? If he seeks court approval to modify, it is incumbent on you to decide whether to resist the effort or agree to it. Either way, the court will decide based on the standard of what is in the best interest of the children. It wouldn't be a complicated decision to my way of thinking.... Read More

You can file a Motion to Enforce Visitation, if allowed in your jurisdiction. Sometimes you can file for contempt, but you should try to work things out first, and use the contempt as a last resort. For the forms, you can go to a law library and check for form books. However, it would be much better to seek out legal assistance for this issue.... Read More

The bio father and a bio grand parent are aware of the pregnancy and are actively making efforts to have a presence in your daughter's life. Falsely naming boyfriend de jure as daddy is not likely to send bio father, or his mother, ?slinking away all dejected and rejected with drooped shoulders and teary eyes. It might however spawn a paternity suit and see baby daddy trying to claim mother should not have custody due to being less than trustworthy. Bottom line - it is not appropriate for a mama to try and steal away a dad's parental rights with a false declaration on paternity. If he files a paternity action, then he does. He certainly has a right to do so. She can admit paternity without agreeing to joint custody.or even unsupervised visitation, if he is unstable or other valid reasons exist.... Read More

You do yourself and your counsel a disservice by trying to end run around the services and assistance you are receiving. If you feel you need to hire different counsel, that is your right. But you have a complex set of circumstances and in truth it isn't likely to be quickly or easily resolved by anyone.... Read More