QUESTION
Can I file a petition of emergency custody due to COVID-19?
Asked on Apr 07th, 2020 on Child Custody - Tennessee
More details to this question:
My daughter currently lives with me, even though her mother has full custody. She moved in with me due to her mother's struggle with drugs, alcohol, etc. (Her mother actually made her leave her house.) It has been a couple of months and now the mother keeps threatening my daughter that she is coming to get her, and bringing the cops. She has threatened this a couple of times now but has not yet followed through. As you can imagine it causes a great deal of emotional destress each time she does this. My greatest concern, is that my daughter has Cystic Fibrosis and is high risk for COVID-19. We have been self-quarantined for over three weeks and I have proof that her mother has not self-quarantined, or even following CDC guidelines, even hosting a party with 15-20 people (at least) three days ago. The mother has custody but it would literally be a risk for my daughter to be forced to leave my house and go with her mom. Do I have any rights to protect my daughter?
1 ANSWER
I'm sorry you are having to struggke with this. Until that Parenting Plan is changed, it's operative. The burden is going to be on you to show it needs to be changed, and you'll have to file and serve a Petition to Modify Parenting Plan, along with probably one or more Motions. Courts are hearing some emergency cases, and working on video hearings, etc., but there's a lot of uncertainty everywhere. At least with a Petition to Modify Parenting Plan filed, if she shows up and acts on her threats, you've got an active case, and so potentially a shorter path to a temporary hearing.
Answered on Apr 10th, 2020 at 11:35 AM