QUESTION
How can I move away with our 10 year old daughter from my unfit wife? Still married, no custody order.
Asked on Jan 29th, 2016 on Family Law - California
More details to this question:
We are from Florida. Our 10 year old daughter was born in Florida and lived there for 8 out of 10 years. We moved to California and separated (my wife and me) and we split 50/50 time with our daughter. My wife has been making very bad choices and acting unfit. Under her care our daughter has missed a lot of school. My wife leaves her alone unsupervised in a filthy apartment sometimes all night. According to our daughters phone records our daughter is frantically calling my wife all night dozens of times and my wife is not even answering her calls. My wife has been arrested several times, committed to psychiatric facilities for involuntary observation over the years. And she drinks alcohol every day. She provides no stability and no structure for our daughter and I would like to move back to Florida from California. My wife will never sign off on this though. Is it legal for me to just take our daughter to Florida and file all court papers in Florida to make it legal and permanent?
1 ANSWER
Family Law Attorney serving San Rafael, CA
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Richard Helzberg
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You absolutely need a court order- it would be a felony under California Law (PC 278.5) for you to simply take your child to Florida, regardless of what is going on. Hire an attorney. If you can't afford an attorney, see the Family Court Facilitator, who is an attorney and without cost to you, as your county courthouse and find out how to proceed. You clearly have your daugther's best interest at hand, and now you have direction on how to fulfill your obligation to her.
Answered on Jan 30th, 2016 at 12:35 PM