QUESTION
What’s the likelihood of us being granted emergency custody if the mother’s situation is not good?
Asked on Dec 03rd, 2013 on Child Custody - Ohio
More details to this question:
I live in Ohio. My half sister had a baby at sixteen. Two months after, she had given me the child because she could not take care of him. She also had a fear she was going to jail. Before she was pregnant she had ran away from the mental facility she was put in after assault that had resulted in a girl losing her fetus. She is supposed to be on many medications but does not take them. Now the child has lived with me for over a year. I have power of attorney signed by both her and the father. But now the grandmother of the child (on the father’s side) is trying to convince her to take the child. The mother’s situation has not changed at all. I want to file for emergency custody followed by full custody. I was wondering what my chances are of receiving them both. Also the living situation of the mother is not good either. She lives in a two bedroom apartment with her aunt, aunt’s boyfriend and the child's father. The place is disgusting and I have photos (liquor bottles on the floor, mold growing everywhere). The aunt’s boyfriend also has a long record with domestic violence, etc.
1 ANSWER
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There are no simple yeses or no's in this type of situation. It sounds as if you would have a good case to obtain temporary custody, but each case is different and each judge evaluates the facts and circumstances of the child differently. Ultimately, the court is trying to look out for the welfare of the child, but the preference always is to have the child with its mother, if possible, and in a contested case, the standard is generally whether the parent is "unfit" to parent or to provide for the child. Again, the facts you present sound favorable and it sounds as if filing a motion for custody would be in order.
Answered on Dec 06th, 2013 at 7:22 AM