What to do if my boyfriend has a 4 year old son with his ex-wife and has not been able to see him in over 2 years since the ex-wife left the state?
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What to do if my boyfriend has a 4 year old son with his ex-wife and has not been able to see him in over 2 years since the ex-wife left the state?
We live in one state and the ex-wife and son live in another. Their divorce has been finalized since the 2 have been living in separate states, and at the time no custody issues were raised. Recently, however, the ex-wife has been denying my boyfriend any contact with his son, even over the phone. I was wondering if this was illegal? She is living out of the state without scheduled visitation. What actions should be taken against her to allow proper visitation and shared custody?
Asked on December 8, 2012 under Family Law, Hawaii
Answers:
B.H.F., Member, Texas State Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 11 years ago | Contributor
Multi-state family law issues are always a bit trickier to deal with than regular family law issues, but your boyfriend is not without options.
If your boyfriend has a divorce decree, then most likely it contains a set of visitation periods for when he lives close to the child, and another provision for when he lives farther away from the child. If his ex- is not complying with this order, he needs to file a motion to enforce.
If his divorce went through and somehow the judge forgot to set out a custody and visitation schedule, then he needs to file a motion with the court to get those orders in place.
If there are orders, but they are not workable either because of logistics or the personality of the parties, then he could file a motion to modify the orders.
The trick is figuring out where to file. If your boyfriend is going to modify or enforce a his custody orders, he needs to start with the same court that issued the orders. However, since the child has moved, he may need to have the case transferred to the new state where venue is proper. Because this does involve multi-state issues, it's best to try to find a family law attorney to help him.... and preferrably one that is comfortable with interstate family law issues.
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