I have a friend who is going through a custody battle over her two youngest children. Long story short, the mother left the relationship six years ago and the four children stayed with dad. This was a mutual agreement based on what both parties felt was best for their children. Now, almost seven years later, the dad has remarried to a woman who is 10 years younger and she stays home with my friends four kids plus the dad and new wife have a 2 year old and a baby. Mom decided that maybe the kids needed to come live with her. The two youngest at least anyway because dad only had a three bedroom house and the kids were being left with stepmom more than 90% of the time...who has been abusive, for sure to the dad, putting him in the hospital with three broken ribs.

Okay...so that is a little background on that. Now, my friend's two youngest children did end up coming to live with her as of June 1st of 2006 and have been there with her until now. During this time, mom and dad were to come to agreements and draw up the final paperwork and both parties were to sign. Well, mom signed and dad stalled. He stalled to the point that the whole process ended up having to start over. Now keep in mind that he did not want to have to pay any support since he had the other two and two more from the current wife at home. Understandable and my friend did not want his money...only her children. She could care less whether she had his money and requested that there be no child support. Well, the judge did not like that and has set the case for hearing on February 5th...three weeks away. Dad up and decides last week that he wants the children back and when mom was supposed to pick them up dad called and told her not to bother because they were going to come back to his house. Keep in mind, the kids have been in a new school for one semester and were not allowed to start back to school today after Christmas vacation because dad lives 45 minutes away and cannot take them back and forth. He plans to enroll the kids at the school by his house yet they go to court in three weeks. The kicker here is, after reading over my friends paperwork that she had, the dad still has legal primary physical custody of the children until they go to court so he is legally getting away with this right now.

NOW...for the question...shouldn't her attorney have protected her in some way here. In my husband's case they obtained a temporary custody order that is in effect until we go to court. It just simply states that until the judge has heard and made a ruling on our case then my stepson is in the legal custody of his father. What are my friends rights here, if any? This just seems so wrong. Not to mention what this is going to do to these children that are involved.

Oh, one last note, mom took both children to counseling for the first time last week. When asked if he had ever wanted to hurt himself, her nine year old son said "sometimes". He was then asked if he had ever wanted to hurt anyone else and he stated "I would like to kill Katrina" who is his stepmom. You figure it out...she is bipolar and is not regular on taking her medicine. The two young children are ages 10 and 9.

Q: NOW...for the question...shouldn't her attorney have protected her in some way here.

A: What did you expect the lawyer to do?

NOW...for the question...shouldn't her attorney have protected her in some way here.

Are you asking if she can seek some type of legal remedy against her attorney? I'm not sure what you are looking for here.:confused:

Shouldn't her attorney have requested at least a temporary custody situation until the court hearing since the kids were going to be enrolled in school? I mean the way the order has been written leaves it wide open for him to take them whenever he wanted. It all basically boils down to he doesn't want to pay her child support. I know she only has three weeks before the court date but do you think that the judge would pull the kids back out of his house and the school over there to be enrolled back into the school at her mom's house? I mean dad should not have done it because there was no just cause. All he has managed to do isurt the kids and that is not right!

Then I would have to ask, if her attorney did not represent her to the fullest then is there anything that she can do about that? They have paid this attorney a lot...and I mean A LOT...of money. This should not have been able to happen!

That's a hard one... it all depends on what she told her attorney. If she wasn't as forthcoming with all of her information (either by choice or completely on accident), then she probably can't do too much. After all, your attorney can only work with what you tell them. It's reasonable to expect that the attorney would make sure s/he has all the facts, but still, it's probably not likely she would have a legal remedy against her attorney here.