i have a 6 yr old daughter. we lived in Va almost all of her life. I took the father to court and agreed upon joint custody with me having physical custody. He got heavily into drugs, stole my car, and ended up in jail a year later. Even then i still took my daughter up the local jail to visit with him until he was moved 4 hrs away. He then got out of jail and moved in with me temporarily for 2 weeks. He got into more trouble and moved out of the state and got into even more trouble. I have since been married and had another child with my husband who is in the navy. He got orders to Tx and so we just arrived here. Heres my problem, my 6 yr olds bio dad has had nothing to do with her in 2 yrs. Last June(2004) he wanted to take her to texas from Va and there is nothing in our custody papers that said he could. I didnt agree on it, he then stated he would not get involved in her life ever again. Since then I have not heard from him, recieved any mail, phone calls, or emails until today. I have saved everything onto my computer since that was the contact in june 2004. Now he is saying he has contacted a lawyer and will be going up to VA in august to get full custody of our daughter. I do not have the funds to go back to Va (i have 2 other children to take care of as well that are not by him). My husband is the sole provider and we get funded by the military as well as the medical provided to her is by the navy from my husband. What do i do? i sent a change of address to the Va courts and now since ive arrived here i can not find my custody paper(it is somewhere but we just got our things from the movers on sunday and i cant find it anywhere). i can not afford a lawyer as it is, and im not sure if the military Jag will help out in this...I dont know if i can even file anything in Texas since the original was in Va. Her father does not reside or have in the last 2 yrs in Va. I dont have an address or phone number and hes never tried to contact us until now. I do believe he resides in Nebraska but i cant be sure. in the last two years he has moved from Ohio to Texas to Nebraska . He says that i have now broke the custody agreement by not letting him see her, yet he has never contacted me to even try and see her. I try looking up things on the internet but get even further confused. He has never paid child support in her 6 years, only spent maybe 1-2 months of her whole life with her. I dont know what else to do and what my legal rights are.
edited to add: nothing in the child custody papers state that i can not move away, it only states that the father should give me 24 hrs notice when he wants to have visitation and i have to agree to it

Go visit base JAG and they should be able to help. I suggest that you pursue sole legal custody of the daughter with him receiving limited, supervised visitation in light of his criminal record. On a practical note, if he has had criminal law issues like you describe, he can pretty much forget getting full custody, so that is about either avoiding child support or being angry that you moved, married and have moved on so he cannot show up whenever in your lives. Whether you file in VA or TX, and check with JAG about your eligiblity to get the case transferred, you should be able to get sole custody.

If I were in your shoes I'd be going to the attorney general's office and telling them what you got to deal with.... they are a legal aid office that does not charge for the services. Whether you live in Va or TX it doesn't matter. you live here now with your daughter so that's where you file now. your case will get transfered when you go to court and get sole custody. Don't you worry you are doing the right things for your daughter.... and that's what the state of texas looks at... what's best for your child... not the parents.

My husband is in a similar situation. A lawyer told us that if you have custody of the children and have lived in Texas for more than six months then VA no longer has jurisdiction over the children. The case will have to be moved to Texas. Or you can request that your case be transfered to Texas. I believe the Texas Attorney General's office can do that their website is www.oag.state.tx.us. Good Luck!!