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My cousin has been battling his ex wife and the visitation of his three children for some time now.. Over the past few years, he has been through several attorneys and none have really helped in any way.. His current attorney has actually failed to file papers many times, and he now has no “documentation” of when his visitations are supposed to be. But of course the bills from the attorney still flow in, and nothing gets done. My cousin lives and works in Pennsylvania and his family & children are in Arkansas. On a recent trip home, in which he was in town for a week, he went to pick his children up. WHile he was doing so, an argument with his ex-wife and himself broke out over money (he is always current on child support). Naturally his ex-wife told all three children to get out of the vehicle and at that time, his oldest daughter (14-years-old) begins cursing him. After leaving he stopped by the local police department to have some sort of proof that he had in fact tried to see his children, but was unable to obtain any help. Apparently, his ex-wife did the same thing, only with the Sheriffs department, and now my cousin has a major warrant for his arrest. The next afternoon, he went to have lunch with his youngest two children only to find out that their mother had pulled them out of school for the remainder of the week. The ex-wife will stop at nothing when it comes to ruining peoples lives. I would like to know what can be done? Any information would be greatly appreciated.
Based on the information you provided, it appears as though your cousin needs to find out how he can enforce his child custody order to ensure that he sees his children despite his ex-wife’s interference. You mentioned that your cousin lives out-of-state. He will need to find out which state has legal jurisdiction over his children in order to file an order to help enforce his child support order. Oftentimes, a court will threaten to reprimand a parent if he/she intentionally interferes with the other parent’s visitation rights. Your cousin needs to enforce his rights in a legal manner. If his ex-wife continues to verbally abuse him, he may want to seek out a restraining order against her. If this occurs, a third party will likely have to provide him with access to his children. Your cousin should talk with a local attorney to obtain legal advice for his particular situation
