My ex and i have been divorced since Apri 2010.The Stipulation is she has full custody of our daughter and i as the father have 1 hour supervised visitation.I had no money to fight this at the time So i signed thinking i could have it modified later.Im finally in a solid secure job,and though im behind substantially on child support im making good strides to get the arrears caught up.
my ex and her family are hostile towords me and when the ex and i can co-exist I get very little one on one interaction with our daughter.What are my options? I would ideally like to fight for joint custody and liberal visitation(Weekends summers)Back child support notwithstanding I am an honorable man who personally feels love and responsibility for his child is more than just a check in the mail…thank you for your attention
not an attorney
I am also divorced and my ex has supervised visitation. In my experience, there is typically a reason that visitation is supervised. In my case, for example, my ex is a drug addict. It is my understanding that custody can be revisited at any time, and with a substantial change in circumstance, the courts will modify the custody/visitation order. In my case, my ex has to go to rehab and stay clean before the courts will even entertain the idea of changing the visitation to unsupervised, and they told him as much. Does your order/agreement have any stipulations of that sort that say that you have to accomplish certain things before asking for a modification? Was there a circumstance when you signed off on the supervised visits that you would imagine the court would want to see has changed before granting a change? If it was solely because of lack of stability and you have corrected that, then I would imagine you could file a motion with the courts to modify the custody/visitation schedule. Also, have you been exercising every supervised visit possible? If you haven’t made efforts to see your child during the past couple years, that could also impact the decision of the court.
Again, not an attorney, just my experience…
not an attorney
I don’t think they can answer anything based on what you posted. To only have supervised visits there is usually a reason, and not a good one. Get life together as much as possible, improve yourself as much possible, try to see your kid as much as possible (documenting attempts). An attorney would probably need to know a lot about your situation to give you a estimate on chances of bringing a case. You should also be working with your EX to see your kid as much as she will allow.
You would have to file a motion to modify the custody order, and make your argument in court.