Custody

North Carolina Divorce Law Divorce and Separation Answers
1

There will be many more questions to follow, but for now the status quo is as follows:

Three day custody trial was held in Meck County mid-July, ruling came back 10 days later that my daughter was to live primarily with her father out of state. Is there supposed to a grounds for this ruling? No one can explain how this has happened.

It is an extremely complex case that has been going on for two years. I only made it to trial because I was sure that if I just remained steadfast I would regain custody of my child since there is nothing of record anywhere that indicates that I am unfit other than her father throwing up stuff from my past that does not relate to my child. I had custody of my child from birth until she was six years old and she was never not out of my care once until her father and I moved to seperate states and she visited with her on four separate occasions for approx. one week each.

Does NC retain jurisdiction in the event that I now need to go pro se to defend what I know is going to be motion after motion for contempt?

Is there a deadline to file an appeal?

2

North Carolina will have jurisdiction in child custody matters when North Carolina is the child’s home state. A child’s home state is the state the child has lived in for the last six months. If a judge awarded custody of your child to the father out-of-state, then that state will likely have jurisdiction after six months of your child living there. But for now, North Carolina will retain jurisdiction.

Yes, there is a deadline to file an appeal. You must file an appeal within 30 days of the entry of the judgment.

If you have received the written judgment, reading through the Findings of Fact section may help you see why the judge ruled in the way that he or she did.