I am sorry you have lost contact with your child. If your child resides in TN, you really need to contact an attorney in that State. I understand you do not have an address for her, but the attorney will likely be able to help you. It may be that there has been an initial custody determination in England? Either way, TN may be the appropriate jurisdiction to bring a custody action to enforce your current order or to establish a custody order. I am not clear where your child has resided over the last six months, if it is TN, then that is where you need to seek custody. If you have a custody order from your court in England, our courts would recognize it under uniform custody law (UCCJEA) and I know NC would recognize the order (and likely TN) but seek advice from TN attorney, regarding enforcing a foreign custody order.
Either way, it sounds like contacting the TN state bar or bar association for TN to obtain a referral for a family law attorney. Seek a specialist, and also review our website for more contacts of out of state family law attorneys. Good luck.
Deborah M. Throm
Rosen Law Firm
1829 E. Franklin Street, Bldg. 600
Chapel Hill, NC 27514
919.265.0017 direct
919.321.0780 main voice www.rosen.com
Email: dthrom@rosen.com
4101 Lake Boone Trail
Suite 500
Raleigh, NC 27607
919.256.1544 direct
919.787.6668 main voice
Firstly, good morning everyone and a Happy New Year from England. I hope everyone is well and finding things are getting easier, my best wishes to everyone here.
Here is my situation :-
My wife is, I believe, currently resident in TN although her exact whereabouts are unknown to me at present. We were married in SC, but lived in Charlotte, NC. I have a baby daughter with my wife, named Cassidy, who will be 3 years old in March, and 3 step daughters also from my wife’s first marriage.
I came back to England with our baby daughter in June of 2005 for a holiday, it has since become clear that my wife saw this as a separation. I am not a US citizen but my wife and daughter are.
To cut a very long story short she was seeing another English guy without my knowledge, defied a High Court Order and took our daughter back to the US and has since broken all contact with me and I no longer know where she is living.
I have had no contact whatsoever with my daughter since November of 2005, last saw her in September of 2005 and I am now informed that my wife has remarried…but we are not yet divorced. I have been unable to file for divorce due to not having an address to send divorce papers to.
My main concern is with my wife not allowing me contact with my daughter. I raised all of the children in the family for the 3 years I was in the US and am a loving Father. I want to be a part of my daughter’s life but I am totally unclear as to what my rights are when the Father is resident outside of the USA.
Also I don’t know the implications regarding my wife now being in TN.
Can someone please help me?
Steve
" All night hearing voices telling me that I should get some sleep because tommorrow might be good for something…"