Step-son wants to visit his dad and I

North Carolina Divorce Law Divorce and Separation Answers
1

My step-son who will be 15 the middle of May has contacted his dad through facebook and has told him he wants visitation with him. Has stated he asked his mom (and has asked in the previous years) to see his dad. The custody agreement is mutually agreed and the ex will not agree to any an hasn’t since Father’s Day of 2007. She has given no reason to anyone as to why she stopped allowing my husband to see his 3 kids (14, 12, 10) and we only figure because I came into the picture. She has moved from Rutherford county to Herndersonville, but their divorce, and custody agreement was done in Cleveland county. She took me to court in 2010 for “harassing phone calls” 6 calls in a 10 month span. I simply wanted to know her side of the divorce, she has in the past also had my husband charged with various crimes (trespassing, destruction of property, abuse) all, but 1 count of domestic violence was thrown out. That one count he plead guilty to because she told him they could get back together-he wasn’t stupid enough to plead guilty next time.

Now my question is we had a social worker (husband is on SSDI) tell us that at 14 his son could choose to have visits with his dad and if he so chose could request a judge to live with us, however she did not tell us how we would go about this. The ex won’t answer any calls, has thrown away (or dismissed) all letters of contact including a request for regular visitations, cards and such all seem to do nothing. Checks for the kids birthdays go un-cashed even so we believe she just tosses everything from my husband in the trash. We tried free legal aid in Gaston county, but they told us they don’t have the funds to take on custody cases.

How should my husband go about getting his son in front of a judge to tell his wishes? And do we need to go to the county his mom lives in, the one we live in or where all the divorce and custody proceedings previously were done?

2

Not an attorney:

I think if you had an enforceable custody/seperation agreement you should have filed for breach of contract back in 2007.

3

If the only document in place is an agreement, your husband should file a custody action and seek a judgment of the court awarding him time with the children which is then enforceable since it will be a court order. If there isn’t a pending court action, the claim should be filed in the county where the children reside. If there is a pending custody action (and a court order), he should file a motion for contempt and possibly a motion to modify in the county where the action is pending, or file to change venue. Once venue is changed, he should then file the motion for contempt or to modify.

4

The only court order is “mutually agreed visitation”, however she never agrees. Also since she became a friend on their kids facebook pages which is the only contact my husband has had none of the kids have been online. This is going on nearly a month. I will let my husband know he needs to file a custody action. He however does not know her current address which is in a different county than her previous one. I assume the courts can find her to serve a summons?

5

He will need to locate her address to have her served.