Custody cases are not closed EVER until the child reaches the age of 18. He needs to find an attorney now!!
He needs to contact DSS and find out the status of the DSS case. He should have gotten notice from them but if not he should contact them. Unless he was notified…His rights have not been terminated! They can’t just be terminated without his knowledge unless he was served court papers to appear and didn’t do so. And he needs to contact an attorney and file for revised visitation! That will probably need to be done in NC if that is where the kids are. If he tries to hire one in his state he is going to pay big $$$. And finally, he needs to get caught up on support. And by the way…If rights were terminated (which I don’t think they were), he would not have any future child support payments only the past due amount at the time rights were terminated.
My brother used to be in the Army. He spent 8 months in the war zone and the day he got home, his wife left him and their three boys for another man. About two months later she wanted to have joint custody so the divorce papers say joint. One day my brothers home was not up to par and DSS got involved. That was almost a year ago. Since then, he is behind on Child support due to not having a job. A judge told my brother unless the DSS stuff got fixed he was allowed supervised visitation. That has since been turned into PAS where he calls at least a dozen times a day and she refuses to let him have contact. What can he do as he now lives in another state? He was told the case was closed but his ex claims no the caseworker calls her all the time. She also tells him his rights have been terminated so therefore he has no rights to have contact with his sons and if he does it is all up to her. He has seen them a few times in the past year, that’s it.