Q: My Grandpa and I (Aunt) have temp custody of my niece. My niece went to visit my mother. Now she won't give her back.
My Grandpa was recovering from surgery. I would have looked after my niece but I went to jail. My Mother agreed to care for my niece while my Grandpa healed. I am out of jail now. We informed my Mother that we wanted to pick my niece up and bring her back home here in Portland Oregon. My Mother lives in Kent, Washington. My Mother said she went before a Judge and is filing for custody of my niece. Can she do that? What action should I take? Please help.
A:
There is no way to sort this out through an informal chat on the internet. If a court ordered that someone has custody of the girl previously, then that court is the only court that can change custody. When you say that you and the grandfather have temporary custody there is no way to know if that means it was an informal arrangement or a court ordered this.
Assuming that one court had decided custody and now Grandma is going to another court, the only thing the second court can do is issue an emergency temporary custody order if there is some reason to believe that the child is in danger. There would then be just a temporary order and the paperwork when served on you would state that you have the right to request a hearing. I suspect that Grandma will then file to modify the custody order of the first court because the first court has to make any orders for a more permanent change.
The big question is, where are the biological parents? It is the biological parents who have more rights then any other relative to have custody of their daughter. So I suspect that there was some issue with both biological parents and the child was removed from their custody and placed with Grandpa and you as a temporary placement by a Juvenile court.
You will need to talk to a lawyer to sort this out.
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