Q: I left an abusive relationship and the father has been witholding my children from me. Can I get them back
He has a lawyer, I do not. Police here told me I could take them and not return them until court. I did so and an emergency hearing was held and I now only have three days a week while he is at work I need advice on how to get my children back . I have police reports, logs of harassment And he has even been arrested for pushing me down the stairs and slapping me. The only thing that I did wrong was instead of calling the police the last time that he was drunk, I had a friend pick me up and I left my kids to sleep expecting to go back in the morning while he was at work. But he refused to go to work and it escalated from there, I did not feel safe being around him at that time and we worked it out for a couple of days, with the kids staying with me for a night then, when I had to work I dropped them off to him and the next morning, his mother came in from out of town and he filed for custody. I have not been allowed to see them for more than 6 HOURS since nor call to say goodnight.
A: Not to be trite, but you do need an attorney. You need to file a petition for custody and prove that it would be in the best interest of the children for you to have residential custody of the children.
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