Q: I have an issue i need help with
*Comments: *I have an issue i need help with ASAP.. Me and my husband got into it we were in oregon when this happened. He put hands on me because he didnt want me leaving to go to California with or without my 3 kids. He had me get in the car and he was driving wreckless and to prevent from hitting another car he crashed into a ditch. His aunt had my 3 kids picked up and go to a friends house that night. A few hours went by he had a friend come get him and later i took off to where my kids were. Me and my oldest got picked up the next day and went to California where all my family lives. My younger 2 stayed with my sister in law. Now my hisband is claiming i abandoned my kids wont let me talk to them i have talked to them multiple times a day since i left. What can i do to go get them legally??
A:
It sounds like you and your husband and children have lived in Oregon for over 6 months before you just recently moved to California. If that is correct, you need to ask this question again, but ask it as a divorce and child custody issue in Oregon. I am a California attorney. I cannot answer an Oregon question. There is a law in all the states that if you take your children from one state to another state and it has been less than 6 months, you need to go back to your former state to ask for custody there. Otherwise you have to wait for 6 months before filing here in California. By the time that 6 months goes by your husband will have gotten legal advice in Oregon and filed his papers there.
It also sounds like your marriage is over. If that is the case you need to file for divorce in Oregon and at the same time file for emergency orders to get custody of your children in the divorce case in Oregon. You need to speak to an Oregon attorney. I recommend you google "Family law attorney in ________" (insert name of city from where you came from). Then call one up right now today and ask for a consultation over the phone. Don't wait. If it costs money, borrow it and pay for it.
If on the other hand, California is your home state and you and the children have lived here more than 6 months and you and your husband were only on vacation in Oregon, then California is your home state and you file your divorce in California and ask for custody of your children in California. If you live in Sacramento, you would do the same thing: Google: "Divorce attorney in Sacramento" and get an appointment on the phone right away with a divorce attorney where you live.
Don't wait. Take care of this right away. The longer you wait, the more chance your husband may already be getting an emergency order against you to temporarily take the children away from you.
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