Q: I've been live in Texas and I have a 10-year-old son whose father took me to court about five or six months ago.
He did not tell me when the court date was so obviously he was granted everything he asked for. Which included taking my child support away and asking me to pay $100 a month. But about 3 weeks later he turned around and gave me back my child for me to care for a full time. He's going against everything that was granted him in the papers is there anything that I can do about that
A:
The father doesn't have to tell you the court date because when you were served with the lawsuit, there should have been a notice of hearing telling you where, when and what time the case was set for a hearing. So you should have known when the court date was because it should have been right there in the paperwork.
Generally courts do not like to re-visit issues that they have recently decided, and the court will not be happy with you (if, in fact, you did fail to appear at the hearing after receiving notice of when and where it was to be held) or with him if he has, as you are saying, abandoned the child and given the child back to you. This is a material change in the child's circumstances and therefore the court should grant you a new hearing on these changed circumstances. At the hearing you may be able to straighten out the custody order as well as fix the child support problem. But if you want the court to look favorably on your case , you'd better make sure that in the meantime, you have complied with the child support order presently in place. Don't show up for court behind in your court-ordered support payments.
You definitely need a lawyer to present this case to the judge.
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