Q: My friend’s mother filed for custody of her daughter. She was awarded based on lies. How can she get custody back?
My friend was with a man who her mother did not approve of. Her mother would keep her most of the time while my friend worked. Her boyfriend at the time went to jail. Her mother filed for emergency custody, lied and said she brought her daughter to the jail for visits, again lied and said she was a flight risk because the child’s bio father lives in Canada, and she was awarded custody two years ago. Since it happened, my friend has not seen or talked to her daughter. Her mother had her daughters number changed, she will not answer her phone calls or texts. My friend has had a full time CNA job and her own home for well over a year. How can she go about gaining custody of her daughter back? Her daughter is 12 years old.
A: Your friend will need to hire an attorney for this one. She will have to file for a modification of the present order and request custody. She will have an uphill battle and may be successful in only gaining incremental gains over time. In other words, it may take more than one filing over time. Although a natural parent has the paramount right to custody of their child over all others, that right can be lost due to things such as the passage of time, actions of the parent, etc.
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