Children are provided with additional protections under the law owing to their vulnerable and innocent status. When parents divorce, children are afforded measures that help ensure actions can be taken quickly when the need arises. Whether the problem is neglect, criminal activities, abuse, or parental kidnapping, read on to find out what can be done to address a child's needs in an emergency situation.
Temporary Orders
When a parent or other concerned adult observes a problem with a child, the first step should be to involve law enforcement. If a custody or visitation schedule is to be altered, any allegations must be backed up by a police report. The next step is to meet with a family law or divorce attorney about a temporary hearing to have the parenting plan adjusted. It should be mentioned that grandparents have a right to take action when the child is not being properly cared for as well. Grandparents have more rights than ever before when it comes to visitation and being awarded custody in cases where parents are not fit or not available to parent. Temporary orders work to get the child removed from the bad situation until a more permanent action can be taken.
Permanent Orders
Once any allegations of wrongdoing have been investigated, custody and visitation orders may be made more permanent. For example, the judge may deny a parent unsupervised visitation with a child until further notice of proof of some wrongdoing has been presented to the court. In other instances, it may be far more difficult to remove a child from its biological parents without overwhelming proof of parental unfitness. Family court judges are extremely reluctant to remove a child from the care of their parents and may remove them only temporarily while the parents undergo training and counseling to improve their parenting skills. Other measures might include drug rehabilitation, drug and alcohol education, drug and alcohol testing, a child custody evaluation by a mental health expert, and more.
The Child Disappears
Many custodial parents live in fear of a parental kidnapping, and there are several provisions in place to ensure the child is reunited with the rightful parent as soon as possible. A common dirty trick of some non-custodial parents is to leave the state and apply for custody is a different state. This way of dealing with child custody disputes won't work as well nowadays since the Uniform Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (ECCJEA) works across state lines to identify and track down absconding parents.
If you are certain that a minor-aged child is at risk, speak to law enforcement and then a family attorney right away.
Share3 April 2019
When I started my first small business, I had no idea how much I really didn’t know. I was fully prepared to deal with customers, sell product and even handle complaints and returns. What I wasn’t aware of was that there is so much more to it. I was lacking the legal expertise to protect the company and myself. I wanted others to benefit from my experience, mistakes and lessons learned, so I started this blog. From employment law to the legal business contracts you’ll have to sign when you form partnerships, business law is complex. I hope that the information here will help you to be better prepared when you start your business so that you’ll know when you need to call an attorney and when you can handle things yourself.
