Posted: 6/3/2007 1:11:05 PM EDT
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A friend asked me for to do him a favor (he's a good guy and father). He has 4 kids under 9 that live with his ex. She works nights and had been telling him that they stay at a friends house at night. He found out that they are left unattended at home. They have joint custody (she has physical). She lives in UT he lives in NV. What happens if someone drops a dime on the mom? Anything? Does she lose custody? Do both? He would like physical custody but his ex told him "never". She has a history of "partying", etc. Once during their marriage (in another state btw) - she left the kids at home (friend was travelling) and kids set off alarm and cops came. Would there be a difference between contacting the police and child services? Can I call them anonymously? Thanks in advance. |
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I know nothing about UT or NV. Here child welfare investigators would respond and if they caught her they might not remove the kids, but just make her do some parenting classes, change her work schedule or something similar. If the wife was in NY I'd suggest getting a good PI (they are mostly useless dopes in my experience) to document that the kids are being consistently left home alone then file for custody. Who cares what she says? Of course she is going to fight it. He needs to talk to a good custody attorney in UT before he or you take any action. |
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usually calls to those hot lines are anonymous, but it sounds like she will suspect him no matter who makes the call. I know it is callous, but by calling child welfare he may tip his hand, then she cleans up her act, for awhile, and he's got no grounds to change custody. Course I have no idea what the laws are like in those states. If you are in the area ask around and find three good family law attorneys for him to call, always good to talk to a couple of different attorneys before hiring one. |
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My experience with the courts tells me; They will set a court date or send someone to investigate. She will tell them how hard her live has become since that bastard divorced her and she is working hard to make something of herself and will try really hard to find a solution to the problem that the court has brought to her attention. She'll exclaim that she never realized what she was doing was bad, it was the only thing she could think of in her constant state of stress and depression. She'll apologize and promise to do better. The courts will reaffirm their believe that divorced mothers need to be protected from the realities of divorce and will raise the guys child support so that the mother can afford proper day (night, as this case is) care for the kids. YMMV 
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Unfortunately, this is often the case. It pisses me off when people manipulate the court system, and even more so when they use their children to do it. |