Legal Question in Family Law in California

My ex husband has sole custody of our 15 year old son. My ex is an alcoholic and is verbally, emotionally and psychologically abusive to our son. They live with my ex husbands parents who are also not nice to our son. They live in California. My son wants to live with me. I live in Arizona. I have a lawyer who has told me to just go pick up my son and bring him to live with me. She said that if his father calls the police all I will have to do is tell them his father is abusive to him and that I have a lawyer and we’re going to be filing paperwork soon. She said that I won’t get in trouble and they’ll let my son stay with me. I just want to know if that is accurate


Asked on 4/15/23, 2:08 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Definitely NOT accurate. Violating custody orders, and especially taking a child out of his resident state, is both a crime and will stack the deck against you in a custody hearing, which will be held in California. The only way this MIGHT work out even OK for you is if the custody order was issued in AZ and the father took the child to CA without permission. Even then, though, if you want to be on the side of right and the angels in the eyes of the law, you must file for a change of custody order in whichever state issued the order giving sole custody to the father. Taking it upon yourself to "self help" in a legal matter is frowned upon by the courts. Doing it in a child custody case will start you out with at least two strikes against you in the bottom of the 9th.

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Answered on 4/16/23, 7:49 pm


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