Legal Question in Family Law in Tennessee
three children in my custody
my husband and i have my three neice and nephew in our custody weve had custody for three mths. they were in dcs custody for almost 2 years the judge told the parents they would have to provide a better home then we could to get them back.the mother is still in the penetery and the father has his visitation taken away after the fist visit resulted in a dcs referal.my husband and i are thinking of divorce wich will result in my getting a state funded apartment and welfare until i can get on my feet.also there will be no father figure in thier life.will this give them a better chance of getting the kids back?also the father has gotten a paupers appeal and has a court appointed attorney.he is supposed to pay 93.00 a week in child support.i have only recieved 50.00 in 2 mths.he is not calling the kids or trying to do better in any way.now im at the 5000.00 mark with my attorney and having a real hard time getting the money. is the father or mother responsible for any of the funds for our attorney or should i request the attorney fees?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: three children in my custody
You are not entitled to attorney's fees from either parent for anything you have mentioned so far, though you might be entitled to attorney's fees for taking the father back to court for contempt if you decided to do that.... but getting an order for attorney's fees would not necessarily put that money in your hand, and since the father has already failed to pay support, I doubt he would be much more likely to pay an additional judgement for attorney's fees.
You might also look at adopting the children, though doing so will not give you any funds to help pay for raising them. You might also look into qualifying as foster parents and getting state help for raising them.
The best way to assure that the parents do not get the kids back is the adoption route, and from what you have said, you could probably pursue it, but if the concern is getting help in supporting the children, adoption is not really the way to go.
The first thing to do is to decide which is your top priority and to then pursue the best route to achieve it.
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