Legal Question in Family Law in Tennessee

contempt - custody and visitation

I've written before and you were a fantastic help! Hope you can answer this question.

Son has had problems seeing daughter since separating from ex (3 years). Wife moved to TN in late 2004 and took daughter - DID NOT tell my son of her intent, or the courts, or CSE. CSE was unable to locate her and returned all support money and the courts ordered to stop payroll deduction. Since he has been denied visitation for over 3 yrs., he petitioned the court for contempt and modification of Cust/Visit. She has been found in contempt 3 times...last one the judge ordered a writ of bodily attachment and a 50k cash bond. However, ex is in TN, Son moved to VA from MD.

Wrote up a petition for TN to take case and called clerk in county where ex and child live. They told me that we couldn't file a petition to change venue, to modify Cust./Visit. Order, but an attorney had to! Is this so? Why should he have to spend $$ to hire an atty when she is the one who keeps breaking the law? He thinks he'll never see his daughter again. I don't hold out much hope either. The family law courts need to be fixed so that this moving around to avoid prosecution can be limited.

Thanks for any advise!!


Asked on 5/01/07, 6:59 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Regina Mullen Legal Data Services, PLC

Re: contempt - custody and visitation

Some people can do this themselves and no, he doesn't HAVE to have a lawyer, but the clerk probably strongly suggested that he do so, as would I.

Find the child, take the orders to the local police station and find out whether the police are going to help enforce the out-of-state order.

If not, find out what it will take for them to be able to do so (you might have to domesticate the order, but there is a federal statute that should help you there). That's why you should hire local counsel.

Then, ask the court to assess attorney fees against her for the entire thing.

OR, find her and try to negotiate. Possession is 100% of the law here, but the child's welfare is THE most important thing.

Something is going on here, --it's not normal for someone to scamper off and forgo child support just out of spite. Usually, it's the opposite: people use the kids to get back at one another, something I call "divorce by marriage."

In this case, it's the opposite, which tells me (and should tell your lawyer) that something else is really going on.

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Answered on 5/01/07, 9:46 pm


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