Mother has full custody father visitation can order b modified without going to court, if done is it legal?
custody order was done in front of judge on 1/4/07 and father/or attorney went in and modified it 15 days later,without the knowledge of mother no papers were served. because of this the mother is now in jail for contempt of that modification. can that be done? is that even legal.
Answers:
First of all check with your state child custody visitation laws. Normally, when there is a modification both parties MUST be contacted. Any court order changes are normally automatically sent to both parties. You will need to show proof that you did not receive notification, i.e., address change not recorded with the courts, work/phone numbers different, etc.
I had one client that spent 24 hrs in jail because a court order was issued and the judge's secretary had not updated their address. My client had sent in an address change REGISTERED mail so that they would have proof. The court order had been sent to the client's previous address.
Can't be done that way. The mom and dad could informally change their visitation/custody rights. But the only way to formally change visitation/custody rights is by court order. And a modification of an existing custody order requires notice to the other parent before the court hearing.
Something here is fishy, it takes a court order to modify a previous court order. The mother may claim that she was unaware but more than likely just didn't bother to show up for the hearing and her ex-husband won by default.
I don't think papers have to be served as this is not a lawsuit nor a subpoena, all it takes is a letter to advise the other party.
If the mother is in jail for contempt of the order, she will get her chance to ask the judge and give her explanation.
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