Ugh! Is he nuts?

[confustication]

My daughter's father has decided to file for custody. She is 8 1/2, and he has not seen her since she was 3. He does not provide support. He does claim her as a dependent through the military, and has since she was born.

I have custody at this point, but he wants to have legal custody, and give me physical custody. His email to me tonight includes a statement effectively saying that he will give me all physical custody (the exact line here was "you have physical custody and I won't interfere with how you guys are doing," as long as I don't demand support.

The catch here is that this is all through the jurisdiction in which we used to reside- which is 8 hours from here (same state). That is where he lives currently. I do not have the money to make the trek to contest his filing, so I feel like I am up a creek. I will call legal services tomorrow, but I suspect that we won't be able to change jurisdiction.

[yarngoddess]

My friend is in a similar situation. Dad is 4hrs away, same state. He filed for more parenting time. So she had her lawyer change the juristiction of the case- it belongs where the child lives. If you've lived in the same town/area you SHOULD be able to get any and all court stuff in your town. It's very strange that he's military and yet pays no support....I thought the service member had no say in paying CS.

[confustication]

I have fought and fought for support, and he's always always wiggled out of it. What he *should* pay is a very substantial amount, but he doesn't, and no one has ever been willing to actually force him. The state actually went after him for it, and hit brick walls. I wrote base commanders-on a couple occasions, and was turfed to the side. He is insane and manipulative- (and abusive, which is one reason for the 8 hours) but like most people of that sort, he is quite the convincing charmer to most people.