I have been divorced for over 10 years, we have one daughter together who is now 14 1/2 years old. We live in New Mexico the famous state where the first rule of Family law is there is no Family law. I have remarried 4 years ago. My daughter resides with me and my husband. I am a stay home wife and homeschool my daughter. I have always been the parent who manages all her education and health care. Her father does have her on his insurance plan. Our divorce does state we are to have joint legal custody. We have a current visitation order in place now that I only agreed to during our divorce because him and his lawyer dried me out, I had no money left to fight. He wanted Tuesday and Thursday 5pm to 8 pm and every other weekend. I was always threatened by lawfare if I did not comply. If my daughter was sick on a day he was to pick her up he would threatened to call the police on me. Since his family seems to have alot of clout in this county and I am not from here but I was forced to live here, less than 3 miles away in fact without any kind of family support. I endured for my daughter. I remained single till I met my now husband. My husband has insurance for us both, he has paid for all of my daughters expenses including her braces which she is doing now. My ex husband has not offered nor acknowledged this need for her and yes it has been brought up a number of times. So thats just a small amount of the back story the question I have is: How can the court keep me here legally? Everyone I talk to has said this is not about your daughter at all this is about him controlling you still. We have bought a new home 160 miles away, basically the next county over within the same state. We have offered to change the visitation order so that my daughter can have the time to join gymnastics, which is on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She is part of the youth group at our new church there. She has already tried talking to him about it, he shuts her down and talks about how its his right and that I am just trying to manipulate her. I don’t understand how this is even fair. I offered him more time on the weekends and 2 weeks of vacation time that he didn’t even bother to ask for during the divorce hearings. What can I do? I tried getting a lawyer which I will be going to the State Bar over. We paid her 10k already and she billed for another 2300.00. We don’t have money to play this game with the attorneys. Now the judge stated he wants a guardian ad litem over my daughter which he says we have to pay for now. This is just like my divorce, anything to bankrupt you to comply. How can I defend my daughter and myself from this kind of lawfare and move without consequence? Location: New Mexico
Comments
There really isn’t any way without the expense. The GAL is probably a good thing. They are a lawyer paid to advocate for your daughter and her best interests. I hope you’d agree that if it’s not in her best interests to move, she shouldn’t move. Your or your legal representation claiming your ex is selfish and manipulative holds much less weight than the same claim coming from a GAL.