Custody of my children

[nataliebogatitus]

We were residents of South Carolina up until October 2008 then we moved to Kentucky. We lived in KY from October 08 til June 09...
I came to my moms house and my husband was still in KY. He came down here in July.... We left her house and moved to my sister in-laws house in July and not even 2 weeks later my mom called DSS. DSS took the kids for 20 days and they were returned home after the case was found unfounded.

Two weeks after that my mom filed for custody of my children. She had an expedited hearing to see if the kids needed to be taken out of the house, well we went there and they told us that the kids can stay here and my parents requested for the kids to have a guardian ad litem. Well both parties were to pay money for the guardian ad litem. We had 60 days from the date of the court hearing to pay our amount and my parents were to pay before the guardian ad litem could conduct her investigation. My mom never paid it. Also the kids were not to leave our current county.

Well the next court date came around and we had to have a continuance because my husband has been working out of town..

OK, now to the question.

Since my family and I have NOT been legal residence of the state of SC for 6 months can my mom (the children's grandparents) file for custody in SC or would they have to file charges in KY? They are practically holding us in this state against our will and we want to know if this is legal

THANKS!

[ocean]

I could be wrong but you needed to bring that up at the FIRST hearing in SC. SC should of been told that they did not have juristiction to take the case as the children were not residents for more than the 6 months. However if she filed when DSS took them, then maybe since NC had an open case could of needed a placement for the children. Since you already allowed the court to start I dont think you can stop them at this point.

Is the DSS case closed?  If it is, then the grandparents would have a hard case to win against you. They would need to prove neglect to take children away. Maybe after DSS closed the case, the grandparents were told they would not win and that is why they are not paying the Law Gurdian? They may however get visitation rights?

You may be able to ask that the case be dismissed as the DSS case is closed and there is no abuse in the home. Do you or the grandparents have lawyers?

[nataliebogatitus]

DSS case was closed. Yes my mom (the grandparents) have a lawyer, we do not. We wanted to say something at the hearing but they practically rushed us out of there.
We were told at the hearing that we didn't have to let my parents see the kids but that if we did that would look better to the court since the kids are not the ones doing any harm in this case its the adults. So we decided not to punish the children and we allowed them to see their grandparents. My mom keeps telling me that she wants to drop this case but I don't think that she is telling the truth.

[NYParent]

I agree with Ocean, because you already started the proceedings in SC court, you can't challenge jurisdiction anymore as you have submitted to SC's jurisdiction. 

You should focus on having the case dismissed since DSS found no abuse in the house.  Unfortunately you will most often find that when you don't have an attorney Judges do not take you seriously.  Can you hire an attorney or see if you qualify for legal aid?

Good luck.

[nataliebogatitus]

But the thing is that we are trying to move back and we were already planning to move back before we got served papers to go to court. We didnt even have enough time to get a lawyer.
I don't think that we can get free legal aid

[ocean]

Call your mothers lawyer and ask if his client intends to pay her share for the law guardian. You can also offer a plan to lawyer and see if they accept. Like:
Mother will keep custody and grandparents will have reasonable visitation through the parties (the both of you). If you need to move, then you can request to move away (but you would need a job and housing in new state and reason why you are moving...).

[nataliebogatitus]

We both still have our jobs available that we left when we came to SC. And we were never trying to prevent my parents from seeing the kids, they never asked to see them before all this. Like for example they claim that they love these kids so much but they were at a cabin 2 hrs from our house and when we asked if they could come see the kids before the went back home they said no and went back home. I just think that if they loved these kids the way that they say they do they would do everything that they possibly could to see them considering they aren't hurting for money.