Please help!!
Everyone,
I hate to even beg for this from anyone, but under the circumstances — I actually have no choice. My ex-husband has filed for custody of our son again. He has been denied custody three times, by three different judges, but he doesn’t seem to be taking the hint. This time, however, I’m genuinely afraid that he stands a chance of having custody overturned in his favor because the state of ND requires that each party be represented by a lawyer. You can’t represent yourself here. And because he made sure to contact our local legal aid offices for advice, they cannot provide the services I require as it is a conflict of interests. So now I’ve been backed into a corner where my only option is a fee-reduction program through the State Bar Association, which I qualify for and have already signed up for.
The problem is this: all of my funds have already been sapped by this move. In order to retain a lawyer, which I need to do SOON because I have to have a legal response to my ex-husband’s motion filed BY JULY 10TH, I have to come up with at least $1500! I literally don’t have that kind of money, all of it has been spent on moving and I leave ND this Saturday!
This ridiculous little technicality could have the asshole judge — who already issued a visitation schedule built with the intention of forcing me to fail and thus allow him to eventually overturn custody — gleefully assign custody to my son’s father.
This is a judge who is notorious for reversing custody if he knows you’re disabled, which I legally am, and a single parent, which I also am. He’s openly misogynist and doesn’t believe single mothers can provide loving, stable homes for children. If it weren’t for a recent Supreme Court ruling on what constitutes grounds for a child to be taken from their custodial parent, he has said he would have preferred to grant custody to my ex-husband over me.
My ex-husband who, if you have been following my blog and paying attention to certain OOC posts, sexually, emotionally, and physically abused me for the duration of our marriage. Who showed no interest in establishing custody of our son until after he was ordered to pay child support. Who enjoys filing false reports with child protective services to cause trouble for me and turn around to use said reports in his repeated attempts to gain custody.
One of the purposes of my returning to OR is to get away from the judge overseeing our case here in ND. However, before I can have the case moved to OR, I have to establish residency there and that doesn’t happen legally for a month after I move.
I need your help, you guys. Even $1 is a dollar closer to getting me the legal representation I need to file the response so that my ex-husband doesn’t win the case by default! All I need is to be able to file this response to his motion and by the time an actual court date is set, I will have established residency in OR and ND will no longer have jurisdiction. I also already have a lawyer ready for me in that state, but they can’t help me at all with what needs to be done here in ND.
Please, please help if you can or reblog so that others you know can help. I never ask for help, but I’m begging in this. I have fought too long and too hard to have everything undermined at the last minute like this.
My son is my whole world. He’s the sweetest, brightest boy and I’ve worked so hard to make sure he’s never wanting for anything he needs or desires. He’s a devoted Whovian/Fannibal, he turned down a Kindle for Christmas because he said he’d rather have the books, he loves science and nature, he loves my Neil Gaiman books, theater, and he’s been at the top of his class every year. He’s had such a full, rich life with me and his extended family, and it will only be further enriched once we’re in OR among the rest of the family that he has known his whole life, where he’s barely known his dad or his dad’s family all this while — by their own actions and choices. His life as he’s always known it will be taken away from him if his dad is granted full custody, his dad who will ensure that I am never allowed to see him. Who makes no other efforts to maintain a healthy relationship with his son and already has FOUR children with his new wife that they can’t afford.
Please help us.
