Custody & Kidnapping

THIS WAS WRITTEN TO THE V’S SISTER-IN-LAW - BE SURE TO READ IT AND CHANGE ALL OF THE PRONOUNS WHERE APPROPRIATE:

The first thing that I want to mention is that generally, when a respondent fails to show up for court, often times the judge will grant the petitioner whatever relief that s/he asked for in the petition. Depending on the procedure in the specific state (I can’t speak to how STATE handles this), it may be possible that the judge might do what is sometimes called an inquest (a one-sided hearing where only the petitioner testifies) or the judge may just grant the petition based on the fact that the respondent didn’t show up. Another possibility is the judge could adjourn (postpone the case) to give the respondent another opportunity to appear and even possibly issue a warrant for the respondent to appear on the next date. As you can see, failing to appear for a court date can be very detrimental. The person cannot defend himself/herself against any allegations and the judge will make a ruling based only what the other party tells the judge.

[ADD THIS IF APPROPRIATE: And when it comes to a petition for contempt involving a custody situation, the penalties can be very severe if someone is found to be in contempt. S/he can lose custody of his/her children to the other parent, be ordered to pay the other party’s attorney fees, and even be put in jail in some extreme situations. Again, I can’t say which if any of these possibilities will happen in your sister-in-law’s case but these are general possibilities.]

Has your [FILL IN RELATIONSHIP] spoken to an attorney who hopefully can help to represent her in the case. Here is a link for legal services organizations in STATE if she wants to see if she can find free legal representation:LINK

[ADD IF APPROPRIATE: Also, here is some more information on custody in case that is useful:LINK]