Custody & Kidnapping

Although I cannot speak to your specific situation, in general, if a person loses custody, s/he may have a couple of different possible options of how to address it. One possibility may be to appeal the custody decision. When a person is appealing a custody decision, s/he is asking a higher court to say that the judge didn’t apply the law correctly when s/he made the custody order. Generally, a person only has a short time to file an appeal once a custody order is made. I’m not sure what the time limit is in your state. Because appeals usually involve really technical arguments about the law, it’s usually best to have a lawyer help with an appeal if possible. Here is some basic information about filing appeals. In addition, it could be possible for a lawyer to ask for a “stay” while waiting for the appellate court to review the papers. A stay basically means that the court order that is being appealed cannot be enforced until the appeal is heard. The standard for whether a judge issues a stay may depend on four factors: (1) the likelihood of success on appeal; (2) the likelihood of irreparable harm pending appeal; (3) the balance of the hardships; and (4) the public interest. You may want to talk to a lawyer ASAP to see if you can file and appeal and ask for a stay based on the specifics of your case.

On our website, we also discuss other possible post-judgment options such as asking a judge to “reconsider” the decision by filing a motion for reconsideration.

Lastly, although this does not apply to a situation where a person just recently lost custody, it may be useful to know for the future that a person may be able to ask the court to modify (change) a custody order if circumstances change since the order was issued. To modify a custody order, a parent generally needs to go to the court that issued the order to file. Generally, to get a custody order changed, the parent may need to show that circumstances have changed since the order was issued and that these new circumstances support changing the order in the way that the parent is requesting. It can be very helpful to have a lawyer, especially if the other party has one. We have more information about changing a custody order on our website. [HYPERLINK TO THIS QU IN HER STATE CUSTODY PAGE IN THE ‘AFTER AN ORDER IS ISSUED’ SECTION]

You may want to discuss your situation with a lawyer. You can find free or low-cost lawyers here: [INSERT FINDING A LAWYER]. In terms of appeals, there are a few National Organizations that specifically work on appeals for domestic violence victims although some are specific to certain states.