Custody Dispute Between Florida and New York Questions?

[roche]

Good Evening,

I procrastinated with dealing with a legal issue and now I'm scurrying to deal with it. That is not a good excuse, I just buckled under pressure.

My mother filed a petition to take temporary custody of my daughter. My daughter has been staying with my sister in florida while I got my life together, job and whatnot, and does not want me to have my daughter back.

I need to respond to these forms and I have two questions. It states on the form that I have twenty days to respond. Since I live out of state, does that still apply or do I have more time?

Secondly, I cannot find out for the life of me what forms I need to respond. I know I need to use florida forms.

I can list what she used and hopefully someone can help me.

She used:

Florida Family Law of Procedure Form 12.910(a) summons personal service on an individual

Seventeenth Judicial Circuit Local Form-Petition for Temporary Custody of minor children by extended family

Uniform child custody jurisdiction and enforcement act affidavit 12.902(d)

Florida family law rules of procedure form 12.928, cover sheet for family court cases

Florida family law rules of procedure form 12.900(h) notice of related cases

That is a list of everything in the packet, I'm sure some of the above was unnecessary but I was listing everything there. If I have more time, I can try to retain a lawyer but right now I'm working with that I have. I want to know what forms I need to respond and possibly where to get them.

I apologize for leaving out many details, time is of the essence and I just want to do what I need to do.

Thanks to all who help.

[stein74]

Out of state litigants generally have thirty days to answer a summons.

You need to file an Answer to her Petition. This would involve you going through her petition paragraph by paragraph and Answering with: Admit, Deny, Admit in Part/Deny in Part; or Lacks information and unable to admit or deny.

If the courts do not have a list of the forms, all you need to do is to use the same caption (top part of the court papers that have your names and the court number). Title it Respondent's Answer to Petition. And identify each paragraph and your response.

[emilek17]

I was able to find help from these attorneys at www.lawyersearchsite.tk

[bachir93]

My suggestion is talk to an attorney. Most likely you have 20 days to respond. Call family court in your state, or family court in the other state and inquire on how you need to respond. They might give you more time if you call and/or write them and tell them you need more time to figure it out. Most of the time, a person that is not a parent, has to prove the parent unfit to keep a child from their biological parent.