Ocean Springs Child Custody Lawyer – Mom & Dad Don’t Want the Kid

It’s sad that we see sometimes that parents don’t want to raise their own children.

So what happens is it usually falls to grandparents or some other family member to do the job that the parents should have done in the first place.

So what happens if Dad suddenly decides he wants his kid back?

Ocean Springs Child Custody Lawyer – The Legal Mumbo Jumbo

Let me give you the legal mumbo jumbo first:

In child custody cases, the Mississippi Supreme Court will only reverse a trial judge’s decision if it is “manifestly wrong, clearly erroneous, or . . . based on an improper legal standard.”

A trial judge’s findings of fact are very hard to get past as the Mississippi Supreme Court will not set aside those facts as long as they are supported by “substantial evidence.”

The best interest of the child is paramount in any child-custody
case.

In custody battles between a natural parent and a third party, it is presumed that it is in the child’s best interest to remain with his or her natural parent.

For a grandparent to get custody, the grandparent must first clearly rebut the natural-parent presumption or preference; if it is successfully rebutted, the chancellor must then examine the Albright Factors.

The natural-parent presumption can be rebutted by a clear showing that (1) the parent has abandoned the child; (2) the parent has deserted the child; (3) the parent’s conduct is so immoral as to be detrimental to the child; or (4) the parent is unfit, mentally or otherwise, to have custody.

Ocean Springs Child Custody Lawyer – What Does All That Mean?

So what does all that legal mumbo jumbo mean?

Let’s look at a case to figure it out.

In Flynn v. Bland, the grandparents raised Mom and Dad’s kid for years.

Dad later decides he wants the kid back.

The trial judge found that Jeremy Bland deserted his child.  The trial judge found that “Jeremy did in fact know or should have known he had a child, and therefore a duty or obligation to support that child financially and emotionally since 2006.”

The trial judge stated that “one cannot sit idle, and let time go by
knowing that he has or may have a child that someone else is raising. Such is the definition of desertion: an avoidance of a duty or obligation.’”

Jeremy took Madison, while pregnant, to the Medicaid office.

Even after Jeremy found out that he was the father, which was way back in 2010, he did NOTHING to start a relationship with his own daughter.

So, the Mississippi Court of Appeals said, “We cannot find error in the trial court’s finding that Jeremy deserted his child, thereby
rebutting the natural-parent presumption.”

Moral of the story?

Raise your own kids.

Don’t leave them with someone else.

Act like a parent should act.