Exploring Emergency Custody Modifications
Are you trying to get emergency custody of a child and you think the holidays might be a good time to do that? I’m Tulsa family lawyer Carl Birkhead with Wirth Law Office in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I’ve been practicing family and criminal law for about seven years now. I want to help you make law easy by talking about emergency custody and just how it would look to try to do that during the holiday season.
Timing Custody Modifications Around Holidays
Now that the holidays are over, a lot of people are thinking about trying to modify custody arrangements based on their holiday experiences. The holidays are really when courts want to try to see custody changes because at least it’s easier on the kids for the transition. So if a child’s going from dad to mom or mom to dad and it involves changing of schools, a great time to do that is during the holiday break so they can start the semester fresh at a new school. You’ll see a lot of these happen either right around Christmas or right around May when you’re looking at the summer break coming up.
You still need to be able to show that the child is going to be in imminent danger of irreparable harm that justifies an immediate change in custody. It has to be based on something that you know of right now. It can’t be something that happened two months ago and you just sat on it and now you want to pull the trigger. It has to be an immediate thing. I’ve had cases where clients told me they knew months ago that their kids were living in a meth house with the other parent, exposed to dangerous conditions.
Understanding the Importance of Timely Action
They saw the risks but took no action, and now, after all that time, they want to file—but there’s no proof left to show the danger. We don’t have any proof of the harm. We don’t have any even personal knowledge to base it off because all of our information is stale. After all, that’s what it comes down to. If you don’t have an affidavit or paperwork from law enforcement or DHS, you need someone with personal knowledge who can testify about the severity of the circumstances that justify the emergency.
Courts are going to be looking at this very closely during the holidays. They’ll be watching closely because many people act on emotion, deciding to seek custody out of frustration—especially during the holidays—to disrupt the other parent’s Christmas. It doesn’t happen, that’s not always how it happens and there are very legitimate filings that come in but there are also some less legitimate ones that the court still needs to kind of weed through and filter out.
Your Next Steps
All I can say is if this is something that you think you need to do, this is a trigger that you think you need to pull, absolutely consult with an attorney before you start this war. If you’re in a situation where you think that you need to be getting child custody and you think that you need to do it before the next break from school, call us. I’m more than happy to talk with you. We can talk about the facts of your case and determine whether or not you qualify for an emergency and what the next steps are from there.
Schedule Your Initial Strategy Session
I’m Tulsa child custody attorney Carl Birkhead with Wirth Law Office and I want to help you make law easy. Contact us today for a low-cost initial strategy session to discuss your unique situation. Call us at 918-879-1681. Let us help you navigate the complexities of emergency custody modifications.
