Consult a Fathers Rights Attorney When Assistance Needed

Video Transcribed: My name is Brian L. Jackson, I’m a Dads’ rights attorney in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And today we’re going to talk about when it’s appropriate to seek out an attorney and have them pursue an emergency ex parte custody order for your children. Under Oklahoma law, in order to get it right, emergency ex parte order, you have to show the court that there is an imminent threat to the health, safety, or welfare of the children that commands immediate action by the court without notice to the other party.

What does that mean? Well, examples of cases where I’ve seen them granted, serious medical neglect. There was a case involving children where they had serious dental rot from neglect, and the judge signed an order on that basis. Threats of violence. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be against the child.

I’ve seen cases where there were threats of violence against the mother, and the threat of violence at all was grounds for the court to take the child away from the father. Serious substance abuse. If somebody is known to use hard drugs and it’s causing them to become unstable enough that they were an immediate threat to the child.

Domestic violence is an obvious one. Severe mental illness. If there was a suicide threat, for example. If somebody is involved in some other violent crime. Sometimes homelessness can be an issue if they have nowhere to go. Any of those kinds of situations.

Drunk driving. That’s another good example. If the parent is known to be driving drunk with the children. Dangerous individuals being allowed around the children.

For example, if one of the parents becomes involved with someone with a serious criminal history. Anytime you have allegations of child abuse, serious child neglect, anything sexual obviously. The common denominator with all of these situations is you’re talking about an immediate threat, an immediate threat to the child’s health, safety, welfare.

And to get one of these, you need to have direct evidence. Either a police report, a DHS report, or somebody signed an affidavit saying, “I saw these things, these facts exist.” And it’s got to be very specific, or the judges will not sign these orders. Showing that this child is in immediate danger of harm, and it’s got to be serious harm. That’s when you can go after that.

These are not intended as a tool to prevent the weekend visit because you’re pissed off at the child’s mother or Mom’s new boyfriend because he’s a d-bag or any of that kind of thing. It’s meant for a real serious situation. And if the court finds it’s filed frivolously, there is a provision in the statute that allows for attorney’s fees.

But those are the kinds of circumstances where you would want to contact a lawyer about an emergency order. You may also be depending on the particulars, want to contact law enforcement and DHS. But those are the kinds of circumstances. It’s got to be a serious emergency, and these orders should not be abused. And unfortunately, sometimes are abused, but they shouldn’t be. If a judge thinks you’re abusing it, they can sanction you.

Now, if you do having a situation where there is a legitimate emergency, then you should immediately contact us at dads.law, and we can assist you with getting that emergency order and enter it if it is indeed appropriate. Again, that’s dads.law. My name is Brian L. Jackson, I am a Tulsa father’s rights attorney, and we’ve been talking about emergency ex parte orders.