Countersuit to Child Support What Are Our Options

[flasponge]

My question involves a child custody case from the State of: Florida

Hello
My fiance has finally filed a petition for child support from her ex-boyfriend for child support, the state of florida has taken up the case and the ex-boyfriend/father was served with a summons. Upon receiving this summons the father filed a counter suit and then an amendment to that countersuit. The countersuit initially stated that he wanted to keep a continuity of the current situtation which especially includes him not paying any CS, the amendment which we just received went a step further, in the amendment he claims that she is an unfit mother and he wants full custody and he wants her to pay HIM child support. The father has no atty and is filing all of the paperwork himself...he has alot of free time he hasn;t held a job in years,

A little background
The child is an 8 year old boy,
The primary residence has been with the mother,
The child is with each parent 50% of the time (they switch days)
Mother and father were never married, the mother paid the father to leave the house about 5 years ago, he left and she stayed at the original house.
Since then the mother and I have gotten together and we have been together 3 years and will be getting married soon.
The father hasn't held a job in over a year.
The father lives in an effeciency apt.
The mother has held a nursing job constant for 10 years, she pays for all expenses of child.
The mother and I live together in a 4 bdrm home, and her child, my child and I are and have been a family unit for over a year (living together)
Both mother and father don't have atty's we are doing the legal work ourselves

So the question is, what are our options for dealing with the counter suit? The accusations in the countersuit are frivulous lies, e.g: she is mentall unstabled ect ect,

Should we file a countersuite to his?
Should we file for a motion of dismassal?
Should we ask the court to combine the cases?
In your opinion what's the best response for dealing with countersuits that contain false claims. Its obvious he is doing this because he doesn't want to pay cs.

Thanks for your time and help please,
Thanks
J

[Dogmatique]

Your fiancee's ex will actually need to PROVE that she is unfit - the burden of proof is on him, not her.

One question though - if they switch day, how is the primary residence with Mom?

[Xena]

My question involves a child custody case from the State of: Florida

Hello
My fiance has finally filed a petition for child support from her ex-boyfriend for child support, the state of florida has taken up the case and the ex-boyfriend/father was served with a summons. Upon receiving this summons the father filed a counter suit and then an amendment to that countersuit. The countersuit initially stated that he wanted to keep a continuity of the current situtation which especially includes him not paying any CS, the amendment which we just received went a step further, in the amendment he claims that she is an unfit mother and he wants full custody and he wants her to pay HIM child support. The father has no atty and is filing all of the paperwork himself...he has alot of free time he hasn;t held a job in years,

A little background
The child is an 8 year old boy,
The primary residence has been with the mother,
The child is with each parent 50% of the time (they switch days)
Mother and father were never married, the mother paid the father to leave the house about 5 years ago, he left and she stayed at the original house.
Since then the mother and I have gotten together and we have been together 3 years and will be getting married soon.
The father hasn't held a job in over a year.
The father lives in an effeciency apt.
The mother has held a nursing job constant for 10 years, she pays for all expenses of child.
The mother and I live together in a 4 bdrm home, and her child, my child and I are and have been a family unit for over a year (living together)
Both mother and father don't have atty's we are doing the legal work ourselves

So the question is, what are our options for dealing with the counter suit? The accusations in the countersuit are frivulous lies, e.g: she is mentall unstabled ect ect,

Should we file a countersuite to his?
Should we file for a motion of dismassal?
Should we ask the court to combine the cases?
In your opinion what's the best response for dealing with countersuits that contain false claims. Its obvious he is doing this because he doesn't want to pay cs.

Thanks for your time and help please,
Thanks
J

He will have to prove that Mom is unfit before he will win custody. Unless your fiancee has some hidden skeletons, like felony child abuse, etc, it sounds like Dad doesn't have a chance at winning full custody.

Most likely, for custody the court will order the status quo at 50/50.

For the CS there is a slight possibilty that Mom might be ordered to pay a small amount to Dad if the 50/50 is ordered. That will depend on what Dad's reasons are for not being employed, what he is capable of earning and what mom's earnings are. It could go either way, but the DOR is pretty good about making sure that a voluntarily underemployed/unemployed parent is imputed a fair wage.

As the other poster said, the burden is on him to prove his allegations of unfitness/mental ustability. For now, she should just file an answer to each allegation simply stating "deny". There's really no reason at this point for her to file a counter-petition to his, the answer denying all allegations will suffice.
And don't worry, it is not at all unusual for a father to suddenly file for full custody when he has been served with a CS petition, the Judges see this all the time and see it for what it really is.

No, she shouldn't file for a dismissal because the issue of custody needs to be heard.

Yes, she should definately request that the 2 cases be combined. She can talk to her DOR caseworker about that, which normally the DOR doesn't handle custody cases, but a case can be combined when both are being initially ordered since the CS will be based partly on custody/parenting time.

One thing that she should not bring up though is the housing situation. For one, Dad living in an efficiency apt versus Mom living in a large home will not have any impact on custody. For another, Mom has been okay with son going to the apt, so she cannot now complain about that.