Mother Has Epilepsy and is Driving with the Kids

[Millermichael4488]

My question involves a child custody case from the State of California to make a long story short the mother of my children has recently been diagnosed with epilepsy we had a DCFS case that closed with the children in my full physical custody and her with joint legal custody and her only being able to have monitored visits her boyfriend being the court-appointed monitor on the last visit she drove the vehicle back from their outing which is outrageous being diagnosed with epilepsy it's child endangerment and reckless driving what do I do her and her monitor have shown extreme blatant disregard for the well-being of the children on a couple of occasions now and I have not to allow visitation she is now threatening me of being in violation of her rights and the orders of the Court but me putting the kids in danger like that is not okay and would not be responsible of me what do I do

[jk]

There are many levels of severity of epilepsy. If the mother has issues that prevent her from driving the state will suspend her license. Does she still have her license?

[llworking]

My question involves a child custody case from the State of California to make a long story short the mother of my children has recently been diagnosed with epilepsy we had a DCFS case that closed with the children in my full physical custody and her with joint legal custody and her only being able to have monitored visits her boyfriend being the court-appointed monitor on the last visit she drove the vehicle back from their outing which is outrageous being diagnosed with epilepsy it's child endangerment and reckless driving what do I do her and her monitor have shown extreme blatant disregard for the well-being of the children on a couple of occasions now and I have not to allow visitation she is now threatening me of being in violation of her rights and the orders of the Court but me putting the kids in danger like that is not okay and would not be responsible of me what do I do

Have you filed for an emergency motion to suspend her visitation or change the monitor based on the fact that she has epilepsy and is driving with the children in the car?

You cannot just unilaterally deny her visitation time. If you are going to deny visitation you MUST file for an emergency suspension of her visitation rights. If the judge does not consider it to be an emergency then you will have to continue to allow visitation until the case is heard. You can provide all of the transportation until the case is heard.

[cdwjava]

Having epilepsy and driving is NOT any form of "reckless driving," and might only be some form of child endangerment if something happens and was predictable and likely to happen. If she has a sufficiently serious form of epilepsy, chances are that the DMV would have already acted upon her condition to remove her driver's license. if they have not done so, then it may well be because the conditions is not sufficiently egregious.

I know a good many people with epilepsy who have never had an issue driving a car and many times more who have never had a bout of epilepsy or other medical condition who have still driven in careless, reckless, and deadly fashions.

As suggested, if you feel this is an issue, take the matter to Family Court.

[PMMH]

I have epilepsy and drive my kids around every day. I have for 17 years. Plenty of people with epilepsy are allowed to drive. Unless her license is suspended or she is not allowed to drive by doctor's orders, you need to leave that alone. It takes a lot of intense monitoring from doctors to get a license when you have epilepsy. You also don't get to decide to just not allow visitation. She's given visitation by the court and the court must take it away. Are your children in immediate danger? If so, you call the police and get it dealt with.

[cbg]

My niece has fairly severe epilepsy. In both my state (where she lived previously) and in her current home state, she is allowed to drive as long as she has been six months seizure free. She is on medication, takes it regularly, and the last time she had a seizure was between three and four years ago. You're going to need a lot more than simply the fact that she has epilepsy to remove her rights to drive the children, let alone her rights to the children.

[Dogmatique]

My question involves a child custody case from the State of California to make a long story short the mother of my children has recently been diagnosed with epilepsy we had a DCFS case that closed with the children in my full physical custody and her with joint legal custody and her only being able to have monitored visits her boyfriend being the court-appointed monitor on the last visit she drove the vehicle back from their outing which is outrageous being diagnosed with epilepsy it's child endangerment and reckless driving what do I do her and her monitor have shown extreme blatant disregard for the well-being of the children on a couple of occasions now and I have not to allow visitation she is now threatening me of being in violation of her rights and the orders of the Court but me putting the kids in danger like that is not okay and would not be responsible of me what do I do

Unless you have absolute carte blanche to arbitrarily decide when she can and can't get the kids, she's right; you are violating her rights. If you're that concerned, file to suspend visitation and try to convince the court to rule in your favor.

[OKisNotOK]

You do all of the driving if you are still concerned after her proving she is licensed to drive.