I need help. I am the extra mom (step-mom) of an amazing 12 year old boy. I now live in Ohio.
A little backstory... Over the past year, my other husband and I have been through a lot of legal trouble because of his ex. His ex-wife is extremely narcissistic, manipulative and abusive. She constantly lies about everything. The family law attorney we hired couldn't help us much, but he charged us for every email, phone call, etc. (even if he didn't answer) and asked for a power of attorney for $2,200.
At this point, we owe him several thousand dollars. We made the payments (which he told us were good for counseling) and found that he would not put any effort into our case unless we sent him a large sum of money before the session.
My ex-partner's wife violated many laws and many aspects of the original TRO that were included in the divorce papers, but our attorney refused to file a contempt lawsuit. Our lawyer advised us that the only way we could get 50/50 or full custody was to hire a GAL. We finally decided to use GAL. When the ex-wife was notified about the GAL, she set us up and instigated an argument so she could file a false police report and false charges. However, we had to spend an additional $950 to have a defense attorney represent him.
The GAL recommended that his son have more time with us, but since the charges are still pending, he recommended that the ex-wife be in residence/in custody.
This is where I need help...
The divorce and custody were finalized Tuesday. 2/7/23. The ruling order was written Wednesday morning. We were supposed to visit on Wednesday from 5pm to Thursday morning. We left it at school. Wed, we went to pick him up at the ex-wife's house and she flatly refused because she didn't want him to stay here for a school night, even though she had agreed to everything in the arrangement. We went to a family law attorney and asked him to file a contempt action for withholding parenting time. He now he refuses to help us unless we pay the balance in full and pay additional power of attorney. We currently have an income as I am disabled and am waiting for the disability to make its decision. There's no way we can afford to do that now. We can't let him get away with it because it will only keep happening if he thinks he can get away with it.
Do we need a lawyer to file contempt charges?
Is there a service or program that can help?
Hopefully, we can find someone to help us for free or direct us to someone who can help us for a reasonable amount of money.
Any advice?