Charlottesville Custody and Visitation Lawyer Rob Hagy: Father’s Motion to Amend Custody and Visitation Denied.

In the case of Forbes v. Forbes, the Virginia Court of Appeals, in an unpublished opinion, ruled the trial court correctly denied the father’s motion to amend custody concerning the parties’ children even though he had remarried, had a stable marriage, and he currently lived in a four-bedroom house where each child would have a bedroom. Father lived in North Carolina and did not argue that mother was an unfit or bad parent. Mother had been a life-long resident of the area where she lived except when she lived with father in areas where he was deployed in the military. Mother presented evidence that she resided in a five-bedroom house with adequate furnishings and bedrooms for the children. She had previously lived in a three-bedroom townhouse. Mother’s sister lives in the area and is the children’s “back-up” caregiver.  Numerous witnesses, including relatives who lived nearby, testified mother meets the daily needs of the children and that she is a good and devoted mother. Evidence was presented that the children’s paternal and maternal grandparents live in Hampton and “provided a healthy family support system” for the children.