Divorce Support Forums: Placement

My fiancée just had a trial de-novo on a post divorce placement dispute and lost one day of placement of her two children to her ex-husband.

My fiancée ex-husband claimed that her home environment was disruptive because of all the problems she had in dealing with her 16 year old daughter.

The daughter who is 16 and will be 17 this month has been difficult to deal with since the divorce and throughout the post divorce placement but, the GAL singled out my fiancée as the one having the most difficulty and recommended an extra day of placement of the two children go to the father.

The 16 year old daughter and her 13 year old brother both told the GAL that they wanted the placement to remain at 50/50. She told the children, that regardless of what they want, the GAL can decide the placement based on the best interest of the children.

The daughter was so upset after hearing of the courts decision, that within two weeks after the hearing, she moved in with her mother, and has now refused to visit or live with her dad, claiming that he is and has been verbally abusive. (Which the GAL was aware of from receiving a recorded audio tape, recorded during a phone call with her son that clearly recorded her ex-husband yelling at her daughter)

My fiancée ex-husband filed the motion to change placement, claiming my fiancée home environment is unstable, and after a lengthy, expensive, court battle, the court decided he would receive an extra day of placement of both children.

Then, immediately (within two weeks) after winning, he allows one of the two children (the Daughter) to live with her mother, admitting to my fiancée that he can not control her behavior, and has since allowed his daughter to be placed full time with my fiancée for about a month now. In allowing this, is he refusing to exercise periods of physical placement under Wis. Stat. 767.325(2m)?

My question’s are:

1. In allowing his daughter to be placed with the mother, how long does the daughter have to live with my fiancée before she can file a motion for full placement, claiming there has been a substantial change in circumstance since the last order substantially affecting physical placement?
2. In giving up placement of the daughter so soon after winning in court, would the court view his motion for modification as a tactical maneuver in order to get out of paying, or paying as much child support?
3. She has 90 days to file an appeal on the decision, should she file an appeal, and then file a motion for placement of her daughter, then after filing a motion, request leave from the appeal until the motion has been heard and decided on by the court.
4. If the court determines that the motion was filed as a tactical maneuver by the father, and not from his being concerned for there wellbeing, then, can she ask that her attorney fees from her motion and attorney fees from the post divorce placement dispute, (his motion), be paid by her ex-husband?
5. When filing a motion for full placement of the daughter, should she also include full placement of her son if her son has close ties with the daughter, and he misses her, would the court consider keeping the two together?