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My ex-girlfriend and I split up before
our daughter was born. Now she won’t let me see my daughter and she says I have
no rights because I am not on the birth certificate. But she is coming after me for support. What are my rights?
Without your name on the birth certificate you
don’t have a lot of rights. The proceeding through the state for child support
will not give you visitation rights with your child. A family law attorney can
file a Petition with the court to get a declaration that you are the child’s
father and to establish your visitation rights with your child.
If you have other questions about Family Law in Missouri, or need representation on a family law matter, please contact Barbara Graham at The Law Office of Barbara Graham at 314-725-7600 or barb@blg-law.com
If you have other questions about Family Law in Missouri, or need representation on a family law matter, please contact Barbara Graham at The Law Office of Barbara Graham at 314-725-7600 or barb@blg-law.com
If he is not on the birth certificate he can dispute the mother's and the state's claim that he is and is obligated to provide for the child they allege he fathered.
ReplyDeleteHe needs a father-friendly family law lawyer that can protect his right to have a meaningful and participatory role in his child's life, and not just a walking ATM, and perhaps even obtain a majority of custody and legal and medical decision-making authority for his child, since the mother seems all too eager to throw the child under the proverbial bus to secure monetary reward and refuse to honor his parenting time rights in order to inflict her personal emotional revenge on the father without any concern for the damage the is causing her own child. He should have strong protections and built-in penalties for the mother's non-compliance with court-ordered custody or parenting time up to and including the grant by the court to receive child support.
The good news is that Missouri is a presumptive joint custody state with rational shared parenting child support formula. That said, 4 days a month (aka every other weekend) is considered 'joint' custody. Keep in mind that this is the minimum, as the court determined that less than this would cause the child to suffer psychological harm. It is a liability avoidance minimum for the State - not in any way a healthy, positive schedule. The fact that it also generates the maximum Child Support amounts ordered that the federal government rewards states with matching funds is supposedly secondary.
Read Taken into Custody for an in depth understanding of the child custody industry.