Custody & Kidnapping

THIS IS WRITTEN AS IF WE ARE UNSURE IF PATERNITY HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED

From your email, I am not sure whether you currently have a custody order in place. Assuming there is a custody order, here is some information: Although I can’t speak about your situation in particular, in general, if there is a custody order, the other parent may have to file in court if s/he wants to try to change the order to take the kids away from the other parent. For the court to approve any change, s/he might need to prove that there has been a substantial change of circumstances since the order was issued and that changing the custody order would be in the best interest of the children.

If there is no custody order, and a parent wants to file for custody, s/he might have to prove it’s in the children’s best interests for him/her to have custody. Here is list of the different factors a judge might consider when deciding if it’s in the children’s best interests to for a person to have custody in STATE: LINK

If you do not have a custody order, do you know if your child’s father ever established his paternity rights? In general, establishing paternity is when a biological father does something to legally declare himself the father. A mother’s parental rights can be automatically established at birth and a father’s may be automatic if the mother was married to the father when she gave birth. If not, the father may have had to do something to establish his parental rights such as signing the birth certificate/affidavit of paternity at birth, or be named as the father through a child support order. In such a situation, it is possible that the mother may have already acknowledged that the man is the father of the child. If you are unsure of whether his paternity was established, you may want to talk to a lawyer in STATE who specializes in custody to find out if his paternity has been established and, if so, what your rights are and what his rights are under STATE law when there is no custody order in place. Here is a link to lawyers in STATE: LINK. The reason why establishing paternity matters is that if a person was never married to the child’s father and if it is determined that his paternity was not established, in many states, the father may not currently have legal rights to the child - this is something to check with a lawyer. However, any man who believes he is the biological father of a child may be able to file to establish his paternity in court and file for custody or visitation.

If the father’s rights have been established in some way and he is not in violation of a custody order, you may want to ask an attorney if he may legally be able to keep your child with him – you can ask a lawyer about what the parental kidnapping laws say in your state so you’d know if the other parent might be committing a crime if s/he took your child.

If one parent fears that the other parent may take his/her child, and there is no custody order, sometimes that parent may file for custody and ask the judge to issue an immediate temporary ex parte custody order. If you believe that there is an actual threat to take your child, you may want to consider asking an attorney about what the best course of action is – for example, perhaps an attorney can tell you if you may be able to ask for an immediate temporary custody order based on this threat to take your child. Generally, if a parent violates a custody order, it may be easier to get police or courts to help get the child than if there is no custody order. Again, you may want to talk to a lawyer to find out exactly what may happen according to your state’s law and your situation.

Whatever your situation, because custody can be a complicated issue, you may want to contact a lawyer in STATE to help you determine what your best next steps are. An attorney could also help you prepare for or even represent you in court, should you go to court. See the link above for a listing of lawyers in STATE.