Custody & Kidnapping

You mentioned that you are separated from your husband. Is there any sort of court order regarding custody or visitation of your child? Sometimes, a temporary order will be entered that addresses custody while a divorce is pending until a final order is issued. Or if a custody case was filed even before a divorce, there may be a custody order regarding a child. In general, if someone doesn’t follow a court order regarding custody and visitation, s/he can be held in contempt and there can be consequences such as loss of custody, fines, or even jail time for extreme violations.

If there is no current custody or visitation order, you may want to ask a lawyer whether or not you can just refuse to let the other parent see your child or whether or not that may put you in danger of being accused of custodial interference. Here is a link to the custodial interference law for your state. [HYPERLINK] However, these types of laws are hard to interpret and easy to misinterpret and so you may want to talk to a lawyer to see if refusing to allow the other parent to see the child would violate this law or not. You can find free and low cost lawyers on our website. [HYPERLINK]

In addition, you may want to ask an attorney about any possible negative effect that withholding a child from another parent may have in a future custody case. You may want to ask an attorney if it might make a difference to a judge if you were withholding the child for some reason that had nothing to do with your child’s well-being (such as because you are angry that the other parent is dating someone new) versus if you had a “good” reason to withhold the child (fear for safety, etc.). I can’t specifically tell you if a judge would hold this against you or not but you may want to look at the factors that judges consider when deciding custody (if there is a custody battle in the future). [LINK TO QUES. ABOUT FACTORS A JUDGE WILL CONSIDER FROM CUSTODY SECTION]

One thing that you also may want to consider is that married parents are considered to have equal rights to a child until a court order says otherwise. So, sometimes if parents can’t agree on a schedule, a parent who feels that s/he is not getting enough time with a child may do something like pick up the child from school or from another location (daycare, etc.) and then keep that child with him/her and withhold the child from the parent who was previously withholding the child. Sometimes, to avoid a situation like this, a parent who fears this may happen might decide to file for custody. On our website, we have some information about the custody laws in STATE, if you want to learn more. [HYPERLINK]

I know you are asking how to keep the father away from your child. Although I cannot speak to your situation, in many states if a father requests custody or visitation, it may be very difficult to get a judge to deny all contact with that parent - you may want to talk to a lawyer about the specifics of your situation to see if this may be possible at all or not.

Lastly, if a parent is concerned for a child’s physical safety, s/he may explore whether or not the child would qualify for a restraining order against the other parent. On our website you can find information about the restraining orders in your state. [HYPERLINK]