Legal Question in Family Law in Costa Rica

My fianc� in Limon, Costa Rica has a 12 year old daughter. She has been divorced for several years and has never received any child support from her child's father. Now that we are engaged and I want Kenyie and Aljandra to come to the California to visit my family he is extorting money for us if we want him to sign for a passport and visa for biological child, as he has been no father to her at all.

This man has done nothing for his daughter and has not been a father to her in any way or supplied any financial support at all in all these years. Now that his ex-wife has found a little happiness he is using this parental right to extort money, he has no concern for his daughter or her happiness.

I recently read an article from 2002 "Costa Rica Lays Down Law for Deadbeat Dads". This man has no job that I know of and instead of back child supports payments I want to know if we can have his parental rights terminated since he has in no way supported his child monetarily or emotionally in all of her 12 years.

Kenyie (Andrea) and her daughter just want to visit California for a week as we plan on marrying in Limon this December and making our home in Costa Rica.

Sincelery,

John J McCarthy


Asked on 2/24/13, 7:32 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
augusto arce GLC Abogados Consortium LLC S.A.

Dear Mr. McCarthy,

We appreciate your interest in our services, GLC Abogados is a full service law firm specialized in protecting foreign interests in Costa Rica.

In that sense we have a strong Family Law practice, based on your description of the situation we can advance you the following initial considerations:

-custody rights of both parents are extremely protected by the local laws

-in cases such as yours, the only alternative is to initiate a judiciary procedure to request a judge the authorization for the child to travel based on the absence of the father.

-parallel to that another procedure could be conducted to request the temporary suspension of the father's custody over the minor based on his lack of interest and proper exercise of it.

Our procedure for this case would be to begin with a legal analysis of the situation calculated at US$125.00 per hour, and for a maximum cost of US$250.00 once we agree on that we would create a client/attorney relationship which will allow us to understand the exact situation and to guide you specifically to the best procedure for the child's interests.

We will wait for your confirmation to begin.

Regards,

Augusto Arce, attorney and GMBA

Managing Partner

Read more
Answered on 2/25/13, 11:06 am


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