Legal Question in Family Law in New Mexico

A woman was traditionally married to the father of her child,but they never registered the marriage.They separated .He doesn't pay maintanance but was allowed to see the child.One day he took the child to his new girlfriends house without her knowledge .Does the law say anything about introducing new parental figures to children and how much access is he allowed to have?


Asked on 12/16/15, 12:20 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

George Chandler Chandler Law of Los Alamos

The short answer is "no."

I don't know what a "traditional marriage" is but New Mexico doesn't recognize a common law marriage, if that's what you're talking about.

Smart thing for this couple to do would be to do a paternity action to get a child custody arrangement including child support and a parenting plan put in place by the court. If she considers the girlfriend a threat of some kind to the child that she can document then she can use the parenting plan and court authority to limit visitation. A new "parent" figure would probably not be considered by the court to be a threat to the child, lots of kids have four or more parent figures. A threat in this context would be some kind of child abuse or neglect, a domestic situation that would include drugs or alcohol to excess, etc. Most courts default to 50% time-sharing absent some reason such as above to limit access.

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Answered on 12/16/15, 5:44 am


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