Legal Question in Family Law in Alabama
Never married father of children in Fed. Prison(custody questions)
I never married the father of my 2 children, he is on the birth certificates and no custody has ever legally been established. Dad has not been an active part of their lives for 5+ yrs. Children 9(non-verbal autistic boy) and 5 do not know who their father is. He has been in & out of jail for years since we split. He is now in Federal Prison for drug offenses(trafficking meth) He does write, send cards and attempts to call. I use to read the letters to my youngest, this caused too many problems for her and my son, well 'm not sure that he can understand. I've never talked ''bad'' or really even talked about him to my them. I have only answered questions and not truthfully. I can't bring myself to tell them the truth and they wouldn't understand it if I did. The father will be released soon and he is writing letters saying''I will see my kids and you can't stop me''I have been a single mom put myself thru school. I have NEVER received financial or emotional support from him or his family. It's like that side of my kids family doesn't exist. What custody/visitation rights does he have? His family has $ and I do not. Any advice or suggestions?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Never married father of children in Fed. Prison(custody questions)
He has absolutely no legal rights to the children. However, if his family has money, you may need that support. You could establish paternity, whereby he gets visitation, but it would probably be supervised. You would be able to go back two years or 24 months to get retroactive child support. Although he has a family with money, that does not mean he has money. So, it may be like getting blood out of a turnip and not worth it. So you may just want to stand your ground on legal rights which without paternity, he has no rights. And, even if his family has money, they could have been helping you during his incarceration if they wanted to, so it does not sound as if they are too willing to help.
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