Legal Question in Family Law in Arizona

Re: child

Your request for information did not have enough details for me to answer. Are you married? Divorced? Never-married with a custody order in place? Never-married without any custody order from the courts? You said you have �full custody�, but you didn�t say how you obtained full custody. If there is a formal court order regarding custody, following a divorce or other court action, then the terms of the order should apply. Normally such an order establishes who the primary parent where the child will be living and sets up visitation now called �parenting time� for the non-custodial parent. If the terms of such a court order are not being followed, i.e. dad is keeping the child past his parenting time, you should ask him for return of the child, maybe even in writing, and seek an expedited petition to enforce if the child is not returned. If no formal court order exists, you don�t have �full custody� as defined by Arizona law. Is dad�s name on the birth certificate? You should have paternity established asap. You can file a request for paternity and get custody and child support addressed by the court in the same action. Free services are available to get paternity established and have a child support order entered on behalf of the custodial parent. Child Support Office does NOT HANDLE CUSTODY matters. Check the DCSE website for the Child Support Office in your county. http://www.de.state.az.us/dcse/default.asp. Good Luck