Legal Question in Family Law in California
My boyfriend is trying to find his daughter. His ex refuses to let him see her. She has made contact with him and asked him to give up his rights to her and she will stop his child support but he doesnt want that. she lives in a gated community so he cant get in to it to attempt to see his daughter. His ex refuses over and over to let him see her. I need to know if we need to seek a lawyer or if he can just take her to court.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Since there is a support order, is there a visitation order? He can ask the police to escort him into the gated community to exercise his visitation if she is refusing to follow the order. One problem I have seen is that some attorneys do not write down a reference date, so it is hard to show which "every other week" is yours. My solution would be to call the police out, ask them to make contact with her, and when she says this isn't the right week, then the next must be. It also is unclear from your question whether the ex is refusing because the daughter doesn't want to go. If the daughter doesn't want to go, the cops won't make her, just to warn you. One thing you MUST do is DOCUMENT!! Every time he is refused, he needs to write it down. Keep a notebook that is dedicated just to writing down dates, times, what was said. You could go to court yourself, but I don't recommend it. It is a very emotional situation and I have seen way too many times where this has hurt a person's case. If he really needs to do this himself because he cannot afford it, there is help through the Orange County court system (I think that you are in Orange County) both online and at the family law courthouse on City Drive in Orange.