Legal Question in Family Law in California
I am a u.s. citizen living in california. i fathered the child of a mexican woman living in california as a student. we never married but i did sign a declaration of paternity and the child's birth certificate. we split up and she had been living in her own place until recently. i had been visiting the baby regularly she is 2 years old now, we never went to court in california or any other place. my ex recently disappeared with the baby and now i found out they are in mexico and that she wants to do a dna test down there because i may not be the father. what can i do? she is not allowing me to see the child.
3 Answers from Attorneys
You could go to a California court to seek custody or visitation orders, but good luck having her served with the petition if she's in Mexico. Good luck also getting visitation through the Mexican courts. And although this might not be what you want to hear, many noncustodial Dads who have to pay large amounts of child support would consider you lucky.
If you have a properly executed and filed declaration of paternity, the California courts will treat this as a parental kidnapping, but you will have to take a very proactive approach to get the courts and authorities to do anything. This is not something you should do without legal counsel. If you read my other responses you will see that I encourage people to do things for themselves as much as possible. This is not one of those things. Contact me or any other attorney as soon as possible to get appropriate advice and representation if you want your daughter back.
This is child abduction and should be treated as such. Contact me directly.
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