Legal Question in Family Law in California

Father wants Custody, child not with mother, but pays child support to someone.

My husband and I are filing for custody of his son. The child was taken from the mother, when child was only 4 weeks old/child abuse supected. My husband, by DNA was determined to be the father two years ago. The child lives with the mothers, father and stepmother, but there are no custody papers, and the mother can not be found. We pay child support to the step-grandmother, and when we asked the Division of Child Support who the money went to they said the biologial mother. But the name is the step-grandmothers name. We do not understand why we can not just file for custody since no one has legal custody, and the mother is gone. But everytime we go to file we are lost in more and more paperwork. We hired a lawyer, but she has not done much and we still can not file because we do not know who has legal custody or the birth records. We have paid over $4,000 and we still have no answer and no child. How can we get custody of a child that seems not to exist?

How is it that we are paying child support, yet the step-grandmother has not legal rights to the child?

Should it be this hard to get custody?


Asked on 8/19/01, 3:21 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Ken Koury Kenneth P. Koury, Esq.

Re: Father wants Custody, child not with mother, but pays child support to someo

you need another lawyer to look at your case. i dont understand what the problem is. unless there is a court order you are not required to pay child support to anyone. getting custody should not be a problem

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Answered on 8/24/01, 12:02 pm


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