Legal Question in Family Law in California

married in 2004, seperated 2007, daughter was 2 when we seperated and father moved out of state, he had little contact with my daughter after numerous attemps, emails, and phone calls to him , about importance to be in her life, or she will not know him, would call maybe 1-2 times every couple months, never wrote, or send cards, gifts to our daughter. father just moved back to california last month, and had contact a couple times, i now served him with divorce papers, and he responded with wanting joing legal/physical custody, i know he wants this because he has been adviced child support is based on how much he sees our daughter, he also states he was unable to keep in contact with our daughter due to me being "uncooperative: which is a lie, i have no problem with if hes trying to do the right thing now and get to know his daughter, to have joint legal custody but not physical my daughter has lived with me and only me since 2, with little to no contact from her father, she is just getting to know him, would a judge grant it to have joint custody, to a father who pretty much abandoned her? he never paid child support either. i want what is best for my daughter, and having her go live part time with her father would be difficult for her , she is attached to me she is now 6 years old.


Asked on 11/17/11, 9:37 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Michael Schneider Family Law Center

First, I think that you need to understand that "joint" is a qualitative term, not a quantitative one. It only means shared. So, for example, if you have your daughter with you 99% of the time and the father only has 1% of the time, then the custody is still shared, albeit not that much. Due to the lack of contact, I am pretty certain that any judge would give the contact to the father in baby steps and not just suddenly give him a large share of the time. I would suggest that you seek legal advice and representation, since, you will only have one chance for a first impression with the judge. Good luck!

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Answered on 11/17/11, 9:42 am


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