Legal Question in Family Law in Illinois

No order concerning custody (never married couple) usually means mom is the lawf

The state of jurisdiction in the situation you describe is Illinois. This is because:

1) the child lived in Illinois and only Illinois until the father withheld the return of the child;

2) the Illinois courts have jurisdiction under the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act because the child�s home state would be Illinois;

3) the natural father is NOT the legal father until a court of competent jurisdiction declares his paternity so until then, the father has NO rights (even if he voluntarily pays child support, even if he is on the birth certificate, even if the mom says he is the father, and even if a blood test shows him to be the natural father).

4) even if paternity has been established, the fact that there is �no custody order� does not help dad. Illinois statute, � 750 ILCS 45/14, provides �If a judgment of parentage contains no explicit award of custody, the establishment of a support obligation or of visitation rights in one parent shall be considered a judgment granting custody to the other parent. If the parentage judgment contains no such provisions, custody shall be presumed to be with the mother; however, the presumption shall not apply if the father has had physical custody for at least 6 months prior to the date that the mother seeks to enforce custodial rights.�

In my opinion, this matter requires the services of an attorney experienced in custody fights.

And with regard to a custody fight, the father in Kentucky is off to a bad start. He has, without authority, intentionally withheld return of the child to the child�s mother � a very very bad decision on his part if he�s looking to win custody in a courtroom.

Indeed, in Illinois, what the father has done is called �Child Abduction�, a felony. Illinois law declares it a crime when a person �Intentionally conceals, detains or removes the child without the consent of the mother or lawful custodian of the child if the person is a putative father and either: (A) the paternity of the child has not been legally established or (B) the paternity of the child has been legally established but no orders relating to custody have been entered.� The stature also declares it to be �Child Abduction� if �At the expiration of visitation rights outside the State, [the person] intentionally fails or refuses to return or impedes the return of the child to the lawful custodian in Illinois.�

The law also states �It is presumed that, when the parties have never been married to each other, the mother has legal custody of the child unless a valid court order states otherwise. If an adjudication of paternity has been completed and the father has been assigned support obligations or visitation rights, such a paternity order should, for the purposes of this Section be considered a valid court order granting custody to the mother.�