Legal Question in Family Law in Indiana
I have a 2 year old son (8/4/08), my ex & I broke up soon after I found out I was pregnant. We live almost 300 miles apart. At our custody hearing in, Dec 2008, I was given full custody. No visitation was set & child support was set up. The judge also changed my son's last name to his father's (was mine {Jones} now is his {Hart}). I was absolutely against this. But the judge said that I may get married one day & then my son would feel left out not having our name (but that doesn't make ANY sense. Because he now is the only one in our house with the name Hart). The judge also said that since my ex will be in his life he should have his name.
My question is can I fight this & try to get his name changed back to Jones?
His father hasn't been in his life hardly at all. He went from December 08 (our court date) to October 09 without visiting him even once. The next time he saw him was April 10 (I went to his town to visit friends). He hasn't made any effort to try to see my son since then.
The only 'fatherly' thing he has EVER done is pay child support & he only started paying regularly a few months ago.
2 Answers from Attorneys
You can always ask, but it will not be worth it. The judge sees too many cases where mothers do this for emotional reasons, believing that the person they decided to have a baby with is now not worthy of that honor, and use this as a punishment to the father, not for any good reason relating to the child.
BTW, unless the judge said specifically that he shall NOT visit with the child, he does have visitation rights under the Indiana Parenting Time Guidelines.
I think it is a little late to fight an order that was entered two years ago. However, please be aware that in the future if the father has no contact for over a year and you did not cause the non-contact, his consent will not be needed for an adoption and a name change could take place then.
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