Legal Question in Family Law in Indiana
Ok, Me and my girlfriend of 6 years have a 10 month old son together. We have recently split up and she has taking responsibilty of my child. I get to see him once or twice a week at most. Now the mother of my child has gone down a nasty path fueled with drugs. Also the man thats feeding her these drugs has seen my son atleast 10 more times than i have, if not more, since we moved out of our home and seperated. I want to know if the mother of my child droppes my son off for the night or weekend if i can keep him and not give him back. I dont want to have to get child welfare involved if i dont have to. We have never been marryed, I signed some type of paternity Affividata and i also signed his birth certificate. We both live in indiana and ive been told theres nothing i can do and that i legally have no rights to my son other than i can claim him on my taxes,until i establish paternity by taking a paternity test.That is going to take to long and i wonte able to live with myself if something were to happen to my son. Even if i call child welfare on her, im scared that he'll be taking to someone else until i establish paternity. I know indiana's laws on unwed child custody is in complete favor of the mother. But i've had many people tell me from personal experiance that if my name is on the birth certificate, i can keep my son in my custody and i don't have to give him back to her as long as she willing gave him to me from the start and i didnt TAKE him from her without permission or against her will.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Do not sit around and stew about what might happen. Have an attorney file a paternity action for you, and then whatever happens can be brought to a judge for determination. Other than that, there really wasn't a question in here, so that is my best advice.