Legal Question in Family Law in Maryland

Re: Child custody laws

Child support and visitation are not connected. His non-payment of child support does not provide

any basis whatsoever for not permitting visitation or custody as granted. His non-involvement with the child(ren) is, however,

a basis for him not being granted physical custody. Legal custody is not addressed as you did you inquire about it.

Ultimately, he will retain some aspect of visitation even though he may loose all rights for physical custody. The only way he would loose

visitation would be if he decided to give up his parental rights or such rights were otherwise terminated (for example, through adoption).

Hope this helps.

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Re: Child custody laws

In Maryland a parent does not lose parental rights (or responsibilities) because of a failure to exercise them, unless there is a court proceeding in which parental rights are terminated. "Parental rights," not custody rights, are what the father in your case has. Apparently you have full custody of your son and the father has not bothered to visit with him or to pay child support. He still has the legal obligation to support his son, and the right to have visitation. If the father is employed, or employable, you should be able to have the child support obligation enforced through the court, although there is such a backlog of difficult cases that sometimes people give up. You can't require the father to visit his son, and if he should show up wanting to see the boy at some time in the future he will still have a right to do so, but the visitation right doesn't mean that he has the right to see his son any time he wishes, on demand and with no warning. Common sense will tell most people that a parent who has been absent so long that the child doesn't know him should have to go through a get-acquainted period before there is any significant unsupervised visitation.