Legal Question in Family Law in Missouri
Help Please....
I'm trying to get a divorce, but my husband doesn't want to agree with anything. I had a paternity test done earlier this year & it proved that the husband is not the biological father. However since my child was born into the marriage his name is on the birth certificate. He refuses to sign the affidavit giving the biological father any rights. He has said that the child shouldn't have been born. I have a protective order but not one for my child, I'm afraid something may happen to my child if I let him take the child. I need to know what I can do. One lawyer said I needed a parenting plan & joint custody, I don't want him having any custody. He constantly says that he wont bring the child back, and I wouldn't put it past him. Another lawyer said he doesn't have any rights to the child but legally he is the father. I need to know what I can do? What are my rights as a mother trying to protect my child? What are his rights? What are the biological fathers rights? And how does the biological father establish his rights? I would hire an attorney but I can't afford one, please help me.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Help Please....
Talk to the biological father of the child in question and ask him to file a Petition for Determination of Paternity which can be consolidated with your divorce case. Then, you will get a judgment granting the divorce and dealing with any issues concerning children born to you and your husband, and you will get a judgment making the biological father of the other child that child's legal father and providing for child support, custody and so forth. You need an attorney to represent you. Perhaps you could borrow enough nmoney to get through the case until your attorney could get a judgment for attorney's fees against the other parties. If you have an attorney in the divorce case, he or she can file the Paternity suit for you. Good luck.