Legal Question in Family Law in New York

Can he get joint custody?

I have a child with a man...we are not married. He has been inconsistent in the visitation arrangement we set-up by not coming or calling...we have child support in effect already. He wants to take my 3 month old out of the home for visits...my sister who oversaw the visits told me he hasn't showed that he handles her well...on top of that he lives with his girlfriend and her family...this girl threatened me while i was pregnant and harrassed me to the point where i was rushed to the hospital...and when i was in the hospital and called her home for him they wouldn't take a message...i do not feel comfortable with him taking her until she can walk and maybe talk...he also filed for joint custody...can he do that? he hasn't showed any consistency, he practically ignored me during my pregnancy and him and his girl stressed me out, he provided nothing for her until court and didn't come to see her 4 out of the 10 weeks we did visitation and often left after an hour.


Asked on 9/10/01, 9:10 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
John Hayes The Law Office of John M. Hayes

Re: Can he get joint custody?

For some reason, it seems to take a long time between when you submit your question, and when it then "circulates" for answering. So, you may already know the answers to some of these issues, since it appears to be the case that a Petition was filed.

The information that you mention is all relevant to the court's decision-making process on the father's petition for joint custody {yes, he can file for such}.

If you cannot hire an attorney, you need to make sure you carefully follow any instructions you may have received with your court papers about steps you should take *before* the court date to ask for an attorney to be assigned to represent you. If you received no such instructions, you should go to the court and ask.

Good luck to you.

Regards, etc.,

J.M. Hayes

>>--> The foregoing amounts to musings and observations based on some years familiarity with the 'day-to-day' operation of the law with regard to the issues involved In The Most General sense; my remarks should not be thought of as "legal advice and counsel" in the formal sense of that phrase, since there is, in fact, no 'attorney / client' relationship existing between us. <-<<

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Answered on 10/25/01, 9:54 pm


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