Legal Question in Family Law in New York

Re: Obtaining child custody from unfit mother

Dear sir:

Permit me to speak plainly & bluntly to you (even though I am not your attorney, which status would give me some greater "license" to presume to speak bluntly & plainly to you):

You must travel to New York State and hire an attorney well-versed in child custody litigation. You should plan on spending a minimum of two business days in New York "shopping" for a lawyer, making your choice & providing him with the information (and $) that he or she will need in order to be of help to you.

You must reconcile yourself to the fact that you have a *very* large hurdle to overcome if, in fact, the mother was legally married at the time she gave birth & her legal husband's name is on the birth certificate. In New York State, a child born to a legally married woman is PRESUMED to be a child of the marriage. Ultimately, you will almost certainly have to track down the husband & include him in the litigation.

You must reconcile yourself to the fact that, yes, the jurisdiction where you will have to begin this struggle is New York State.

You must reconcile yourself to a truly nerve-testing timetable. For example: if you retained a lawyer tomorrow, it might take him a week or two to draft the necessary pleadings; once those were filed in the Family Court, it could be as long as a month before the case made it to the calendar. You would have to appear in court on that first date. The case would almost certainly be scheduled for further proceedings - perhaps as long as another month in the future. You would have to be prepared to appear for that date; and the case might be continued beyond that. I think it is not unreasonable to suggest to you that it could take as long as six months before the case was *decided*.

This will be an expensive effort. If you are without funds [as in REALLY without funds beyond the value of a welfare check) you might qualify for assigned counsel, at no expense to you; but, heed me: to qualify, you must be, yourself, just about "church mouse poor".

If you are determined to act on this, it is IMPERATIVE that you act sooner, not later. Be prepared to suffer much as the 'suspense' mounts; be prepared to have it all be for naught - you might lose.

If you have any other questions that you think I might be able to help you with, you may certainly feel free to contact me directly.

I wish you well - you'll go through hell.

Regards, etc.,

jmhayes

John Hayes

The Law Office of John M. Hayes

Westview Station Box 766