Legal Question in Family Law in New York
Very odd situation, need help.
I Was married roughly for one year, and had one child with my ex-spouse. He left when the child was 1 year old, and we have not seen nor heard from him since (almost 8 years now.) He has NO visitation rights. I know that he has become involved in another relationship and has had at least one child with this other woman, and is now residing in Canada. I have also become involved with another man, and have been with him for almost 7 years. He is the only man my daughter has known as her father. We would like to get married, but I never entered into a separation agreement or filed for divorce from my ex-spouse. Also, it should be mentioned that the reson that there is no visitation rights is that both he and his family threatened to abduct my daughter on several occasions, and there were incidents of neglect and abuse during our relationship.
What is the best way to resolve this situation? I believe e will not fight the divorce, but may try to gain custody or visitation, just to be spiteful. I would like all rights signed over to me, and then my current partner would adopt once we are able to be married.
Thank you.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Very odd situation, need help.
You must obtain a divorce to re-marry. There is no statute of limitations on a father seeking visitation. In other words, the father can always file for visitation rights. However, the court looks to the best interest of the child to enforce the rights. Therefore, after 8 years of no contact I believe the Court will not award immediate unsupervised overnight visitation. The child will be eased into the new relationship.
In terms of adoption, you would have to receive permission from your former spouse.
The best way to handle this matter is to contact your husband to seek an uncontested divorce.
Mike.
Re: Very odd situation, need help.
In order to re-marry you have to obtain divorce first. You can get a divorce even if you do not know where your former spouse resides.
As far as visitation rights concern, this is something that the court will decide after considering the best interest of the child.
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