Legal Question in Family Law in Oregon

Re: Child Custody

If your visitation agreement is just that an agreement and not part of a stipulated court order then there is no enforcement mechanism. I'm not sure what you mean by court "suggested" visitation. If this is guidelines from the clerk's office then it has no real effect. If you where parties to a court proceeding and the presiding judicial officer included the "suggest" visitation in his or her order you may be able to enforce through a contempt action but this all sounds pretty vauge. The information that father is not on the birth certificate but pays support suggests that the was a Support Enforcement Division order. This is an administrative action which coincidentally along with establishing a support order also establishes paternity. If not, the father although he is the biological father is not the legal father and has neither the right to custody nor the obligation of support. Cleary a situation that needs to be addressed and should be done through a petition filed in court. If the child has been residing with the mother the last two years and the mother has been prviding adequate care it is unlikely the the court will disrupt the custodial status. In other words father's threat of going to court to take custody is not very credible. The best suggestion I can make right now is that the mother probably should file a petition to establish custody, visitation and support.