Legal Question in Family Law in Oregon

Re: Do I need to file for custody?

QUESTION:

I live in Oregon and I have a daughter with a man that I was never married to and he moved to Arizona last year. I am wanting to file for child support and I was told by a co-worker that OR & WA law, that the mother automatically gets custody when the parents were never married. Is this true, or do I need to file for custody before filing for child support?

ANSWER:

If paternity has not yet been established pursuant to one of the legally recognized methods for doing so, your daughter has only one presently-existing legal parrent, and that is YOU. So in that situation, the biological father has no right of custody, or any other legal rights, nor does he have any legal responsibilities (such as child support).

If and when legal paternity has been established, the parent having physicial custody of the child AT THAT TIME, has legal custody of the child, at least until such time as a court otherwise orders. And in that situation, if he sought custody or visitation rights, he would have to do so through the Oregon courts, since Arizona would have not jurisdictional authority (at least so long as you continued to reside in Oregon). You, on the other hand, can obtain a child support order by going to the DA's office in the county in which you live and applying for support enforcement services. The DA's office will then proceed on your behalf and obtain the involvement of child support enforcement agencies in Arizona. You need not worry about custody in this situation, since you automatically have full legal and physical custody of the child "by operation of law."

Best advice: Check out the FAQs at:

http://www.dcs.state.or.us/faqs/default.htm

LAWRENCE D. GORIN

http://www.divorcesource.com/OR/pages/ldgorin.html

Law Offices of L.D. Gorin

521 S.W. Clay St., Suite 205

Portland, Oregon 97201

503.224.8884

E-mail: [email protected]