Legal Question in Family Law in Tennessee
He won't give my daughter back!
Single mom of a 5 year old. Her father was absent most of the 5 years. Little to no child support received. I am a college student and I recently made a verbal agreement with him that if he cares for her until May when I graduate, I will come get her. This way he has the opportunity to develop a relationship with her. Two months ago he put his name on the birth certificate, and took her out of state to live with him. We never went to court for the matter. Now that I want to see her he wont allow me to and he has mentioned that she will not be living with me in May. Can I just go to where he lives and get her eventhough I let him take her? Do I have to go through any legal processes to get her back? I never gave up my rights as her mother and we never established custody or visitation. Am I within my rights as her mother and for caring for her for 5 years able to bring her back eventhough he has cared for her for 2 months?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: He won't give my daughter back!
The father is going to claim in court that you abandoned your daughter, and there was no agreement to return her to you ever again. I have seen this play out time and time again in custody disputes.
A Tennessee resident cannot seize a child in Illinois and bring her back to live with him. However, in this case, you voluntarily gave her to him, before you got anything down in writing to bind him.
You need to go to your family court or court of equity where you reside and file a suit against the father seeking the return of your daughter. That court will give you custody. The father will probably file a competing suit in TN to get custody of her from a court here.
In some sense, you face a "race to the courthouse" situation, but the fact that your daughter resides even temporarily here in TN now makes it more likely that the TN court will assert proper jurisdiction. You need to show your IL court that your daughter's doctors and all of her other needs have been met in IL prior to the father entering the picture.
Dr. Michael A. S. Guth
Tennessee Attorney at Law
http://riskmgmt.biz
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