Legal Question in Family Law in Tennessee

Re: Low-income Father seeks visitation, pays support.

I think it is fairly well settled that every person has a constitutional right to represent himself, although that right can be abused and taken away. This is a complicated matter and the judge is going to hold him to the standard of a lawyer, so it is highly advisable to hire one for such a case. The clerks and the court ABSOLUTELY have the right to insist that you follow the court rules and proper court procedure and through no fault of your friend, he simply does not know the rules and, accordingly, is not getting the case on the docket. The best thing is for the father to get a lawyer, but if he simply can not afford one, he should go through motions in the nicest and most respectful way possible to file a petition for visitation. If he asks the clerks for help, in this way, he might get some. The father will need to be prepared to put on evidence and perhaps to cross examine the mother or her witnesses, if she has any. While I doubt seriously the grandparents are going to get any court ordered visitation, they can be at court with their son, prepared to take the stand and prepared to put on whatever evidence they have about how much visitation their son should get. Finally, you should know that the fact the parents were not married should have absolutely no impact on whether or not the father gets visitation or how much. Good luck to him.

Re: Low-income Father seeks visitation, pays support.

No, he does not need a lawyer to get on the court's docket. He does have to stand up for his rights, or the court will run roughshod over them. He will need to file a petition for visitation. I have done these for fathers and grandparents.

See http://riskmgmt.biz/visitation.htm

http://riskmgmt.biz/grandparentvisitation.htm

It would cost about $60 for me to prepare such a petition for your friend. I would need to have e-mail contact with him or you to get the facts for the petition. Otherwise, you can take the two examples I have prepared and try to reword them yourself to save on the lawyer fee.

Mike Guth

http://riskmgmt.biz/prose.htm