Legal Question in Family Law in Texas
i have a 2 month old babygirl and her father who works in dallas has been wanting to take her for a few hours to his family here in houston. i dont know any of them and therefore, have refused that he take her. he also hasnt payed anything for her since shes been born. he keeps threatening to order child support on himself so he can have rights to see her. as far as i know, visitations are handled by the visition dept (or what ever its called) should i just go ahead and order c.s? and just everything over? also, he wasnt there to sign the birth certificate and hasnt made the effort to make it possible. since my daughter was born he's only seen her twice. both times for a max of 10 minutes so im afraid if by letting her go with him she wont be comfortable there and will just cry. what can i do? or what should i do?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Your best alternative is to retain an attorney, file to establish paternity, child support, insurance, conservatorship, possession and access. Normally the court will agree to limit possession times for children under the age of three. These issues will arise over and over again over the next 18 years - you might as well get it resolved now, so everyone can learn to live with the rules, and so that your daughter has a stable relationship with the people in her life. Good luck.
It appears that you are in Harris County.
Attorney Langford & I always agree on answers but let me elaborate a bit more...
He will have short frequent visits with a child under 3 years old.
He will not have any over-nights visits with a child under 3 years old.
Since you live in Harris County, he will be required to come here to pick up the child and return the child to you at the end of the visits. Since he lives in Dallas, this is going to limit his visits. I encourage the two of you to work together to make these visits easy on your child.
You might look on the Texas Attorney General's website for information about Texas visitation. There are many Texas attorneys that discuss visitation of children on their websites. The Texas Family Code is also available on-line for free.
You desperately need an attorney to represent you and explain the law to you.
He will need to come to your home & visit with the child in your presence initially.
If you are breast-feeding, the visits will be based around your feeding schedule.
He will be ordered to have a car seat in order to put the child in his vehicle.
You do not have to provide the car seat - he will have to buy one.
He will have to purchase diapers, blankets, clothes, bottles, food, etc. when the child is in his possession. You are not required to provide him with anything when he picks up the child for a visit.
His child support will be 20% of all his net resources plus health insurance.
His tax returns will determine his net resources.
If he has investments or rental property, this is also taken into account in determining his child support.
Uninsured medical expenses are shared 50/50.
I urge you to look on this website and on www.avvo.com for an experienced family law attorney that you feel comfortable with to help you.
You will be co-parenting with this man for the rest of this child's life.
The two of you need to learn to work together for the best interests of this child.
Good luck!
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