Legal Question in Family Law in Texas
I have a child with a woman whom I was never married to. There was no assignment of custody upon our separation. She has had my son on medicaid, food stamps, and CCMS child care assistance. She is of the belief that she can control everything when it comes to me seeing my child. I have done the best I can at providing financial support and physically being there for my son. Financially, I believe I have provided more support than the state attorney would require, given my income, and am currently unemployed, and still provide financial assistance in excess of what would be required by the state of texas. She is now filing for child support against me and I feel she is doing it to be spiteful. She has had many other charactar flaws that I believe compromise her efficiency as a custodial parent. She expects me to help with her personal bills, when she is living beyond her means. The support that I voluntarily send her is more than sufficient to take care of my child. I base this on the amount of money I spend to support my daughter, who's expenses are higher.
I want to know if I am within my legal rights if I refuse to surrender my son to her after a visit with him, since there are no court papers assigning custody, and if I keep him with me during the custody battle, do I have a better chance of getting custody of my son.
1 Answer from Attorneys
If she is "filing for custody," she is asking that paternity be legally established. That will result in a court order that will have a visitation schedule, and that schedule will be enforceable by contempt. In other words, when you show up to pick up your child (at the scheduled time), you have the right to DEMAND that she surrender your son to you (the order will ORDER her to do so).
I hope you kept a record of how much you've paid her over the years for support. If you don't have receipts or canceled checks, start right now making a list of payments you made, as best you can remember. This is very important.
Right now she CAN "control everything" when it comes to seeing your child.
You really need a lawyer.
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