Legal Question in Family Law in Texas
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Texas
My husband just got served with child support papers for his ten year old daughter and I need advice.
He started dating her mother at 15. The little girl was born about a year later.him and the mother dated off and on and he was not informed when she was born so he was not at the hospital, he is not on her birth certificate and no dna was done.after she was born they dated for a while longer but then seperated. She got with another guy and got pregnant by him. Shortly after their child was born they seperated and she got back with my husband.their daughter was three at this time and they began to live together.she got pregnant by my husband for the second time but they once again seperated before the baby was born. as soon as they seperated she got back with her second childs father.he was there when my husbands son was born and signed the birth certificate.my husband and I met shortly after he left her and we now have two children who are 4 & 3. His daughter by the other lady is ten and their son will soon be six.when their daughter was six and son was 2 we contacted her to see if she would let him see the kids.she agreed but then backed out and told us not to bother her again.about two years ago she left her husband and her and her three kids moved to cali with her new boyfriend.she ended up pregnant by the new boyfriend and her husband made her bring his son back to texas to live with him then her, her new babies daddy and my husbands two kids moved to washington state.she filed for medicaid and medicaid issued child support for their daughter.i contacted her and asked why it want meeting issued for his son also.she said since her husband signed his birth certificate he was paying child support for him.i am so confused as to what rights my husband has, this lady has said she will make sure he gets no visitation right but I think he can I'm just wondering what will happen since he hadn't seen his daughter since she was about four and also worried about visitation since we live in texas and she lives in washington now for a year.
We had a lawyer say we might have a good case to get custody because her mom has moved her around alot and we are stable but I think that lawyer was just telling uts what we wanted to hear to get our money.
Can someone please give me advise
1 Answer from Attorneys
Wow! You've written a very long statement with many, many facts - most of which are going to be irrelevant to the Judge.
The bottom line is you need an experienced family law attorney in the county where the case will be heard for advice. The only opinion that matters is the judge that will hear this case! Each judge has their own opinion on the law.
I would immediately hire an attorney & file for custody. This is certainly not a slam-dunk case -- in fact -- there is no such thing as a "slam dunk" case in family law. You always run the risk of losing. (Any decent lawyer will advise you of that!)
Yes it hurts that he has not seen his daughter in years.
Yes it hurts that she lives in Washington for a year.
Yes it helps that she sounds like a "flake".
If he has money to fight this & she does not, then he has a better chance to win.
You need to be prepared for a long drawn-out fight since family law matters tend to take a long time.
Plus, family law cases are never as easy as they appear to be.
If she applied for pro bono (free) legal services & gets them, they it will be a really, really long legal battle with lots of discovery & it will cost you guys money since you will be paying your lawyer lots of money.
Related Questions & Answers
Looking for something else?
10,200 active attorneys ready to answer your legal questions today.
Featured Attorneys
Earn additional revenue and grow your business.
