Legal Question in Family Law in Virginia

Re: Joint Custody

If it's joint custody with the mother of the second child which you're seeking, chances are the fact that you're $2200 behind in your support

for the first child will have little effect on whether you're granted this form of custody and no effect whatsoever on your visitation privileges with the second child.

However, if you were to seek sole legal and physical custody of the second child, the fact of your arrearages with respect to the first could well raise the issue with the court deciding the matter as to whether you're in fact able to support the second child in a manner which would be in his best interests.

Re: Joint Custody

If you are trying to get custody or expanded visitation to child #2 then your relationship to child #1 becomes very important. If you are in arrears in child support for child #1, the mother of child #2 is going to use that fact to argue that you do not take care of your children. If Mother of child #1 has SOLE custody (as opposed to a shared custodial situation) then that fact will also be used against you. If you don't have a full schedule with child #1 then the Mother of child #2 might argue that you are not serious about parenting. That you do not expend the effort or have the qualifications.

The answer then is YES the fact that you have not paid child support faithfully to the mother of child #1 will come into play in the custody/visitation case of child #2. You need to prepare a reasonable explanation of how the arrearage could have happened and show that you are a responsible parent.