Legal Question in Family Law in Washington

Re: Child Custody

You really have 2 issues and 2 answers.

The first is to assess the validity of the child support order entered against you. I assume that at sometime you were served with the Complaint or other paperwork to establish the child support order. If you were never served you should file a Motion to set aside the order. If you were served and are now paying child support, there had to be a finding of paternity. If you are not sure you are really the dad, you might want to find out.

If she or the DA's office opened a child support action against you ( and you are the dad and you were validly served) the Child support court has no jurisdiction over custudy/visitation issues- you must file your own seperate action.

Issue 2. Assuming you are the dad (with a confirmed DNA test)- you should file a complaint to establish custudy and visitation. Your chances of filing a motion for custudy and winning the 1st round are slim because the child doesn't know you at all. Your best bet is file a motion for 1) Reunification and specified visitation. The reunification program will allow you and the child to begin the bonding process. Once you and the child have bonded sufficiently, you can then start your limited and then regular visitations.

As to custudy, only after you reunification and visitations have progressed can you think about custudy- and the difficulty of this depends on the childs mother- (unstable crack ho- easy) Hard nosed family woman with thick bankroll- not easy- and this is compared to your personal history. Also Mom's action in thwarting your visitation will also play a role.

The short answer is to file a Petitoin for custudy and or Specified vistation and reunification in the jurisdiction where the Mom and child reside.

Re: Child Custody

Mr. Scalia hit the nail on the head. If the mother and the child are in WA you would move here to establish/disestablish parentage, and if this is your child then ask for a reunification plan and see where it goes.

The action is located where the child is.

Hope this helps. Elizabeth Powell

Re: Child Custody

I have to agree with Mr. Scalia and Ms. Powell. Your course of action is going to be very difficult, especially in light of the fact that you live in Nevada and the child lives here in Washington. If you are going to try and confirm paternity, you shoul ddo so immediately as there is a time limit of two years from date of birth or date of discovery "if the mother has concealed the birth or practiced a fraud upon you" by not telling you. There is a specific paternity statute on this subject. The main point here is this: ACT NOW! The longer this matter goes now that you have found out about the child, the shortwer your time becomes to act in a prompt and responsible manner to resolve this situation. Good Luck!