Legal Question in Family Law in Washington
who gets custody of a child when one parent dies
my wife lost full custody to her former boyfriend, she has partial custody with every other weekend visitations, also pays child support to the former boyfriend who has full custody. the former boyfriend has a sister who his parents adopted. the former boyfriend, also has a wife who is not in speaking terms with my wife. my wife's daughter is ten years old. two days ago, my wife's former boyfriend died, a sudden died, so the only biological parent left for my wife daughter is, my wife. how should she get custody of her daughter, also how can she stop the child support payments, how should she go about establishing her parental rights over her daughter because the former boyfriend's sister and wife want to take my wife's daughter away by bringing the argument that she should stay with them because of school.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: who gets custody of a child when one parent dies
Go get her. No one has a superior right to custody. If the police are called, they will recognize that. The only real consideration is how the girl will feel losing both her father and her school at the same time. You might wish to wait until Christmas.
However, doing that may give the new wife time to come out of her grief enough to fight for custody, which would be costly and not good for the girl.
If you leave her, get a written agreement with the stepmother.
As to child support, call DCS and tell them not to withhold any more.
It would probably be good to have a lawyer involved.
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