Legal Question in Family Law in Washington

Re: Father's rights

I am not sure what you served Mom with, but an educated guess leads me to believe it was with a summons and petition to establish a parenting plan and child support order, which may explain why you said there are no temporary orders in place.

Assuming the above is true, my first question is why would mom even have the child in the first place without a custody order that allows her to have the child since as you say, the father has been the primary parent all along? Maybe its because you are trying to work things out and be civil and allow mom and child to maintain a relationship, mom's issues aside.

If that's the case, and mom refuses to return the child to you after a visit and there are no court orders in place saying who gets the child and when, then I'd say you ought to expect NOT to get your child back if you call the cops. Most cops are reluctant to do anything without a court order indicating what ought to be done. They'll tell you to go to court and get something in writing that the cops can enforce.

Your best best it to immediately get a motion for entry of temporary orders heard so that you can at least have some protection legally and to ensure that mom and child can maintain relations as much as possible while mom works out her depression.

If you have reason to believe mom is a flight risk and have evidence to back that up, such as prior episodes of taking off with the child, then you ought to ask for orders that either require supervised visitation initially, or no overnights initially, or at least that the orders reflect that the mom may not leave the state with the child without the father's written permission.

This stuff can get pretty complicated, even for attorneys, so if you can, I highly recommend that you hire local counsel immediately to represent you.

Re: Father's rights

It is unclear what kind of action has been have served on mother. Assuming it is some kind of paternity or parenting and support action, you should now file a motion for temporary orders and request whatever restrictions you think are needed to prevent her from taking the child away without your consent (or at least knowledge). To support your motion you will need evidence, and evidence that is more than just your word would be better than your declaration alone, the statements of professionals (e.g. doctors, counselors, police will carry more weight than for example than the statement of your current girlfriend or mother). At this point I am going to assume that both of you are documented as the child's parents and in that case with no orders the father has nothing to enforce by calling the police. If this matter is important to you, you should retain local counsel.