My best friend just had a baby, and now the father of the baby is taking her to court for custody (he is threatening to at least). My friend and the baby's father were never married, but he signed the birth certificate. My friend does not want to let him take the baby because he is an alcoholic, and is drunk 24/7. He even drives drunk, and does not have a drivers license. The main thing she is worried about is he makes very good money, and he has a really good attorney. She does not have the money for an attorney. What are his rights? Does he have a chance at getting custody?

First as soon as the baby was born, they needed to go to court and get a legal custody agreement,

He has all the rights as a father does, right to sue for full custody, for joint custody, for visitation, She will need to prove with evidence that he could be a danger to the child, but even then, most likely he will get some visitation even if it is supervised.

Next the court will award child support, So it is to her best interest to file first for custody to clear this up, since as the father, with no court agreement, he has custody rights now, if he had physcial custody of the child he could keep the child as easy as the mother can without a court order in place.