First a little back ground. My daughter is now 3. Her bio father has not seen her since march of 2009. In July of 2010 he decided to file for visitaion rights. I have been court ordered to bring her to see him for one week every 3 months. I currently reside in a different state from where the court order came from. I have not lived in that state since December of 2009. So I have a few questions, if I am not a resident of a state, can they order me to return there? Since he is not on her birth certificate and we were never married, does he have any rights at all? And wouldn't the state that my daughter and I are currently residences of have jourisdiction?

The custody of the child must be rightfully to the mother but if the father will do actions that will prove that you are not capable to raise your child then the court will give the custody to the father... but the law states that the child must be in the mothers custody until 7years of age and then from then the child will choose between his mom and dad.

I'm not sure whether or not he is going to file for custody and there is no way that I could be considered an unfit mother, I work, both my kids are in school, fed, clothed, my fiancé and I get all the bills paid on time. It's been ordered that he gets unsupervised visits with her. He hit a woman with his car. Doesn't have a job, licence, house. He recently got of probation for drugs. I'm not sure how any judge would give him any thing at all. He lives in ME. Where my daughter was born. I live in NM and have for 8 months now. I believe that the only reason that the judge would give the order was because I told her she didn't have jourisdiction. Which I have been told by several legal councel services she in fact does and did not. I've never had to deal with any thing like this before and can't afford a lawyer. Could I have another judge hear the case? How would I go about having that done? Is there any thing else I could file that would trump the current order?

Please wait for answers from those more knowledgeable. I do know that the first answer is inapplicable (custody) and not true (child decides when 7).

First, a father has rights regardless of whether they were married to the mother or on the birth certificate. The SAME rights as if they were. The only difference is they will need to go to court to enforce those rights.

Second, jurisdiction for custody/visitation/support cases start where the child was born. It remains there as long as one of the parents remain in that jurisdiction. However, since you moved from the jurisdiction before court action was initiated, you MAY be able to get jurisdiction moved. I can't be sure without knowing more facts about the timeline.

BUT if a court ordered that he be given visitation then yes, they CAN force you to comply even though you are not in the same state. Did you appear at the visitation hearing? Were you aware of it? Why would you want to deny your daughter knowing her father?

There are many more questions here. Was a paternity test performed to to determine that he is the bio father? Apparently, the bio father did some contact, what caused it to stop? Do you know? By the way ANY question on law needs to include your general locale as laws vary by area.

When did the father file for visitation? You mentioned that you lived in a different state for eight months. If the child was born in his state and you had not lived out of state with him/her for six months, then his home state should still have jurisdiction.(This can very by locality, so we do need your location) ScottGem is correct though, you are in violation of the court order if you do not comply with the visitation order. He'll have more than visitation if you wind up in jail.

OK more back ground. My little girl was born in July of 2007 in Maine. And my parents moved him in. I was 15. Sometime's he'd come home some times not. In early January of 2009 my mom kicked my little girl and I out for trying to help her with her drug problem. He stayed living with my mother. In late February 2009 my mom moved out and I moved back in. The dad was always so high that he never helped me with any thing, when I'd ask he'd look up at me and say "I'm too high, I'll do it later." So in march of 2009 I kicked him out. In December of 2009 my little girl and I moved to Florida, where we lived until the last week in June and the first week in July where we went to Maine to visit. He never called and never came to see her, and he knew we were there I'd seen him at the store and said hi. At the end of our visit we moved to where we now live, New Mexico.

Oh yea he filed for visitation shortly after we got to New Mexico. It really confused me cause he never bothered to visit when we were in Maine.

Ok, so no court action has taken place yet? In that case, I would file in NM for child support. Even if you don't get support, this establishes NM as your residence and gives them jurisdiction.