Good afternoon,

In July of 2007, I gave birth to a little girl and although her father and I were no longer together, we decided to add his name onto the birth certificate so he could assume all legal/financial responsibilities. For about the first 2 months, he would see her and provide her formula, her pampers, clothing... wouldn't give me money but I was fine with that as long as he provided her basic necessities. Unfortunately, this was very short lived and I was forced to file for custody as well as for child support when she was just a year old.

In 2008, I was granted custody of my child by default since he failed to show up to court along with a visitation order which states "father must call mother 24 in advance if he wants to see the child, pick up and drop off at the mother's home curbside" and a few weeks earlier there was a child support order of $360 per week by default as well since he went in playing games with the judge and did not provide sufficient proof of income.

Fast forward to the present, he has been very inconsistent in our daughter's life... he owes about $109k in child support and hasn't made a single payment since December 2012; in addition, he has not seen nor called our daughter since November 2013 and prior to that almost another full year passed. My question is, all of a sudden he is sending me emails and texts wanting to see her and speak to her but my fear and concern is that I am going to allow him to enter her life once again just so he can walk out of it again as his track record shows. Do I need to go back to court and seek SOLE custody since apparently all my document states is that I have custody? Do I still need to comply with allowing him to see her? Does the fact that he owes so much in child support and he refuses to get a job on the books support my case for abandonment? Please assist. Thank you.

Child visitation issues are completely separate from child support issues. Yes you have to comply with what the court mandated for visitation. Any changes MUST be made through the court.

Sole custody does not take away visitation rights, sole custody merely changes any joint custody. What percent custody does he have now ?

It is almost impossible to take away visitation unless he is a dangerous person.
Yes, the current child visit order is still valid.

If you wish to change visitation, you will have to return to court.

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Do I still need to comply with allowing him to see her?

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Yes, by all means.

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Does the fact that he owes so much in child support and he refuses to get a job on the books support my case for abandonment?

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Unless you are in Alabama, or maybe a few other places, this isn't "abandonment". In most areas, that term refers to leaving a child untended somewhere without any adult looking after her. What you apparently mean is non-support which, as noted, is a separate issue having nothing to do with the right to visitation.

As the others have noted support and visitation issues are separate. You can push for supervised visitation, but its unlikely you will be able to block any visitation. Bu, until a court order changes the current visitation, you have to agree to it as long as he complies with the 24 hour notice and pickup requirements.

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Originally Posted by mariakrc

support my case for abandonment?

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What case? Abandonment is not something you establish a case for. It may be used as grounds for something else, like termination of rights, but no in itself. And getting his rights terminated will be very difficult, unless you have a step father waiting to adopt.

P.S. any question on law needs to include your general locale as laws vary by area.