[brandoncoverdal]

This is a two part question.Both involving the family of my daughters Mother.
1.My daughter is almost 18months old now.
Im 21, she is my only child.Her mother is 18 with one older child.My daughter,And currently pregnant.She has no job, lives with her mother,none of wich have jobs,live on welfare.And are not suitable household for my daughter,I have a note from my daughters pediatrician,stateing that Her FIRST daughter has had Failure to thrive in the household. Me and the mother split up when the baby was 9months old, Up to that date we lived together and I took care of my child and her child.When I left we agreed to let me take my daughter,No legal decisions made.She wrote a note in June saying the chld lives with me, and I was taking care of her and would continue to take care of her.She got upset with me because I got a new girlfriend,And she took the baby back when I took her over to visit.Not one time did the mother make an attempt to come pick the baby up.At one time she went one full month without even checking on the baby.I dropped her off, and picked her up EVERY time she was to visit their house.I bought EVERYTHING. I can count on one hand how many times she bought something for the baby,(milk,food,clothes).I took complete FULL care of the child from 9 months old, to currently last weekend, making it almost 9 months.And she refuses to give her back,I am legal father, Signed Birth certificate and Affidavit.What do you suggest I do? And what is the best way to pursue custody, like what should I have,or do?

2. My child's grandmother, Her mother's mother.
When we first started dateing, before my daughter was born.They were in a bad place, My girlfriend, Had a child around 5 months old, And there electric got shut off, So me being a nice guy, Thought... well let them use my name, I was 18 and stupid,and didn't want the baby going with no electric.So me and girlfriends mother had an agreement, I put the electric in my name and she will keep it paid, until she can put it back in her name,All her children and my mother and father, all heard the lasdy say she would keep the bill paid.well, I never seen one electric bill, She hid them as soon as they came in.I stumbled across one one day, and its over $1,000.00.I moved out and immediately took it out of my name, She made maybe one or two payments on the bill in the past 3 years.And I was wondering IF I can someway legally get her to pay the bill.

[cdad]

First off you have 2 very different situations going on here.
1) The custody issue is a family court issue. For that you need to go right away and get things started. Best if you have a lawyer by your side. While you had the child was she collecting welfare / WIC benefits on the child ? Another thing that needs to be stressed here is nothing that is verbal lasts. When it comes down to it you have nothing to fall back on. When it comes to chldren ALWAYS make it legal ( through the courts ) so both parties have a clear understanding. If I were you I would talk to a lawyer right away and stat filing ASAP.

2) This would be a civil matter for the electric bill. Do you have reciepts that it has been paid and it was paid directly by you ? If you do you may want to take her to small claims court since we are talking about a $1,000 bill. Or just concentrate on your child and let it go as a lesson in life.

When you do go to small claims your going to be asked if you were paying rent. If you answer yes you better be able to prove it. That may factor into the decision.

[Fr_Chuck]

First you need to go to court and get legal custody of the child, since a verbal agreement is not binding and has no legal effect.

Since you were living there, and it was in your name, most likely no, you would not win, but you could try to sue in small claims court