Washington State - father of child lives in another state, now wants visitation

[April Emerson]

Mother lives in Washington State, Father lives in Utah; Mother and father were never married; Father's name is on birth certificate; child is 4 years old and has made no attempt to support or contact child until this last birthday; now wants visitation

[Edited by April Emerson on 02-22-2001 at 10:21 PM]

 

[jyoung]

He is the father, cad or not, and is entitled to exercise his rights on visitation, however, he will have to file in court and you can request supervised, limited initial visitation in order to allow the child to adjust to this new person. Hire a lawyer to help insure the visitation is on terms that you require. At the same time, now is the time to demand child support through the court. Though one does not affect the other legally, in reality if he has chosen to now be involved, he needs to be responsible for the financial support of the child as well. Good luck