Could my daughter's divorce be easy?

[Raine19]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? PA
My daughter married her daughter's father in May of this year. He was active military. Since then, he has been home twice on emergency medical leave because their daughter is quite ill. He was suppose to return on Aug 12th and never did. He promised my daughter housing etc., but NOTHING. She has realized that he's useless. She wants a divorce. Unfortunately, she's pregnant again. She said she's going to put father "unknown" on the birth certificate. She doesn't get CS for the first one so, what's the difference? The ex wife also gets nothing for her son. At the current time, she has no no idea where he is because he's AWOL/Deserter. What should she do?
Thanks for all replysWhat is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

 

[mistoffolees]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? PA
My daughter married her daughter's father in May of this year. He was active military. Since then, he has been home twice on emergency medical leave because their daughter is quite ill. He was suppose to return on Aug 12th and never did. He promised my daughter housing etc., but NOTHING. She has realized that he's useless. She wants a divorce. Unfortunately, she's pregnant again. She said she's going to put father "unknown" on the birth certificate. She doesn't get CS for the first one so, what's the difference? The ex wife also gets nothing for her son. At the current time, she has no no idea where he is because he's AWOL/Deserter. What should she do?
Thanks for all replysWhat is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

She's not going to get a divorce while she's pregnant.

And she should NOT put 'unknown' on the birth certificate unless she truly doesn't know. The birth certificate is a legal document and there are all sorts of things (mostly bad) from lying on it.

There's nothing positive to be gained. If she thinks she's going to get the father out of her life, she's kidding herself. If he wants to be in the child's life, he will be - whether she lies on the certificate or not. Paternity tests are very easy - but it really doesn't matter. They're married, so the child is legally his no matter what she puts on the birth certificate. If he doesn't want any part of the child, then lying on the certificate doesn't gain her anything.

Finally, she needs to get over her vindictiveness for the children's sake. Lots of men get their act together at some point in their lives. By trying to shut him out, she's attempting to deprive the kids of their father, as well as any financial aid he can provide.

If she wants a divorce, she can get ready to file after the baby is born. At that time, she asks for child support. Assuming the child support is ordered (which it probably will be unless she's making much more than him), she can then turn it over to military and/or civilian authorities to collect. There's no guarantee that she'll ever collect, but there's a heck of a lot better chance if she at least tries. Child support collection is getting much better in the electronic age and if he pops up somewhere, there's a good chance he will get caught.

The real difficulty is that if he's really AWOL and no one knows where to find him, she'll have to obtain divorce via publication which will probably require an attorney.

 

[CourtClerk]

She's not going to get a divorce while she's married.

Huh???? Isn't that the only time you can get a divorce????

I think you mean... pregnant. I know, it was a long day for me too.

 

[mistoffolees]

Huh???? Isn't that the only time you can get a divorce????

I think you mean... pregnant. I know, it was a long day for me too.

Yep. Sorry.

 

[Ohiogal]

jeez. Where did the post I made go? I spent twenty minutes writing it. Arrggh. Basically what CYjeff stated. Though she can file for divorce while pregnant it just will not be finalized until after the baby is born. And she cannot lie about who the daddy is.

 

[nextwife]

She doesn't get CS for the first one so, what's the difference? The ex wife also gets nothing for her son. (only U.S. law)?

Yet she now allowed herself to become pregnant by him, knowing he already had a history of not supporting his kids in his first marriage and then with her child?