Getting Joint/Physical Custody of Infant

[LittyBitty]

What is the name of your state? New Jersey

My brother is married and has three children. He had an affair with a woman that produced a child. The baby was born a few months ago and the woman is taking my brother to court for child support. He never signed the birth certificate and wants a paternity test. The mistress gave the baby my brother's last name and has asked for her child to receive life insurance benefits, child support and health coverage. We suspect she's angry and trying to punish him, because my brother went back to his wife. The mistress makes over 100K a year and has told my brother she would not seek child support if he just came back to her. My brother has told her that if the child is his, he will step up to his responsibilities and pay child support, etc, but will never be with her. On the court pettition, she granted visitation, but my brother and his wife are now talking about joint/physical custody as they want to create harmony in the home and expose the child to his siblings (their children). My sister-in-law is incredible to agree to this after my brother did this to her. Does anyone know what the chances of my brother and his wife getting joint/physical custody where the baby would live one week on and off between the biological mother and my brother (putative father) and his wife. Also, how does this 50/50 split work in terms of child support payments? Thanks!

 

[titansfan]

dad can get custody his wife cannot

untill paternity establishes he is in fact the father, he is not obligated to pay support. it does not matter how much the mother makes a year, if it is his child, he will be legally obligated to support the child.he and his wife cant get joint custody, he is the only one with any legal standing to get joint custody, his wife has no legal rights to the child. it will be up to a judge to determine the amount of cs that should be paid.

 

[LdiJ]

What is the name of your state? New Jersey

My brother is married and has three children. He had an affair with a woman that produced a child. The baby was born a few months ago and the woman is taking my brother to court for child support. He never signed the birth certificate and wants a paternity test. The mistress gave the baby my brother's last name and has asked for her child to receive life insurance benefits, child support and health coverage. We suspect she's angry and trying to punish him, because my brother went back to his wife. The mistress makes over 100K a year and has told my brother she would not seek child support if he just came back to her. My brother has told her that if the child is his, he will step up to his responsibilities and pay child support, etc, but will never be with her. On the court pettition, she granted visitation, but my brother and his wife are now talking about joint/physical custody as they want to create harmony in the home and expose the child to his siblings (their children). My sister-in-law is incredible to agree to this after my brother did this to her. Does anyone know what the chances of my brother and his wife getting joint/physical custody where the baby would live one week on and off between the biological mother and my brother (putative father) and his wife. Also, how does this 50/50 split work in terms of child support payments? Thanks!

Realistically, the odds of your brother being able to get 50/50 timeshare of an infant is quite slim. It would also be incredibly hard on the baby. The baby is going to be soley in the mother's custody for some months until all the court issues are worked out. It would be traumatic for the baby, when too young to understand what is going on, to suddenly be separated from mom every other week.

That is something that might be possible later on down the road, but its just not realistic now.

When there is a true 50/50 split, its common for the parent with the higher income to pay some limited amount of child support.

If your brother wants to get an idea of what child support might be, he can do a google search for an online child support calculator for New Jersey and run the numbers.

 

[LittyBitty]

Joint/Physical Custody

Thanks, I know my sister-in-law has no claim to the child, but if my brother sought joint custody say in a year, what do you think his chances are?

 

[NotSoNew]

hi littybitty, i am in NJ too. and i can tell you that his chances of joint physical custody right now are slim. the best he can do is go for the max visitation he can get right now (theres nothing wrong with ASKING for joint but he wont get it unless mom agreed to it) then to try to increase it as the child gets older. eventaully he probably would get 50/50 but just not right now while the child is so young.

I will stress that if he can come to any agreement with mom on visitation he is better off doing that (and going to court to make it legal) then fighting her for visitation in court. Because at this young age with all things being equal, dad is going to loose out. My BF has a 4 month old and he got two days a week ONLY because mom agreed to that, the mediator told him (and NJ is mandatory mediation) that a judge would NOT have given him that much time for a newborn.

Also if they had 50/50 a mom makes more then dad, dad probably wouldnt have to pay. for a CS calculator we used this one, it came out exact as long as you plug in all the right numbers

http://www.divorcelawinfo.com/NJ/cal/NJCSC.html

good luck to your brother!

 

[LdiJ]

Thanks, I know my sister-in-law has no claim to the child, but if my brother sought joint custody say in a year, what do you think his chances are?

Alot could depend on how consistantly he exercised whatever visitation the court might give him prior to that.