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Sole Custody of my Son

  • Thread starter Thread starter DMURPHY
  • Start date Start date

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DMURPHY

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I have a son, who is 10, and I am the only one listed on the birth certificate. The fathers name is "with held". The father attempted to take me to court to establish paternity, but when he realized his true financial obligations, responsibilities and financial arrearages mounted and became clear to him, the case was dropped and final papers stipulate 1. The plaintiff withdraws and dismisses with prejudice his complaint to establish paternity, 2. The plaintiff shall have no furhter rights to minor child 3. Any and all child support arrearages presently owing shall be immediately dismissed....(and so forth). The case was settled 8 1/2 years ago, and I hadn't heard from him since.

Now, he's soon to be divorced, his ex-wife calls me frantic and warning me that he's "going to be looking for me and my son" and that he is in some serious legal trouble, and has made threatening remarks to her, and her young son, and so forth. She found in his computer where he is planning to come "find myself and my son", and based on some of her own recent experiences with him, is worried enough to try and warn us.

I have been told by law enforcement, that since I don't have any paperwork stating "sole custody" he would be able to take my son and once he established himself as the father through a test, there wouldn't be much I can do if he wanted to skip town and move clear across the country.

I don't want to alert him that I know about his intentions (this would potentially be harmful to his soon-to-be ex) But I NEED to get sole custody papers as soon as possible. Can I do this without having him signed/served with anything new? In other words, can I use the court papers from previous where he relinquished his rights to my son? Once I can get this, I can then go about getting restraining orders. He is a very manipulative and vengeful man, and I'm worried about my son both physically and emotionally. The only good thing is that I know he is out of town through the end of July, hopefully giving me enough time to get the proper paperwork.

Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated.
 


G

Ginger

Guest
Talk with a lawyer, but I would think the court papers where he relinquished his rights as father is suffiecient to go to court for a restraining order. That could be tricky because you stated you don't want to jeopordize the soon to be exwife, because you will have to tell the judge what she said to you and he can can access to what you say on the restraining order because if the judge acts on it he will be served the papers. This is a hard one, because he himself hasn't said it to you. Talk with a lawyer first.
 

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