Q: Mom & dad have never been married. The dad takes the baby and leaves the home, won't tell where they are. What happens?
Mother and father had a fight last night. He took their daughter to his mothers. This morning the dad, daughter, and dads mom left without telling the mother and won't tell the mother where they took her daughter. No custody agreement has been filled. The father is on the birth certificate. They aren't married nor divorced. What can we do? Can we fill parental kidnapping? Can the mother find out where they are and take the daughter back?
A: You can't kidnap our own child. The father is on the birth certificate, which raises a presumption of paternity, but does not quite make him the legal father. Mom's remedy is simple. Get to Court -- today -- and file a petition for paternity. Along with that file an instanter ordering the child be returned. This is the kind of mess that people get into when they have children without the legal structure of marriage (this is not a moral position I am taking here, but just a simple statement of a legal fact.) Get a lawyer right now and get dad into Court.
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