Q: do i have any rights, custody or visitation?
we are not married. I was there the whole nine months, in the delivery room, signed all the paperwork, paternity was established. the baby has my last name and my adresss. she is on her mothers insureance. i have been paying and buying everything since the first trimester. the mother left when the baby was 1 month old, took nothing but a diaper bag and her own dirty clothes and never came back. she hid for 3 months untill finally coming around with some false paperwork declaring my visitations are for 2 hours on the 1st and 3rd saturday. i did not sign anything she had. she and the baby sleep on a couch at her parents. she will not let me visit while she is at work, and when we make arangements for me to visit she always blows me off, ignoring me and hiding. please help. i'm not wanting to take her away from her mother just to be in my child life more than 4 hours a month.
A: You need to get with an attorney ASAP. As a father, you have certain rights that it looks like she is trying to limit. I'd be curious to see what sort of papers that she showed you, as well as whether they were signed by a judge. That being said, if custody or visitation was never established, then you may have the ability to sue for custody over your child, or at the very least, standard visitation.
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