Q: I pay child support and my daughters mom up and left to florida . my daughter was born in ohio. What can i do?
She refuses to let me contact her overall but its been a year in a half that shes been gone. My daughter is now 7 how can i get my rights for visitation without having to go to florida
A:
To get visitation or parental rights related to your daughter, it will depend on how your child support obligation was created. If she went through CSEA directly to get a child support obligation set up (i.e. the administrative process, not in a court), then unfortunately you will almost certainly have to hire a Florida custody attorney and fight there. That is because typically a court only has jurisdiction over the child if they physically live in their jurisdiction.
However, if you have to pay child support because of a court order that came down from either a juvenile court or domestic relations court in Ohio, then you may not have to go to Florida. Typically when an Ohio court decides parental rights of a minor child, they retain jurisdiction to decide the rights of the child until that child turns 18.
These cases are very time sensitive and since a year and half has already passed I suggest you contact an attorney to discuss your rights.
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