Q: What happens if my husband wants legal custody and to be responsible for my baby I got pregnant with during separation.
My husband and i separated for a year we have three other children but never got divorced. I moved to south carolina and was seeing someone else who got me pregnant. This guy cheated and kicked me and my three kids out of the house. I came back to Michigan with my legal husband still three months pregnant and he has stated he wants this baby and wants to be the father. The guy from South Carolina has a new girlfriend who has already made threatening comments towards me. He has also tried to intimidate me into talking about the baby. He had made it clear he will use my past and what ever he wants to try and take this baby. I was told he would have to come to Michigan to file once the baby is born. Does my husband go on the birth certificate at the hospital? Can this guy just come take my baby from my husband and I? If it comes to that am i allowed to say im not comfortable with my baby leaving Michigan or being around his new girlfriend? My husband and i just want to raise this baby.
A:
Let's start with two simple premises: 1) while you are legally married, the husband is presumed to be the father of any child born to the wife during that marriage. 2) Jurisdiction will almost always be with the court in the county where the child is found.
So here's the easy part: unless either of you do anything through a court, your husband will be the legal father of this child here in Michigan. But it sounds like your situation may not be so simple. Your ex boyfriend could file a paternity action, but he would need to do so here in Michigan. Will he go through that effort? Who knows. Even if he did, unless you were deemed to be somehow unfit as a parent, I cannot see how a court would award him sole legal custody and cause a newborn baby to be shipped across country to California.
Your husband could also initiate a paternity action to overcome the legal presumption that he is the legal father. Your ex boyfriend could be identified through that process and come forward here in Michigan requesting a custody or parenting time consideration. But again, unless you are deemed unfit, it's likely a situation where you will ultimately end up the sole caregiver to this child.
Your past, to the extent that it is not your present, has little do with a custody determination. I don't know what past your ex boyfriend would seek to hold against you, but unless he can show that it affects your parenting ability, it may be little more than an attempt to slander or embarrass you.
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