My fiance’s brother wants to gain custody of his daughter who is living with the mother’s mother. The mother signed over her rights to her mother, but the father never signed anything. Does this give the grandmother full rights to the child or is the father able to take custody of his daughter? Currently the grandmother is trying to limit his visitation, is this legal of her? She works at a law firm and is using her job to take advantage of his ignorance to child custody laws.
They have not been to court for this or filed for legal custody. The grandmother has filed for child support though and was granted it from both the mother and the father.
They live in the state of Maryland.
Warenjudew – can you supply sources for me to read that say that if the grandmother has claimed child support that it automatically gives her court awarded custody? Even if the father is not absent and sees his daughter regularly.
It is impossible to get child support on a child you do not have legal and or phsyical custody of. and maryland has different standards for each of them. If the child lives witht he grandmother and the legal guardian, the mother, put the child there then she has physical custody of the child.
Your fiance’s brother needs to establish his parental rights. I can only assume that they weren’t married at the time of birth, which in maryland gives him ZERO legal rights tot he child. But here is where it gets confusing. If they were married then he already has legal rights to the child and there should have been specific visitation outlined in the divorce decree. If they weren’t married then the state of Maryland has to prove paternity in order to get child support, unless he just rolls over and gives in, which is not in his best interest. 33% of men paying child support in the US are paying for children that are NOT biologically theirs, but once support is established you can’t go back and say "But i took a DNA test and I’m not the daddy!", in the eyes of the law you are the daddy you paid for the child and biological matters are of no concern.
Have this guy come to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DadsHouse/ that is a group on yahoo’s that is specifically for dad’s rights and we have people who have been through similar situations, judge’s lawyers, children advocates and other dad’s and step-mom’s on here to use as sounding boards and get advice from.
Good luck!