Legal Question in Family Law in Kentucky

Can an abusive birth father get visitation of a 14 year old daughter he has never met? Paternity was never established. He was mentally, physically, and emotionally abusive to me during my pregnancy, and had also threatened to molest our child if it turned out to be a girl. I managed to get away from him before she was ever born so he never met her. I had a Domestic Violence Order on him for years, but he was in jail and prison off and on so I let it expire (like an idiot) and now he has written to my sister saying he's getting a lawyer and wants to see his daughter. Being that our daughter has absolutely no interest in meeting him, what are his chances at getting visitation rights?


Asked on 8/18/10, 4:50 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Andrea Welker Welker Law Office

Just from those facts, if you can prove all that to the court, his chances don't sound so good to me, and certainly not good for getting unsupervised visitation. Your daughter is also old enough to speak to the court and express her wishes, and clearly, she has good reason to not want to have anything to do with him. Also, if he's been in jail until now, he probably doesn't even have the money to retain an attorney, or even a permanent residence, so it's probably just yet another attempt at tormenting you rather than a sudden interest in being a parent.

I see by your zip code you are in Lexington. You should contact the Domestic Violence Pro Bono Advocacy Program run by the Fayette County Bar Association immediately if you are served with any papers. In fact, I would suggest being proactive and contacting them now before he shows up to cause trouble. http://www.probono.net/dv/oppsguide/search?state=KY

Any victims of domestic violence in the Central Kentucky area should contact them for assistance, as well as the Bluegrass Domestic Violence Program at http://www.beyondtheviolence.org.

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Answered on 8/24/10, 8:16 pm


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