Legal Question in Family Law in Pennsylvania
On a custody issue..
I have been told that my child's biological father wants a custody agreement since he is "paying" for her. She is currently 6 years old, has had no contact with him and he has made no effort beside "talk" to be apart of her life in the last 6 years. As far as "paying" he has paid less than $600 in all with a current balance of over $6,000 in arrears with support. We were never married and he has brought it to my attention once he gets his DNA test that he failed to show up to the conference for years ago to have done he will be filing for custody rights. On the best interest of the child I feel no visitation should happen because of his record of being non-existent and he has never followed through with anything. Is this possible in the state of Pennsylvania? Can I have sole custody and he have no rights? What about supervised visitation? If he must be allowed to exercise his rights can I request supervised visitation because of his lack any contact with the child? I just don't want to be blind sighted when I seek legal advice this week.
1 Answer from Attorneys
First his custody rights has noting to do with whether or not he has paid support.What is going to matter is his lack of contact. If there hasn't been any custody petition filed then he will have to come up with the filing fee which can be substantial depending in what county you live.
{John}