Legal Question in Family Law in Virginia

I have been the sole provider for my 6 month old son. His father pays no child support, is not on the birth certificate, no paternity as been established, and has done nothing to benefit or help with our child. I have allowed him to come and visit whenever he wants, which he has not taken advantage of, but now he wants to take the child out on his own. I am not ok with this because my child is very weary of strangers and will cry the entire time and I am breastfeeding him. The father has 3 other children besides my son and one on the way and he is not a significant part of their lives either. Will he be able to have unsupervised visitation with my baby? or any type of custody of my son? Can i have sole custody of the child? Also, i will be getting married and moving to another state and he has no idea, how will this affect the issues?


Asked on 9/20/11, 11:42 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

Michael Hendrickson Law Office Michael E. Hendrickson

Until a court of proper jurisdiction rules on the issues that you have raised in

these questions, there is now way to answer with other than probabilities or possibilities.

Yes, if paternity is formally established by the referenced court, it's

possible that the father could be awarded unsupervised visitation (assuming

there's no credible evidence contraindicating it).

And, yes, if there's a need for you to file for sole custody of the child, it's highly

probable that you would be awarded such custody.

And, if you were to move to another state and with no valid court orders in place

regarding these matters. then the father would probably have to travel to this other state to pursue whatever rights that he may have in these matters (probably not too likely).

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Answered on 9/20/11, 12:03 pm


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