My daughter's father and I are getting into a heated argument that may need to be settled in court. He had abandoned me and her when I was pregnant, denying her and being emotionally abusive with threatening text messages. We were friends for 5 years but had never had a relationship. Not sexual either, just one drunken time leading to my daughter. I gave birth in November 2008 and he denied her for a long time. He had another daughter only 6 months younger than my daughter that he supported instead of my daughter, teagan. 18 months passed until he finally called and apologized. We worked things out over time and became friends again. I allowed him to see teagan on a casual basis, never sleeping over and not staying without me until she was over 3 years old. He is not on any legal records including her birth certificate and passport. He occasionally gave me money as gifts in order to help with bills and such in an effort to win me over into a relationship. None of the money transfers were for my daughter, nor do they have it indicated on the transactions what they were for. He kept pressuring me for a relationship but I refused. Now that I've started a relationship with someone in the united states, he's jealous and angry. Out of spite and revenge, he's saying that he will force my daughter to stay in Canada as he will not allow her to move to the united states, that he would not allow any child of his have "sub par" American education and such. Without legal paperwork stating who he is and with a history of emotional abuse, can he force me to stay in Canada? He has not paid me child support and has not contributed to her except for one daycare payment in cash and a few packages of pull ups... She's almost 4, so that's barely any contribution. Would he be able to take me to court and force me to stay in Canada? I plan to move in the new year to st Louis with my boyfriend, and I've offered to send her up to Canada often for vacation but he won't budge. He's getting extremely aggressive about it
Optional Information: Country relating to Question: Canada
How often does he see her now?
Whenever I allow him to. He babysat her when I worked evening shift this last week, but usually it varies. Can be once a month to once a week. But only more often in the last couple months. After this battle, he won't be seeing her unless I'm ordered by the courts
The law is that you cannot remove your child from the jurisdiction unless the father consents or you get a Court Order.The Court will make its decision based on what it determines to be in the best interests of the child. In doing this the Court will examine all the surrounding factors including your reason for wanting to move her and the relationship between the child and her father.In the absence of compelling evidence to the contrary it's generally considered to be in the best interest of the child to live in close proximity to both parents so that both parents can be involved in the child's life in a meaningful way.For this reason it is not usually an easy task to convince a Court to allow a child to be moved.I suggest that you retain a lawyer to represent you as the lawyer will be able to do a better job that you will of putting forward your best possible case.At the same time the father can be order to pay child support as it's ridiculous that he is not doing this and totally unfair to you and your child.In most provinces you can contact the Law Society and use their Lawyer Referral Service. You will be given the name of a lawyer and can consult with the lawyer and the first half hour will be free.If you would like any additional information or have more questions please don’t hesitate to ask! Please remember to only rate my answer when you are 100% satisfied. IF you feel the need to click either "Helped a little" or "I expected more", please stop and reply to me via the CONTINUE CONVERSATION button with the issue you have. I will be happy to continue further and do everything I can to provide you with the service you seek. Thank you
I think I got charged twice for this response, it asked me twice for my credit card... But anyways, even if he is not on the birth certificate or passport do I need his consent? And he hasn't funded for her so can I fight this?
It is not relevant that his name is XXXXX XXXXX the documents. He is her father.And the fact that he has not paid support is terrible but it doesn't mean you will succeed because it's about what the Court feels is best for the child and access and support are not linked.
Experience: I am a practicing lawyer and have also been an expert on JustAnswer since July 2008.