My jurisdiction is: Indiana
My boyfriend and I live together and we are having a hard time finding out where to start in a custody/visitation/child support case. He married his ex wife when they found out they were expecting. He shortly after joined the military. While on a deployment in Iraq she became pregnant with a second child. Due to them being married he was assigned the father although he to this day has still never signed anything accepting paternity, including a birth certificate. He insists the child can't be his because he was gone when the baby was concieved. While on a third tour in Iraq she divorced him due to being pregnant with yet a third child ( not his and she is now remarried to the father of that child). Being deployed he did not attend the divorce hearing and the lawyer he had at the time never showed up in court so needless to say the decree pretty much worked in her favor. He was awarded 8 hours of supervised visitation a month with the children and was ordered to pay 700+ dollars in child support a month. Being in the military this was always paid until a year ago when he got out. Once he got out he stuggled with finding a job and finally joined an apprencticeship with the electrical union which lead to a lay off with no unemployment benefits. She lives in Missouri but Indiana reinforced his child support adding on the back support which brings him to 750+ a month. He just got a job and bringing in maybe 1400 GROSS and they are garnishing his checks leaving him with harding anything after taxes. To top the whole thing off he hasn't seen his son in 5 years. Our family helped hired a detective to find her because she has moved in and out of state a few times but what steps do we take next. We want the paternity tested for the second child, lower child support due to his current income, and more than anything he wants to see his son. If the second child is proven to not be his can the the back support be eliminated and what about what he has paid for the past 4 years on him? Money is tight with all of this so finding a affordable lawyer has been hard not to mention that we live 9 hours away from the town. Any advice is appreciated as far as what to do now or even to anticipate in the future. I thank you all for taking the time to read this and help out. Have a wonderful and blessed day!
My boyfriend and I live together and we are having a hard time finding out where to start in a custody/visitation/child support case. He married his ex wife when they found out they were expecting. He shortly after joined the military. While on a deployment in Iraq she became pregnant with a second child. Due to them being married he was assigned the father although he to this day has still never signed anything accepting paternity, including a birth certificate. He insists the child can't be his because he was gone when the baby was concieved. While on a third tour in Iraq she divorced him due to being pregnant with yet a third child ( not his and she is now remarried to the father of that child). Being deployed he did not attend the divorce hearing and the lawyer he had at the time never showed up in court so needless to say the decree pretty much worked in her favor. He was awarded 8 hours of supervised visitation a month with the children and was ordered to pay 700+ dollars in child support a month. Being in the military this was always paid until a year ago when he got out. Once he got out he stuggled with finding a job and finally joined an apprencticeship with the electrical union which lead to a lay off with no unemployment benefits. She lives in Missouri but Indiana reinforced his child support adding on the back support which brings him to 750+ a month. He just got a job and bringing in maybe 1400 GROSS and they are garnishing his checks leaving him with harding anything after taxes. To top the whole thing off he hasn't seen his son in 5 years. Our family helped hired a detective to find her because she has moved in and out of state a few times but what steps do we take next. We want the paternity tested for the second child, lower child support due to his current income, and more than anything he wants to see his son. If the second child is proven to not be his can the the back support be eliminated and what about what he has paid for the past 4 years on him? Money is tight with all of this so finding a affordable lawyer has been hard not to mention that we live 9 hours away from the town. Any advice is appreciated as far as what to do now or even to anticipate in the future. I thank you all for taking the time to read this and help out. Have a wonderful and blessed day!
