MY wife ran off with our daughter 2 years ago & kept me from seeing her. Now she wants custody. I need help.?

[iomar]

My wife left with her mom & our daughter 2 years ago & has kept me from seeing her by not telling me where she is. At the time, my mother-in-law had custody but signed it back over to my wife not long after. Because we are still married, I too have custody, however, my wife would not tell me where she was. I had no way of contacting them. I was not in a position to take care of a child so I didn't try to fight for custody. Now she's trying to take me to court for custody. What can I do? I have one drug charge, no violence charges. I haven't seen my daughter in 2 years because I had no way of contacting my wife. We are not divorced. She just up & left with our daughter. Legal advice, please. I need all the help I can get.

[napayshni65]

get legal advice.

[bellden]

You need a lawyer because they are not cheap. Most lawyers have free consultation so you can get some free legal advice from them before you decide on hiring them. Their job is to help you fight for your rights, negotiate, and do all the paperwork. If you are having trouble paying for one, ask your parents to help you, in exchange that you do chores for them and run errands for them, so you or they don't feel like they're taken for granted. Or you have to get a 2nd job to help pay for legal expenses.

Since you have a drug charge, that is tricky. Again the lawyer has some strategies on what to do and say so you are not losing your rights as a father. You will also be responsible to pay for child support.

If you have no lawyer, then your wife may end up winning.

[chadburne48]

My advice like the others is he needs a lawyer! Drug charges and doing nothing for 2 years isn't going to help him. Did he talk to the police, file anything with the courts? If he asks for more than visitation at this point I would think it would be very suspicious that he may just be fighting to get out of child support. A lawyer is the only one who can do anything for him. At the very least he should be able to get visitation out of this, but his daughter isn't going to know him so he needs to focus on her needs always and work his way back into her life gradually.