need help

[leifmyler]

my childs mother and i were never married - brief relationship resulted in child born 18 months ago - she never contacted me after our breakup - never told me the child was born - recieved notice from child support - DNA test proved i'm the father - child suport was set - visitation denied - tried to contact her - she has moved and can't find her - reason to believe she moved out of state - never seen my son - can't afford an atorney - need to know how to file for visitation rights - need to know if it's legal for her to take my son out of state to avoid visitation - dept of soc serv child supt office refuses to help - refuses to tell me where she moved to - currently paying over 500 a month in child supt for a child i've never been allowed to see - i know i need to file a form with the court requesting a hearing so the judge can give me rights to visit the child but i don't know where to get the form, what form i need, or how to file it so i can get a court date set.

[mistoffolees]

This is too important to leave to chance - and it's not clear that you're going to be able to handle it on your own. There are plenty of posts on this board which would point you in the right direction, but if you can't find some of these answers, you're probably not going to be able to handle the court.

I would suggest that you start by seeing if there's some legal aid service in your area that will provide free or low cost legal advice. Often, you will find that you can get assistance from students at your local law school if you have one. Or, see if an attorney will help pro bono (no charge).

If none of those options are available, I would still strongly suggest that you find a way to get an attorney to help. If you have to take a second job for a while, it's worth it.

If that doesn't work, you're going to have to file for an emergency hearing via an ex parte order on the grounds that you don't have any way to contact her and can't serve her with papers. In your ex parte order, you should request either sole custody (on the grounds that her preventing you from seeing the child is causing the child irreparable harm and continued parental alienation will interfere with the child's right to know its father) or joint custody with a suggested parenting plan.

Good luck.