Visitation rights of dead beat dad and 16 year old childs right to refuse his at...

[your_sidekick]

I have a friend who is in similar situation. I believe her daughter is 15. Her deadbeat ex beat her all the time, then finally left when her daughter was a baby. He never paid a dime of child support. Because the state couldn't locate him to serve papers on him, it took her over 8 years to get a divorce. She never was able to serve papers on him, and I'm not sure how she ended up getting her divorce then. About a year ago the state finally tracked him down and started garnishing his wages for all the cs he owed. He sued her for custody of the child he had never seen or paid cs for and the court granted him visitation. The girl had to give up her extra curricular activities and plans with her friends so that he could have his precious visitation. The court didn't care at all about her feelings or the fact that they were forcing her to go off with a stranger who was only interested in her to make things harder on her mom. The court didn't care that before he left her mom that he kicked her mother down some stairs to try and force a miscarriage. That 16 year old will have to kiss her social life goodbye for the next couple of years. At least it's only 2 years. Plus since he was gone for so long, it's unlikely he'll keep up the visitation for long.