For those that have followed my thread I have been trying to get my rights to my daughter and just keep running into brick walls between the babies mama, her family and now I have discovered my own attorney.

first off, calm down. I know this is frustrating. First thing, call a new atty. Flat out ask if they have any ties to anyone in the church or baby momma. Ask for a copy of the contract you signed with the atty - if they don't have one- u get the remainder of the retainer back (they can't prove they told u it was non refundable). Have your new atty request the case file and files papers releasing your old atty from the case. Immediately have them file to establish paternity. Contact the bar in state the atty practices.

no one can say how a judge will react- that is arbitrary. Get copies of everything. Surely you can find an atty cheaper than that. Heck the best one in nashville is only a 3500 retainer and ours in alabama was only 1500. Also, they may be willing to let you pay as you go or if you allow them to contact the other lawyer, waive the retainer until you get your money back. There is also legal aid which you may qualify for. Don't give up. You can file to establish paternity yourself. Have your friend go to the court clerk and explain and they should be able to point them in the right direction of what forms need to be filled out.

Are you near New Orleans? Don't list your specific parish. Maybe you can get an attorney in a nearby parish since this attorney will unlikely have ties to your daughter's mother.

My husband's retainer was $1800.

First: statute of limitations. I think the lawyer may have been trying to put a little of the fear in you looking to get your business. He is wrong.

http://ocse.acf.hhs.gov/ext/irg/sps/report.cfm?State=LA&CFID=259282&CFTOKEN=ed20441490e26faa-B247FBA6-970A-5006-F75A3BDBE0A8A74A

There is no statute of limitations for a child to establish paternity except that the child must establish paternity within 1 year of the death of an alleged father. La. Civil Code Article 197) A man may commence an action to establish his paternity at any time.

This says you can do it at anytime.

However, if the child is presumed to be the child of another man, the action shall be commenced within 1 year from the birthday of the child. If the mother acted in bad faith, the action shall be commenced within 1 year from the day the father knew or should have known of the birthday of the child or within 10 years of the birthday of the child, whichever first occurs. (La. Civil Code Article 198)

This is probably what the atty was talking about. But the only way that the child would be "presumed" to be the child of another man is if she was married within 10 months of giving birth. Then the "presumed" father would be the husband. That is what the statute of limitations is for -- married guys. What it says is that if you were married, and your wife had a child that was not yours, you have one year to file to disestablish paternity. If you do not, the child will ALWAYS be yours, meaning you will ALWAYS be financially responsible for the child, even if a later paternity test proves you are not the father. If, however, Mom lied to you and you thought the child was yours, you can file to disestablish paternity within one year of the date you found out, but only if the child is 10 or younger. Once the child is 10, you are not allowed to disestablish paternity.

This section does not apply to you.

Understand, that in EVERY state, children have the RIGHT to be supported by BOTH parents. NO JUDGE IN THE LAND, not even in the crazy parishes of Louisiana, will terminate your rights and responsibilites to your child. Doing so would be robbing the child of what is rightfully hers -- your support.

Since you have registered on the putative father registry, I do not believe you have to worry about any time constraints. In Louisiana, the "statute of limitations" for you to establish paternity is the age of majority of the child.

Whatever you do, don't give the 4-grand to this idiot lawyer either. What he told you was wrong, and like I said, was probably done in an effort to get you to hurry up and hire him.

*******************

First, fire your attorney and demand your money back. Call every 15 minutes. Show up at their offices if you can. Don't make the kind of scene that can get you in trouble, but be very clear that you demand your money back.

Second, stop trying to insert the fact that your daughter's mother has denied you are the father. The fact of the matter is, you are not married and she was sexually active, and once you are proven to be the father, she can simply say "I really thought he wasn't the father." She is not going to be punished for saying you are not the father. You need to stop focusing on this, because it really is not important. She may even have been manipulated by family or friends to deny that you are the father. But like I said, it is not important. You had sex with her around the probable time of conception and you have proof that she beleives you may be the father. That should be enough to ask for a determination of parentage.

Third, go to the courthouse in the parish where the child resides and request a Petition To Establish Paternity And Support Obligations with Income Assignment Order. Take it home, fill it out, find out the fee and file it yourself.

Fourth, relax! And I know that is a tall order because you have gotten pretty screwed on this. There are a lot of father's rights groups that can help you out. Just Google "Father's Rights Louisiana."

Also, as far as malpractice, I would not jump off that bridge just yet.

Legal malpractice occurs when a lawyer fails to render competent professional service to a client and the client suffers damages as a result of the failure. One form of malpractice is negligence, and failing to file and/or filing incorrectly may be considered negligent.

Now, I am not saying you have not suffered, because you have in deed lost precious time. And it seems pretty obvious that your lawyer filed incorrectly. But it is very hard to prove malpractice unless she made an egregious error that cannot be corrected, and you suffered actual damages as a result. So far, while you have lost TIME with your daughter, you have not legally suffered any damages. You haven't gotten your retainer back, but that is not a reason to file for malpractice.

I am surprised that the other attorney would hop on that bandwagon so quickly. You can file a complaint through the bar, but I don't see a whole lot happening. Unfortunately, there are bad attorneys out there, and you got one. But that alone is not enough to win a malpractice case or get the attorney in trouble with the bar. That is another reason to not give attorney #2 any money. He seems like a waste too.

I actually had an attorney (my son's bio-Dad's attorney) issue a fake summons. He had me served with a summons that said I was required to show up in court on a certain date. It had which courtroom to show up in, a date and time, and the name of the judge presiding over the case. Turns out there was no court date. The summons was a fake. It was a tool that particular lawyer generally used in an effort to scare people to show up. He told my lawyer that the plan was for him and my ex to wait outside the courtroom for me to show up, then pull me into a conference room and see if we could "work something out" as far as visitation (nevermind the ex refused to acknowledge paternity and he wouldn't pay for a paternity test, so he wasn't even the legal father yet). But there was, in fact, no court date.

I told my attorney that it seemed that issuing a false summons to someone MUST be illegal or at a minimum unethical, and can I file a complaint against him? My husband was especially irritated because I was 7 months into a high-risk pregnancy at the time, and the summons hurtled my blood pressure into outter space. She said it probably wouldn't be worth the effort to file a complaint, because attorneys can get away with a lot as long as they aren't causing any actual damages.

Thanks Momofboys,

Thank You! Thanks you! Thank you!!!
When the attorney told me that I felt so alone and just sick all day, thanks for finding that and passing it.

I left Louisiana last Friday and came home to Austin when I found out so I can also deal with getting into college. (at least I wont miss that window) so everthing I am doing now is via phone, fax or mail. I called the clerks office this morning and asked them if they could send me or if I could download that petition. The girl didnt know what I was talking about and told me to get a attorney..lol.. I faxed off a letter to the owner of the firm letting them know they are fired and the reason, I also requested my full retainer given back and my book of evidence and every single page in it and a copy of my file since I have never recieved 1 page from them.

Now should I keep calling about it or do I give them so many days? If I keep calling isnt that harrassment? I have the papers to file with the Bar for my fees and with the diciplinary board about how it was handled. Should I go ahead and file those or wait another week and see if they return my stuff?

When I was in La, I looked for fathers groups but there were none in my area, I am in Austin now and I hope there are some here, if not I can check as far as Dallas.

I agree about attorneys and I know theres good ones out there, but I am not seeing it. I have completly lost faith in them and know they arent about my rights or protecting me, they are about ACTING like they do and taking peoples money. They know that when a person hires them theres alot of emotion involved and I feel like they use that emotion to play upon. I will be honest, this has messed with me because for 3 months I am thinking the judge is the problem and she is just spinning this long story about it. She even told me that she wanted to see me at least have visitation for fathers day, well I know thats not gonna happen and I just want to cry.(yeah I said it).

There are Father's Rights Groups in Louisiana. I will look for the links for you. They hold meeting every month or so.

My husband had to fire his first attorney as well. Please keep a copy of the letter that was faxed as well as the conformation page showing the date and time of the successful transmission.

In the future, do not give your book of evidence to any attorney. I am surprised that she accepted it. Both of the attorney's reviewed the evidence in my husband's case but told us to keep the evidence until court.

Thanks Momofboys,

Thank You! Thanks you! Thank you!!!
When the attorney told me that I felt so alone and just sick all day, thanks for finding that and passing it.

I left Louisiana last Friday and came home to Austin when I found out so I can also deal with getting into college. (at least I wont miss that window) so everthing I am doing now is via phone, fax or mail. I called the clerks office this morning and asked them if they could send me or if I could download that petition. The girl didnt know what I was talking about and told me to get a attorney..lol.. I faxed off a letter to the owner of the firm letting them know they are fired and the reason, I also requested my full retainer given back and my book of evidence and every single page in it and a copy of my file since I have never recieved 1 page from them.

Now should I keep calling about it or do I give them so many days? If I keep calling isnt that harrassment? I have the papers to file with the Bar for my fees and with the diciplinary board about how it was handled. Should I go ahead and file those or wait another week and see if they return my stuff?

When I was in La, I looked for fathers groups but there were none in my area, I am in Austin now and I hope there are some here, if not I can check as far as Dallas.


There are forms you can download, but if I were you, I would drive to that courthouse and pick it up yourself.

I would go ahead and keep calling about the retainer until they ask you to stop. It's your money. You dererve it back.

What do you plan to file with the bar? You should probably give the law firm a chance to actually return your retainer before you try and sue for it. As I said, I wouldn't hold my breath that anything will happen here. It's aways possible, but since you haven't actually incurred any monetary damages, and the time you have lost is limited to a few months, I don't see a whole lot happening to this attorney. Maybe she will get fired, but I wouldn't jump the gun and shell out more money to yet another attorney for a malproctice case that is iffy at best.

I have to say, and this is just my personal opinon, but you may want to reconsider college for now. I'm not saying don't go, but is it absolutely necessary that you attend in the fall? You will need to be doing a lot of back and fourth, and you will be distracted. It's no good to be in college if you cannot keep your grades up because your mind is on the custodybattle you are in. And you probably won't find a lot of other kids who will get what you are going through, so a support system will be non-existant there.

You might want to consider working full time for now. You can always go back to school later. Most of my mother's friends didn't go to college until they were in their 40's, and ALL of them who went have professional jobs (a few realtors, a caterer with her own business, a few other small business owners). College is not a do or die situation for you right now. You might want to think about setting up shop with a full time job in Louisiana for the time being.

Also, that way, once orders are in place, you will be more likely to get a custody agreement where you get every other weekend and one night a week. If you are all the way in Texas, that won't happen. And honestly, I don't see you getting full custody right now.

Dev, this group's offices are in Dallas and Fort Worth.http://www.fathers4kids.com/html/Home.htm


If nobody has said it yet, welcome to TX. (Can I hope that you are going to be a Longhorn?):D

Here is the link:

http://www.ladads.org/

Another thing that I just thought of: to your knowledge, has the baby's mother named any other "alleged" father?

Worst case scenerio, if the baby's mother got someone else (a friend or her new boyfriend for example) to sign the voluntary acknowledgement of paternity, then THAT person would become the presumed father (even though he is not), and then the one year time limit would be back in effect.

Of course, that would also be fraud, so you would probably have a chance to file even after the one year limit.

Just a little nugget I thought of...

Sorry I've been out of pocket. I faxed the letter Friday morning after waiting 7 days giving them until 5 pm to call me or I was taking action. I got a phone call about 30 minutes later and they apologized up and down.. blah, blah, blah, for the way it was handled, I was assured that they were on the right track now and they said it was because they werent sure just how to write the suit because I was the first client in 20 years to come to them and have to sue the grandparents. I was faxed that after noon a revised copy of the suit (this one is 5 more pages longer) and my dad faxed it to his legal dept and they said it looked good. So they have filed the suit to Establish paternity. The owner is making sure that the attorney is doing it right and for now I can only pray she is.

I'll be honest here, up until she denied me to the child support dept, I had no doubts, but the fact that she denied me as the father to them did put a doubt there, maybe she did sleep with someone else, I dont know and no one has heard the rumors.. I do know that she is STILL telling her friends and anyone that will listen that I am the father and that I ran out on the baby, (including her preacher who said I deserve to go to hell for this) they all think I am a deadbeat and my friends in LA, call me whenver they hear her friends talk crap. I just make a note of it literally... So yeah she hasnt named anyone else the father to my knowledge and when the CS lady asked her (since it wasnt me) she refused to name the father. I did talk to the lady last week and she has it all documented and it is even stated in the suit.

So at this point for my own sanity and for the babies, we both need to know that i am either her dad or not. I pray I am, because i Love that baby girl with all my heart and soul and if shes not mine then I know that she will be taught to lie, cheat and steal and become white trash like her mothers family and all I can do is ask God to watch her and wrap himself around her and keep their evil away because I have to walk away then. Enough of my nightmares coming true..lol...

Momof boys.. are you a mind reader??

I have been soul searching this past week trying to figure which road to take and its weird that you suggested not going to college right now, because Sunday i told my parents that I think that college needs to wait until this is over and I wanted to bank some money. They agreed with me and told me that they support my decision and they actually said the same thing you did about how I will be doing alot of back and forth and I would probably mess up in my classes and I dont want that. I know that just dealing with it and High School was stressful enough.

So for now, I am taking it day by day and hopefully this will be over soon.

Thanks for sending the links guys .. I really appreciate them..