What Do I Need to Do to Get Contact with My Daughter

[skitt]

My question involves a child custody case from the State of: North Carolina

A few months ago it was determined that I was the father of a 6 month old little girl. I only made contact with her mother that one night. I am now married and have a family with my wife.

I was contacted by Social Services, and they are the only people that I have been in contact with. I am currently paying child support, and have been since I found out about my daughter. I have never even seen a picture of my daughter. I was supposed to get to see her on twice, but each time the mother canceled. I have no way of contacting her; I know none of her contact information.

Social Services have been mad aware of the fact that I have not gotten to see my daughter and I have no way of contacting the mother. They have done nothing about it; they say they can't give me any contact information.

I want to be a part of my daughter's life. What should I do in order to get a chance to be in my daughter's life?

If I do not get to contact my daughter, are there any reasons that I would not have to pay child support?

[aardvarc]

When you say you were supposed to get to see her twice....WHO said you were supposed to?

Social services can do nothing about a custody or visitation issue - that issue needs to be handled by the courts. If it wasn't ordered in the child support process, then you need to request visitation, get an order issued that outlines when, where, for how long, how often, who is responsible for travel if any is involved, etc. Once you have that, if the custodial parent deviates from what the court has ordered, you can notify the court and she can be held in contempt. If you've already GOT such an order, and she is in violation of the terms set out by the court, then you can skip right to the part where you notify the court of the contempt.

[skitt]

I was contacted by Social Services while the mother was in the office. They said that she was willing to let me meet my daughter, but both times the mother decided to back out after meeting had been set up.

I have not gone to court over this at all. Social Services have done everything...contacting me for testing, gettimg the test results to me, the amount of child support, and setting it up to be taken out of my paycheck.

Will I need a lawyer for the visitation order, or is that something I can do on my own?

[Dogmatique]

You don't need an attorney for this - you can call the court and ask which forms you need; they will tell you which forms, but they can't tell you how to fill them out or anything else.