Custody or Visitation with Stepchild

My question involves a child custody case from the State of: California.

My friend is dealing with a bitter divorce and his wife is trying to make everything as difficult for him as possible (she is the dominate partner). This is my friend's 1st marriage, but her 2nd marriage. She has 1 daughter from a previous marriage and my friend and his wife have 1 daughter together. They have been married for 6 1/2 years. My friend's lawyers have done very little for him and there are a lot of unanswered questions.

For starters, his divorce only has added to it for his biological daughter only. His lawyers did not think they should attach on the step-daughter, but should address each child, one at a time. This lawyer has already costed my friend $27,000 and in reality, my friend is never going to be able to fight in court for visitation rights of his step-daughter. The family law code states (3101), "Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the court may grant reasonable visitation to a stepparent, if visitation by the
stepparent is determined to be in the best interest of the minor child."

My friend is an excellent father and his step-daughter absolutely adores him over her own mother. There is a 730 evaluation that will be taking place in the next month...maybe this information will be discovered.

At any rate, how does my friend go about arranging with the courts to insure that his step-daughter is tact onto the custody and or visitation? He has NO visitation with his step-daughter at all.

He has to petition for it.

The step-child cannot be made part of the divorce action since she is not a product of the marriage.

Where is the child's father?

The child's father lives in Florida. Mom and step dad live in California. The actual father has been kept from seeing his own daughter from his ex-wife. That's another story altogether.

I have read this from a law web site: "A stepparent’s right to visitation with their stepchild does not arise in a case between the biological parents, but rather in a divorce proceeding between the stepparent and the stepchild’s biological parent." It seems quite apparent that the issue needs to be address with the courts now, whiling everything has been underway. It seems like it would be a waste of my friend's time and money (not to mention a waste of the court's time) to separate the issue with the step-child in another case. The 730 evaluation will cover interviewing and investigation with the step-child. Maybe the evaluator will address his concerns with the court as to whether or not the child should be allowed to see her step-father (based upon the family code 3101).

Whoa wait a second - Mom has prevented Dad from seeing the child?

Did you miss this part of the family code?

Quote:

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(c) Visitation rights may not be ordered under this section that
would conflict with a right of custody or visitation of a birth
parent who is not a party to the proceeding.

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I don't want you leaving here thinking your "friend" - who frankly should be here himself - has a slamdunk case for stepparent visitation because the reality is that even though he has standing, stepparent visitation is not often ordered outside of obvious cases where the stepparent has been the primary caregiver to the child.

He NEEDS an attorney.

I am totally aware of the "c" subsection of the family code and to my understanding is that visitation cannot "conflict with a right of custody or visitation of a birth parent" but custody or visitation can still be given which does NOT "conflict with a right of custody or visitation of a birth parent."

My friend has an attorney and he is doing very little for the $400 an hour that he charges. I think the 730 evaluation will address the concerns of the step-child and for the best interest of the step-child only. If the step-child misses her step-father and desires a relationship, it will be noted in the 730 evaluation. Also, living conditions and the well being of the step-father will be evaluated as well, to see if the step-father would be in the best interest of the step-child.

Have him talk to his attorney - we cannot second-guess his attorney, since the attorney knows all of the details of the case. It would be irresponsible of us to do so.

One minor point. If the court finds that it's Mom AND the stepfather who have been interfering with Dad's custody/visitation, he can forget it. Period.

And I'd expect Mom to admit to that in court if she's really dead set on him having no visitation with his stepchild.

(She won't get into any trouble in this action)

Unfortunately, my friend owes his attorney about $20,000 and his attorney just dropped him. Now my friend fights for himself.

I'm sorry, but unless he gets an attorney on board there's very little chance of him getting what he wants.

Specially since Mom is likely going to argue that HE has actively prevented Dad from visiting (she doesn't need to prove this unfortunately - the allegation is often enough).

He also needs to find a way to pay his attorney; given that he's $20k in debt you can't really blame the attorney for a) not doing much (as you previously mentioned) and b) dropping him completely.