Mother Was Served with Custody Papers but Won't Allow Child to See Father

[tigerchix]

In the state of arizona.

My question is Can mother deny father to see child even though she was served with custody papers last week?

[Dogmatique]

Unless there is a CURRENT court order in place allowing the father access to the child, yeap, Mom can deny access.

[LetsGoDodgers]

Out of curiosity, how would this look in the judge / courts eyes when the time comes and everything is out in the open? I can't imagine it would help the mother at all.

Thoughts?

[tigerchix]

There is nothing in place with the courts, so we have to wait until the judge deciedes on the ruling? what happens if she doesn't respond to the papers? What happens then, does she lose the case and father wins?

[Dogmatique]

Generally she will get at least another chance to appear/respond; and even if it's a particularly strict Judge Mom will likely appeal and it will go back to court.

Wresting custody from the current caregiving parent is very difficult. So, who has been the child's primary caregiver?

[tigerchix]

well they both have been, she is a caregiver and works all day & night shifts, so when she works he comes with us, he would normally be with us 4 days out of the week and she normally didn't work on the other days and she would have him, it has been like this since the beggining but now its been to a point where, if shes mad at the father then we can't see him, but if shes in a good mood or wants to go out then we can keep him. So we want something in writing from the courts saying when we can see him on these days. If this does go to court would it matter that the father of the child is living at the parents house?

[Dogmatique]

Let's back up a little.

Is paternity legally established?

Who are you in this?

How old is the child?

What are Mom's actual work hours, and Dad's?

[tigerchix]

Well dad signed birth certificate but has not taken paternity test yet, they are not married but were living together at the time, i am child's fathers fiance and the child is 9 years old, dad works from 8-3 m-f, he is self employed and those are the hours he works when he gets a job, moms hours varies because she has different shifts on the days that she works, but normally her shift starts a 6pm and ends @ 8am the next day, or she woud have a 24 hour shift on one particular day. So its very hard to say what her schedule is because it changes once she gets a new client, but her hours when we had the son was, she would work mon, tues, wed & sun and that is when we had him, she would then have him thursday, friday and sat untill 6pm and then we would pick him up. At this point in time, I don't know what her schedule is since we have not been allowed to see him since May 11th.