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Have her contact LegalAid. They can help her and are free/sliding scale based on circumstances etc. Start there and don't give ANY info to the guy until she has legal representation and THEY tell her to do so. Best wishes!!!

M

1) EDITED: My mistake - there could theoretically be back pay, but it would only be ordered if the father could pay. Typically, support orders with non-married parents begin with the court date of the judgment or the date the case was filed. Modifications to orders after they are initially put in place are not retroactive.

2) The aunt will not get anything. If the mother is living on welfare, she may well not get anything either because sometimes, states use the support payments to offset what they're paying out in support. Rarely are support orders for more than a custodial welfare parent's monthly welfare benefit.

3) I highly doubt that a father who has known of the possibility of being a child's father but has done nothing about it for 5 years actually wants full custody, but many threaten that as a bargaining chip for getting reduced child support. However, if he finds out what a nightmare this girl's mother is, maybe he will grow a conscience and fight for custody. If he is better equipped to be a parent, there is no reason that the court wouldn't award him custody if he can prove she is unfit. Which doesn't seem like a tough case to make. She's had 5 years to be a decent mother and has squandered that privilege.

4) He can and will deny paternity in his response to the first court summons, which will be a complaint to establish paternity, the courts can and will order a DNA test, the DNA test will be carried out and if it proves he is the father, he will be sent a summons to appear in court in CA for a judgment of paternity as well as child support, custody and visitation. He can have his lawyer file a response on his behalf that includes the appropriate paperwork to determine child support and his visitation wishes, but if he doesn't respond, the court will establish default orders. In an ideal world, he has an employer and they will be able to send a wage garnishment order to the employer and the employer will start to deduct his support and it will all happen automatically. If he's unemployed, quits his job, works under the table etc. then CA will have to open up something called a UIFSA (Uniform Interstate Family Support Act) order with FL to get FL to enforce the order. I can tell you from personal experience that FL is terrible with enforcement. My son's dad lives there and owes me $30K in child support. Hasn't paid anything in 13 years and FL doesn't care.

5) Sounds like the best case scenario would be for the aunt to file for guardianship of the girl. If that were to happen, she would be the one to receive the child support payments.

The mother's situation is pretty standard in the land of child support. They deal with out of state cases and unfit loser parents all the time. It's never about whether or not the custodial parent "deserves" the support - if they legally have custody of the child, the other parent is legally obligated to pay support. Whether or not the mother is fit is a totally separate issue.

FWIW I'm not an attorney but I've been through child support representing myself and working with our child support enforcement agency as both a custodial parent for my son and helping my husband, who was a non-custodial parent and now the custodial parent of his daughter, so I've spent a lot of time filling out paperwork, learning the law and sitting in court.

FINAL EDIT: She needs to simply work with the state's child support agency, the group who contacted the father. They have attorneys and case workers who will work on her behalf/their behalf to get everything filed and in court. She should not respond to the father's attorney. That attorney should be communicating only with the child support enforcement agency. She should alert the agency that she has received paperwork from the attorney and they will take it from there. The groups that handle welfare, child support, the free health insurance that her daughter needs etc all work together.

Hello, you may already have many answeres, sorry if this is a duplication. Every county has a Local Child Support Agency, you can find yours here:
http://www.childsup.ca.gov/Home/LCSAOffices/tabid/301/Def...
And more information here:
http://www.courts.ca.gov/selfhelp-support.htm#acc11399
I don't know where you live in the Bay Area, but on option for your sister-in law is to seek some support through a non-profit agency. I say this because non-profits are often very supportive of when people need help identifying pathways to sustainability. Here is an address to Bananas in berkely, if this is not near to you you can go to their resources page for other links to help you identify services in your area:
http://www.bananasinc.org/index.php
Many of us need a little help from our village when we are young, raising kids or just a victim of a society or other circumstances that didn't support us at some point. I'm glad you are willing to support her.
Good luck to you and your sister-in-law.

This is far more complicated than any mom here can answer.

You need a family law attorney.

If the state has contacted him and is going after him for child support she should not give the guy anything. The state will tell her what she can or cannot do.

I will tell you that if she screws this up for them by giving the guy information then they will pretty much cut her off.

Plus if she suddenly has an attorney she is going to have to explain the income she has that paid for him. If a family member pays for it then they still might count it as income even though it never went through her hands. It paid a bill for her so it can be counted as income sort of.

She needs to be at the local child support office first thing in the morning and give her worker the paperwork so they can tell her what to do. It is in their best interest for her to do it there way.

Since the state has contacted the father, your friend doesn't need to do anything. The state will take care of it. She should just keep in touch with them.

My daughter was receiving state aid and the state obtained child support from the father of her baby.

The aunt will not receive a dime without legal guardianship. It will go to the "custodial parent". Can the putative father win custody? Of course he CAN, but will he? Not likely, at least not immediately. More than likely, he will have to file a suit in CA for visitation and custody rights.

You see, when the state's attorney's in CA file against the father for paternity/support, they file locally in CA and use interstate child support laws to pursue the father (in the father's state of residence), as that is the only state that has jurisdiction over HIM. For the father to file for custody/visitation, he has to pursue that in the state in which the CHILD resides as THAT is the state that has jurisdiction over the child. If the child has been a resident of CA for less than 6 months (I think that is the time frame) then they don't have jurisdiction over the child, and Dad could file in her previous state of residence (though it would be rather pointless, imho).

The CA court can award visitation with the dad, but it will likely not be overnight or unsupervised at first, since the child doesn't know him from Adam. So ever actually getting to a place where the child DOES know him, and develops a relationship with him depends on how far Dad is willing to follow through. Eventually, if he establishes a relationship with the child, then yes, the court could very well award him custody at some point. Particularly if Mom is unfit. In the meantime, as long as Mom has custody (legal and physical), then Mom will be the recipient of the child support Dad pays-- Unless she is receiving public assistance money from the state, in which case the state will intercept the monies paid by the Dad to offset what they are giving the Mom.

Confused yet? That's why someone needs to consult with an attorney.

ETA: Since your edit-- It is interesting that the mother's case is being handled solely by the State (CA) (correct?, she doesn't have private counsel that filed against him, does she?) and yet his attorney in FL is sending papers directly to her.... Ummmm... those papers should be being sent to HER COUNSEL OF RECORD (which is the state agency filing on her behalf: Florida, if being handled under UIFSA, or CA if they are using another method). I will tell you, that there are a lot of family law attorneys that are unfamiliar with inter-state child support enforcement/paternity matters. She needs to take those papers directly to her case worker in CA. The only persons sending her paperwork asking for information (otherwise known as "discovery") should be her counsel/state agency in CA. It would go from the defendant's attorney, to the plaintiff's attorney, (after to review by the plaintiff's attorney) to the plaintiff. UNLESS, she is being served with an alternate action (a whole new case)... on another civil matter, perhaps custody/visitation. I can assure you that the State of CA will not represent her on a custody/visitation matter. And that will not be part of the proceedings under the laws they filed their case under. So, if "Dad" is denying paternity, there shouldn't be any paperwork being sent directly to her. If he does not deny paternity, then he may be filing a case regarding the visitation/custody, and she would need to address that issue.
In Florida, at least back when I worked for the attorney who handled these cases for the state, they did not order DNA tests. They ordered "HLA" tests, which are every bit as accurate as DNA for the purposes of determining paternity, but a lot cheaper. And once a determination of paternity is entered by the Court, support can be retroactive to the FILING DATE of the original pleadings (in CA), but not further.

there is no way the aunt will get the child support but if she is providing the support of the child she should be able to claim her as a dependent on the taxes.

The aunt needs to seriously consider obtaining guardianship of the child. She is taking care of her anyway so it would probably be for the best.

As to the child support...the father will likely pay back child support and current child support and that money will go directly to the mother. His attorney can ask for an accounting of how the money is spent but that usually isn't done. It doesn't matter that he lives in a different state. If he works at a normal, steady job then there will be an income withholding order and the money will be taken directly from his wages and put onto a debit card type thing for the mom to use.

Custody. Could he get it? Yes. Pretty unlikely but if it is in the best interest of the child then it is possible.