You might be in the process of separating or divorcing your spouse, and you could be worried that they are unfit to provide care for your child. Alternatively, you and your child's other parent might not be together, but you might still have similar concerns. In these scenarios, it's important to seek legal representation. These are a few reasons why you should hire a family lawyer if you are concerned that your child's other parent might not be a fit parent.
Get Help With Gathering Evidence and Securing Custody
Typically, the courts try to do what is best for the child when it comes to child custody disagreements and other similar issues. If you can provide evidence that your child's other parent is unfit to provide care for your child, such as if you can provide proof that the other parent is a drug user or that they have left your child unsupervised, then you might be able to fight for sole custody. A family lawyer can help you with gathering evidence and fighting the courts to secure custody of your child.
Work Out Visitation
Even though you might fear that your child's other parent is not fit to provide care for the child, you might think that it's in the best interest of your child to have occasional visitation with their other parent. You may be interested in offering the option for supervised visitation, for example, in which your child's other parent will be able to visit and spend time with your child while being supervised by another party.
Get Help With a Restraining Order
If you are truly concerned about your child's safety, then you may want to look into filing a restraining order. If you are granted a restraining order, this means that the child's other parent will not be allowed to contact your child in any way or they could face criminal charges. In addition to filing for a restraining order to protect your child from their other parent, you might be interested in securing a restraining order so that your child's other parent will not be allowed to contact you, either. You can get help with securing these restraining orders with the help of a family lawyer.
Fight for Child Support
Just because your child's other parent might not be fit to provide care for them does not mean that they aren't still responsible for taking care of them financially. Therefore, you may need to work with a family lawyer to fight for the child support that you might be entitled to. Then, you can use these funds to help provide financial care for your child.
For more information, contact a family law firm in your area.