I am in Florida. I have paternity established in that I voluntarily agreed that I am the father and have ever since been paying child support. However, I understand that there is also what is considered legal paternity that I need to get established in the courts in order to move forward with custody proceedings.
My situation is that I have not had any problems with the mother withholding my child from me for our regularly scheduled days together, I have been having her the same days and same times without any issues up until now. And before I explain more, I want to point out that the mother has disagreed many times about putting a parenting plan into place, because she likes to string me along and feel in control mostly.
Now, I am being told that to see my daughter I have to go to court, otherwise she isn't handing her over to me. This is due to nothing I have done, but just because she wants to move on with her new guy and has clearly decided that the stability and relationship between a daughter and her father is meaningless and can be disrupted at any time because it has become convenient for her, and she is jealous of the relationship I have with my daughter which is another story.
I could go into the selfishness and lack of regard she has for her own daughter's well-being, as she only cares about herself, etc. but I would be sitting here typing this up for much longer over matters that are less relevant at this point in time. My daughter is still very young, and I need to get this taken care of asap due to it progressing in a very dark place for myself and for my daughter.
I am trying to hear from anyone who has gotten swift temporary relief for time sharing in a situation like this, and any advice on doing so. As I mentioned earlier, I so far have only paternity established and have been paying child support for years. I am a bit confused on the "legal paternity" as I have seen it called, and how it differs from what I have already established.
I'd love to get any recommendations of a good lawyer in South FL as well who actually cares about their clients and not just billing their client as much and for as long as they possibly can. I need to move quickly as this is getting rapidly worse and will not get better without me taking legal action now.
Thanks in advance to anyone with any experience, advice, recommendations, etc.