Wisconsin Child Support Laws

Factual Questions
1

I am looking for some information regarding the current situation i am in.

Starting in January, my girlfriend, her 4 year old son, and I will be sharing an apartment together.

My girlfriend currently has primary custody, and the father visitation.

My girlfriend has not received child support in almost 2 years from the father.

Under Wisconsin state law can my girlfriend claim full-custody since she does not get support?

She has filed for child support with a county in Wisconsin, we will be living in a different county in the same state, is the case transferrable? (I assume yes)

I want to be helpful in this situation, where should we be seeking information from?

2

I’m not from Wisconsin, nor an attorney, but what do you mean by “full custody”? You mean take away the father’s visitation? That’s not linked to child support.

3

That is what i meant, the father has not paid in or seen the child for two years.

4

Why is she wanting to seek full custody? That’s basically what she has, since he never uses his visitation rights.

Does she not want the dad to ever be a part of the kid’s life? Is she wanting to pre-empt some sort of future visitation by him?

5

Yeah, i guess she wants me to pretty much take over as the father, and elminate any possibility of a reappearance from the real father.

6

Sounds to me like she wants to terminate his parental rights. In my state, a judge probably isn’t going to allow that, unless there’s also an adoption in the works. TPR essentially lets the guy off the hook. Whether she actually has grounds to terminate will depend on state law. No contact with the child for over a year, plus no child support, might be enough, especially if there was an adoption to go with it.

On the downside, living with you out of wedlock might be grounds for him to take custody from her. In my state, that kind of thing is frowned upon severely in custody cases. I am not in Wisconsin, and have no idea what their laws on point may be.