Request childs attorney

Location: Baltimore, MD

Would it be appropriate to request a court appointed attorney for my child? I am looking to file for divorce and my ex has completely shut my child away from me. She refuses to act in his best interest and can't even talk about him without arguing her power as the mother and how I have to follow her rules. She has stopped him from being able to call me dad. I barely make enough to pay bills, I don't have an attorney but I'm more worried about his best interest and if that means paying someone else to defend his rights that's what I'll do.

Answer:

If you do not already have an attorney for yourself, hiring one for your child is not the place to start. A best interest attorney are needed in instances when the child needs more protection of their interest that can be accomplished in the custody dispute or divorce. Typically best interest attorneys are needed when the court needs to examine if there needs to be a waiver of the child's right to have his or her privacy rights protected (usually mental health or medical records). In other instances the parties want the child to have some input that might be different than both parents.

In this case however, there does not seem to be an urgent need for a best interest attorney as the child's interest are in line with the father's interest, in that the child should have contact and visitation with his father at the very least (so long as nothing else is going on that would prevent it i.e. abuse). It has been my experience that even the children of terrible parent still eventually want to know who their parents are and resent any parent who keep them from knowing the other parent.