LAWYER LAND

Here’s What To Do When Somebody Hands You Their Baby and Never Comes Back

No, it’s not your child now.

Photo by Filip Mroz on Unsplash

I run into a lot of weird situations in my job. We practice mostly family law, and family = weird.

There’s the usual “man with whole-ass second family that wife knows nothing about”. That’s nothing. That’s just another Tuesday.

But there are two situations (right now, anyway) that I just can’t wrap my head around. And maybe it’s because I don’t have kids and somebody’s going to tell me that these situations are perfectly understandable and if I’d squirted out a baby or three, I’d understand.

Hmm. No.

The first situation comes up during conversation with a client about child support and what school district their child goes to and things like that.

And then they casually say something like, “Oh, my daughter lives with a friend.”

“I’m sorry?”

“She doesn’t live with us. She lives with a friend.”

“She’s 16.”

Blank look.

“Okay. Whatever. We’ll make it work.”

Now, maybe I’m just old, but when I was growing up in the ’70s and ’80s, going to a friend’s house…