My sons father is talking about trying to get custody of our son because I am getting married and moving to Kansas. I currently live in Texas about 3 and a half hours away and am just moving to the state above him, about 4 hours away. I have taken care of our son for all 7 years of his life and he has always been with me and is father doesnt pay child support. So my question is does he have a good chance of taking my son away from me or am I in good standing since I am getting married and what steps should I take to prevent him from taking me?

That's a pretty drastic change in circumstances - big enough that the court would be willing to entertain his motion for evaluation of custody.

Then that bodes well for the court to keep the situation the same. Continuity is important and the court isn't likely to take the child away from the only parent they've known for all these years due to an additional 30 minutes of travel time for the other parent who hasn't taken initiative to see the child in years. HOWEVER, with that said, if there are any issues with the potential new husband, that could open the door for dad to make certain requests (ie things like a criminal history, drug use, DUI convictions, etc. could be problematic).

Has the father been ORDERED to pay? If not, that won't matter.

First, you'll want to carefully read any currently standing court order regarding custody and visitation. It's pretty standard that such orders contain language that prohibits you from moving out of state (note that it's not about the distance or the time, it's about a different JURISDICTION) without approval of the other parent OR without approval of the court BEFORE the move. Other than that, it's HIGHLY unlikely that dad would win a custody battle unless he's got some MAJOR ammunition to show the court that your new marriage or location would pose some danger to the child or would substantially make any visitation with dad more costly, less likely to happen, etc. (which shouldn't be an issue since he hasn't been visiting anyway).

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I agree with aardvarc on this one. Have you browsed through the information in LawInfo's Free Legal Resource Center to learn more about your issue yet? See: http://www.lawinfo.com/consumer.html and http://resources.lawinfo.com/en/index.html. You can certainly try to speak to a lawyer to determine what legal options may be available. In the meantime, you may be able to learn more on your own. Search the "Free Legal Resources" tab, or browse the Consumer Resources. Good luck.

See also: http://resources.lawinfo.com/en/Free...xas/index.html