Can I put my husband on child support if we are planning to get a divorce? 27 Answers as of January 26, 2012

Yes, once your child is born you can obtain an order for child support as long as you and your husband are no longer living in the same home. You can obtain child support by either filing an action for divorce, filing an action for separate maintenance, or opening a case with the Office of Child Support Services. No, you cannot prevent your husband from having anything to do with his child. The only exception would be if you can convince the court that it is in the child's best interest that he/she not be allowed to know, be loved by, or bond with his/her father. Since courts prefer allowing a child to have the support (financial AND emotional) of BOTH parents, you will have a fairly high burden to show that even supervised visitation would be bad for the child.

Yes, after the child is born you can sue the father for child support (irrespective of the divorce) but absent very compelling evidence that he should be legally deprived of his visitation rights, it is most unlikely that you will succeed in this objective.

You can not deprive the father of his parental rights. Unless is he charged with some type of neglect and abuse charges that result in termination of his parental rights in a court proceeding, he is entitled to develop and maintain a relationship with the child if he so chooses.

You can collect child support from him by asking the Divsion of Child support (DSHS) in your county to have have him pay child suport they will do it for free. However, if he is the Father of the unborn child, he has parental rights as the Father and you cannot stop him from having some kind of visitation unless you can prove that he is a danger to the child, i.e. an ax murderer, child molester something that serious. He has rights as the Father under the US Constitution.

You can certainly start child support proceedings pending divorce litigation. Denying your spouse access to the childrent is a matter between you and your domestic relations attorney. See one soon.

Absolutely not. He can file paternity if you try to keep him from the baby. Don't do this to your baby.

You are correct that your new child must be born before your marriage can be dissolved. Of course your husband will owe child support for his child, assuming your residence is designated as that of the minor child. The father's right to shared custody or visitation with his child is a separate issue, and you will not be able to terminate these parental rights in the normal course of a dissolution of marriage.

Only a court can order child support. Also, if you are still married when the child is born, the law presumes it is his and only a court can take away his parental rights.

Your terminology of "putting your husband on child support" is confusing. Whether you start and/or finish the divorce before or after the child is born, both of you will have a legal duty to financially support the child. As part of the divorce proceedings, there will have to be a parenting plan that determines each parent's rights and responsibilities and how time with the child will be allocated between the parents. Those decisions will have an impact on how much the child support is and who pays whom. You will not have the authority to decide whether he has any involvement with the child and no court will excuse him from paying child support regardless of whether or not he is involved with parenting. He won't be allowed to evade paying child support by agreeing to "not have anything to do with the child".

The simply answer is no. In order to "put him on child support" you are really talking about establishing a child support order. That requires either his consent or a court order. Secondly, as he is the father, if he wants involvement with the child, unless there is a very good reason for that not to happen, he will be granted parenting time with your child.