Title: June 29, 2005
Maxine de Villefranche is an attorney and civil general practitioner with 13 years of experience. She operates her law practice from her new office in town, as well her Lancaster satellite office. She will answer legal questions posed to her by the readers, to the best of her abilities. Please forward your questions to maxinedev@msn.com.
A very nice lady wrote me a letter about the schizophrenic young man I talked about in my last “Legal Eaze” column. She informed me that there are very few available hospital beds for the mentally ill, and they are only available for the most seriously mentally ill, i.e. must be s serious danger to self, to others or gravely disabled, in other words cannot feed, shelter and dress themselves.
She explained that she has a son who has been ill with schizophrenia for 28 years and it has been a long and difficult road in attempting to provide the help and the care her son requires. She suggested that the only legal solution available to desperate parents is to obtain a restraining order against a mentally ill adult child. Obviously, this would entail homelessness or ending up in the criminal justice system. Our jails and prisons are filled with mentally-ill inmates, who in the past were cared for in state hospitals. Unfortunately, these state hospitals have pretty much been all closed, leaving the mental patients to fend for themselves. However, she mentioned Luann Baldwin, MSW, a family advocate with Kern County Mental Health Dept., who can be reached at (661)868-6109. Also mentioned is a group called NAMI (Nat’l Alliance for the Mentally Ill), which meets in Tehachapi once a month. This is a local, state and national organization providing support, education and advocacy for consumers and family members. For more information about this organization, call (661)822-5391. I apologize for previously misinforming my readers.
Q. I have been sued for paternity by a woman I dated last year after she broke up with her boyfriend of many years. She told me almost from the beginning that she was pregnant by this man. Now, she has sued me for child support. I am not the father of this child and I do not want to pay child support for a child that is not mine. What can I do?
A. You need to respond to the Paternity lawsuit within 30 days from service of process by explaining that you are not the father of the child and that the woman who is suing you admitted to you that she was impregnated by another man. Specify that you want a DNA test to prove that you are not the father. These DNA tests are very accurate and if you are telling the truth, you will be exonerated. Good luck.
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