Should I Contact the Agency Who Sent the Letter Immediately or Retain an Attorney to Handle the Communication?
I have always lived in California. Yesterday I received a letter from the Office of the Attorney General for the state of Texas notifying me that my child support case(which I was unaware of) was moved to a new office. This is the only communication I’ve ever received from them. The mother listed is a woman(I was never married to) that I knew a long time ago, but have not seen or heard from in over 6 years. When I last spoke to her she let me know that she had a child, that she knew who the father was (the father was not me), and that she had a paternity test to show that it was his. To my knowledge she hasn’t ever attempted to contact me. So now I’m freaked out and not sure what to do on many levels. Should I contact the agency who sent the letter immediately or retain an attorney to handle the communication? What do I do if it turns out that I am the father of this child and support is more than I can afford? How would any sort of shared custody work in a situation where the parents live more than 1,500 miles apart? Given that for the past 6 years I had no reason to believe the child was mine is it likely that child support will be retro-active to the date of birth? Sorry for all the questions, I’m still trying to wrap my head around the situation and trying to keep my imagination from getting the best of me.