Maternity/Paternity right &legal council

[dreg]

As I explained in an earlier post, my ex girlfriend is pregnant with a child I do not want, and I will be moving back to England without her (this was the plan before she told me about the pregnancy - 3 days before the originally planned departure).

I would like to speak to lawyer to find out what my financial (and other) obligations will be.

1. Can somebody recomend one?
2. Can someone offer any information on the above?

Many thanks

[amdg]

The British embassy website has a list of lawyers:

http://www.uknow.or.jp/be_e/consular/life/lawyers/

[Samurai_Jerk]

As I explained in an earlier post, my ex girlfriend is pregnant with a child I do not want, and I will be moving back to England without her (this was the plan before she told me about the pregnancy - 3 days before the originally planned departure).

I would like to speak to lawyer to find out what my financial (and other) obligations will be.

1. Can somebody recomend one?
2. Can someone offer any information on the above?

Many thanks

Fuck her, you'll be in England.

[Mike Oxlong]

AFAIK, in Japan you have no legal obligation to pay child support if you do not claim visitation rights. Many guys get dinged with settlement sum in court, only to be give a day or two a month (in a *good* case) visitation. Thing is, whatever the court decides, there's no system of enforcement in place. A guy doesn't pay - seems to be no way to make him. Woman denies visitation - guy is SOL.

Best to check it out with someone in the know. The CRN has some decent resources and may be a good starting point (even if ya know yer bailin').
http://www.crnjapan.com/en/

[dreg]

Thanks chaps

[maraboutslim]

that may sound harsh, but remember that if you two got married and then one day she took off with the kid back to japan, you'd be shit out of luck because japan will not enforce custody agreements for foreigners (or even for japanese men for that matter). ianal, but i can't see how japan could enforce any kind of child support upon men living abroad. do as much as you'd like.

[FG Lurker]

If she decides to come after you through the English legal system you could be up the creek... Otherwise however AFAIK the posts above are accurate.

[kamome]

You should probably wait until you get back to England and then seek legal counsel there to see what rights, if any, your girlfriend would have against you under English law. The worst case scenario that I can think of is that she obtains some kind of judgment for child support against you in a Japanese court and then tries to enforce it under English law. A great question to ask your English lawyer is does English law recognize judgments rendered by overseas courts against one of its citizens?

The law firms amdg linked to are world-renowned (Freshfields, Linklaters, Allen & Overy, etc.) but to my knowledge do not have family/matrimonial law capabilities in Tokyo and would be very expensive even if they do. You could try contacting one of them to see if anyone knows a good solo/small firm located in your town in England that specializes in family/matrimonial law and can answer the jurisdictional questions posed in your case.