An appellate court has confirmed that the Attorney General does not have to tell the other parent where their child or the other parent lives. The fact situation was a father was sued by the AG to establish his paternity. The father sent discovery asking the AG to identify the address of the mother and the child which the AG had in it’s possession. The trial court ordered the AG to provide this information to the father. The AG appealed and the appellate court agreed with the AG that this information was confidential. In re O.A.G. 2014 WL 491684, 02-13-00455-CV (Tex.App.-Fort Worth.)
This was reminiscent of a case I handled several years ago where I represented a non-custodial parent who did not know where his child or the custodial parent were. The AG sued the non-custodial parent for more child support and after I sent discovery responses, refused to provide the location of the child so my client could exercise possession and I could serve her an enforcement lawsuit. While there are certainly cases where a person who is a victim of family violence should be able to keep their address confidential, when this is not the case allowing one person to be sued by the AG while the other parent hides seems patently unfair.