full custody

[jccfjj]

My fiance has full custody of her son, and her ex-husband has only supervised visits. he refuses to visit with the child with her there, so he has not seen his son in over two months. he's always on drugs and hasn't paid a dime for this child in over a year and a half. the child is now three years old and is calling me daddy because there is no one else there. is there anything we can do to take all rights from his true father? if this is done can child support still be gotten from him? And if he quit working to avoid having to pay child support, can anything be done?

 

[bryan]

To get his rights terminated you would need to get a lawyer and go to court. Realize that a court will not do this unless they feel it is in the best interest of the child. Usually this means there is a stepfather who wants to adopt the child. I suspect it is technically possible to get the rights terminated without a lawyer, but I would not even want to try.

Also you need to know that if the father's rights are terminated then no you will not be able to get child support anymore. Also even if he quits work he still is liable for any child support. It just may be impossible to get it from him as he has no money or recorded wages to potentially garnish.

 

[Duranie]

You need to be married to her first to even consider this.

The legal system will not take away his rights just because he is a loser. He is the dad he does have rights. If he is not paying child support, mom needs to complain to CSE.

Rights will likely not be terminated unless Dad agrees to it, and an adoption attorney would need to get involved.

 

[carney]

You have to be married to her for a certain amount of time. It probably differs from state to state. Also 2 months isn't that long that he hasn't seen the child. The courts usually require no contact for 1 year and that's in the event that you don't know where he is. If you know where he is, he has to be notified of any court hearing and he can contest. How long has he been given the supervised visitation? Are the visits suppose to be at a visitation center or are they just at her house with her there? It's best to wait and see what happens in the future with his drug use and stuff before trying to take his rights away now. In Florida it's almost impossible to take a father's rights away even if he's a sex offender, so each states laws are different. You can certain consult with a lawyer and ask what your options would be, but I doubt if right now a judge would grant it since it's only been 2 months since he's seen the child.
Also a bit of advice on supervised visitation...My exhusband was given 18 months of supervised visitation. He did 8 months and then moved away for 2 years. When he came back he said that his supervised time was up. I said no it wasn't and he took me to court. My lawyer told the judge "if a criminal is given 1 year in prison and then disappears and comes back after that year is up, does that mean he served his time?" The judge agreed and he still had to do the 10 months that was left. So keep records of his visits so the courts can see exactly when he visited and when he didn't.