Legal Question in Family Law in California
Adoption, father in another state
My ex husband left the state in 1994. He filed for divorce there eventhough I had already done so here in CA. He went to court first, he stated he had been in that state longer than he had, and his family is there and supported his claim. He has one child support amount and I have another but my attorney didn't change my papers to state another court case. His state will not inforce CA's amount because the court papers don't state that they override his state. They don't even inforce that states amount. Some months he doesn't even pay a penny.
He has only seen his two children once in 1996- 2 years and 1 day since the last time, before he left the state. He has not called, written, or tried to visit since then. I remarried in 1996 and my new husband would like to adopt the children so that we can legally become one family!
How do we go about doing this? Do we have to notify him? Does he have to sign any papers? Since he has made no contact in almost 3yrs and has not paid support on a regular basis in almost a year, what rights does he have?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Adoption, father in another state
Adoption:you can seek to have the children adopted over his objection. You do have to serve him. It is a lot simpler if he simply agrees. He does have to sign a paper. You need a lawyer for this issue.
Support: go to your local District Attorney. They'll go after for you, for free, no matter where he lives.
Re: Adoption, father in another state
Yes, you do have to notify him. You need to terminate his rights
for abandonment, or the adoption cannot be granted unless he consents. (He
might, the adoption terminates his support obligation.)
If you have full custody of the children under an agreement or custody order,
you would need to prove that he willfully failed to communicate with and pay for the support when able to do so. Family
Code Section 8604. He would need to be served with a citation to appear.
If, as it seems, the custody situation may be very cloudy, you would need to
file under Family Code Section 7822, and prove that he failed to provide any
support, or communicate, with the intent to abandon the child. Again, he must be served with a citation,
and counsel could even be appointed (potentially at your expense) to represent him.
You should definitely be represented by a lawyer familiar with the law in this area.
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