Legal Question in Family Law in California

My ex-husband hasn't seen or talked to our kids since May of 2012. When he does contact me it's to beg me to get back with him or send me naked pictures. When he was seeing his kids they came home filthy, saying they were hungry, that they slept on the floor, and that his new wife was calling them horrible name. His new wife constantly texts me, calls children's services, and admits to being mentally unstable as well as being on cocaine. He has jumped states twice and refuses to tell me or the D.A. where he is located. Recently he sent me a text saying that he needs to work on his marriage without the distraction and inconvenience of our kids. So I need to know how I can go about getting his rights terminated, since he has expressed no interest in our children. I will be getting married again soon and my fiance would like to adopt them. What can I do? I don't want to seem vindictive I just want my kids to have a healthy and stable upbringing.


Asked on 2/08/13, 6:22 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Daphne Macklin Law Office of Daphne L. Macklin

You have a couple of things going on so I will try to address these matters in order. First, it is probably not possible to terminate your childrens' father's parental rights despite his rather neglectful and inappropriate behavior. Terminating parental rights has consequences including terminating his support obligations which I suspect you would not want to do. It would be appropriate to seek a modification of any visitation to supervised visitation based on the problems you have described. You should also seek sole legal and physical custody of the children reserving of course visitation and child support issues.

If you are planning to remarry, you should consult a family law attorney about what to expect in terms of legal ramifications and consequences. You should also discuss with the attorney the rules around step-parent adoptions in California.

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Answered on 2/08/13, 8:18 pm


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