Legal Question in Family Law in Florida
Termination of Parental Rights
We currently have our great nephew who is 4 weeks old after he was placed with us by DCF. He was born with marijuana in his system and our neice cannot care for him. She is not married to the baby's father and the father is in county jail awaiting trial for several felony charges. Our neice has decided to terminate her parental rights and would like for us to adopt him. The father has notified her that he does not want to terminate his rights and that he would like for his mother to have the baby and his mother says that she will step in to intervene with any attempts for us to adopt. My questions are:
1. Since he is facing 2-10 years in prison can the court terminate is rights against his will since he will not be able to complete a case plan? If so, what are the guidelines for example how mush time must he be sentenced to or how long will he be given to complete his case plan before they could seek to terminate?
2. Would the court generally take the child from us to give to his mother even though she works two jobs and really could not care for him as well as we could?
3. This will be the 3rd time he is in prison and he has a history of drug related crimes, does this play a role in determining if rights can be terminate?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Termination of Parental Rights
The rights of a biological parent will always trump those of other family members, even if it is in the best interest of the child to be with the other family members.
However, the rights of the biological parents can be terminated by a court for 1) abuse, 2) neglect, or 3) abandonment. This sounds easy, but it's really not. It's a very high standard. It's so high, in fact, that Florida courts have ruled that even going to prison is not abandonment.
However, being sentenced to prison for the majority of a child's life is usually considered abandonment, and a parent's rights may be terminated if sentenced to prison for a very long time.
If your niece agrees to voluntarily terminate her rights and the father is sentenced to a long prison sentence, your odds are probably good. You should speak with a lawyer as soon as possible about your case.
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