Legal Question in Family Law in Georgia

Hello please bear with me as this is kind of a long post, but I want to explain the situation. In 2007 my divorce decree was finalized, in the Fulton County Superior court in Atlanta GA. In the divorce decree visitation and child support was ordered. My ex-husband, father of my 4 daughters followed this order until 2010 when he bluntly told me have will not be coming around because he has to take care of him first.
Well he kept infrequent contact with them by phone but had not came to see them and was paying his child support off and on. In 2011 he relocated to Tennessee for a job, a year later in 2012 he came to visit Ga and asked me if he can take the girls to his fiance family place for a party they were having and I agreed this was the last time he seen them until June 2014.
In May of 2014 I was summoned to appear in court on a falsified claim that my ex made against me stating that I was preventing him from seeing his children and was breaking the visitation order. I was surprised by this because I was under the impression that he was still living in Tennessee, I brought our daughters to the court hearing which was in June in case the judge wanted/needed to speak with them, and they openly and happily greeted him; the first thing he asked them was if they were mad at him to which they told him No, and then he apologized to them for not being in their life and promised to make it up to them which he failed to do. At the court hearing he slipped up and admitted that he had been living back in the State of Georgia since August 2013 due to his job relocating him back there. I wasn't aware of this because he never changed his phone number so whenever he called them the same number showed up and he never mentioned he was in the same State as them leaving my children and myself to believe that he was still in Tennessee. I was able to prove to the judge that I didn't know he was in back in Georgia, that I have never prevented him from having any form of contact or visitation with his children, that I even told him he can see them on days that weren't his, and tried to set up a trip for our daughters to visit Tennessee to see him but he always had an excuse. I was also able to prove that he only took me to court on this false claim because he was behind in child support and felt if the judge believed I was preventing him from seeing his children he'd be off the hook repaying it. Needless to say the Judge ruled in my favor and even told me that had I filed a counterclaim he would've been held in contempt, she went on to set a visitation which was supposed to have taken place that Sunday which was father�s day.
Well father�s day came and went my children was dressed, ready, and waiting, and no call, no show, no email from him a week later he contacts our daughters and tells them he lost his phone, and made plans with them again which he again didn't call or show. After that he made no attempt to contact them until October 2014 when he reached out to me through email asking me to tell our daughters to call him, this is after not seeing our daughters since 2012 being back in Georgia since August 2013 and not seeing our daughters, seeing them in June 2014 in the court lobby, and 4 months after the court hearing of no contact whatsoever from him. Needless to say my daughters refused to contact him, and I didn�t think it was fair to force them to.
It is now 2016, and our daughters are now 19, 16, 14, and 11. I know my 19 year old is excluded from this, but can I have his visitation and his parental rights revoked from him pertaining to my other 3? He has shown no interest in their well-being, no interest in being a Father to them, no interest in them period. Birthdays, holidays, and even our oldest graduating high school came and went and nothing from him, he is also behind on the child support order, and has blatantly falsified a serious claim against me, lied to the judge about me preventing him from having his visitation, blatantly lied to our daughters, and has blatantly disregarded the court orders. I feel he has mentally, physically, emotionally, and financially neglected them. And I feel because of this his parental rights should be revoked as he's no type of parent anyway and isn't a part of our daughters lives. My daughters have been very forgiving and receptive of him, but have reached the point where they feel he doesn�t love them, lies to them and chose his fiance and her daughter over them and have made it clear to me that they want nothing more to do with him because of how he treats them, again even at the court hearing they greeted him openly and happily even though he hadn�t really contacted them in over and they believed him when he told them he was going to do right by them and he consciously failed to do so. My 14 year old has recently stated to me that she has felt since she was a little girl that he didn�t love them even when he was contacting them, because all he did was take them to his house and then lock himself in the room with his fiance, but since he has made no attempt to see or contact them this long she now knows he doesn�t. I never really questioned what they did with him during their time I knew where the address to where he would be taking them for his weekend visits, and my daughters showed no signs of physical harm and seemed to look forward to their time with him. So hearing my daughter tell me this was very hurtful. I am not looking to enforce his visitation as I feel it wouldn�t be fair to my daughters to make them have to interact with him when they have no more desire too, and he has shown he has no desire to be a part of their lives. I just feel since he made a conscious decision to not be a part of his children life then he shouldn�t have any rights to them, and I am wondering is there a way I can have his parental rights taken away. I don�t care if I lose the child support because he rarely pays it, and owes me back in thousands and the ocse in GA isn�t really enforcing it anyway.
Here�s a breakdown
In September 2007 divorce finalized, visitation and child support order set up in GA
Ex follows up until Mid 2010 when he tells me he needs to take care of him first and won�t be coming around much.
2011 Ex relocates to Tennessee and keeps infrequent contact with our daughters
2012 Ex visits Ga takes daughters to party on fiance family side.
August 2013 Ex secretly returns to GA
May 2014 ex files a false citation of contempt claim against me
June 2014 court hearing for false citation of contempt judge rules in my favor
June 2014 ex sees daughter after 3 years in court lobby and agrees to two visits one set up by the judge for father�s day, and one he set up himself and failed to appear at both.
June 2014 ex calls daughters with a bogus excuse as to why he missed the father�s day visit.
October 2014 contacts me via email to have the girls contact him. My daughters refuse to do so.
2014, 2015, and currently no form of contact on Ex part, no interest in being in our daughters lives, total neglect.
Can his parental rights be taken away?
Thank you for taking the time to read this, and for your assistance.

Asked on 1/30/16, 4:54 am

2 Answers from Attorneys

Glen Ashman Ashman Law Office also dba Glen Ashman Attorney

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Plain and simple...If it isn't broken don't fix it. A court would be unlikely to grant what you ask as it also eliminates possibilities of support or inheritance, and it changes nothing else since he isn't visiting anyway. Filing also would give him a chance to cause you problems. The smart answer...let sleep dogs lie.

Answered on 1/30/16, 6:03 am

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