Legal Question in Family Law in Massachusetts
adoption / terminating parental rights
My daughter is four. Her biological father has not seen her since she was 2 weeks old and has never paid child support. I never went to court to obtain child support, I only filed with the Child Support Enforcement agency. Her father has a criminal record and has been in rehab several times. He also never signed the birth certificate. It is unlikely he would try to see our daughter but I would like to finalize everything and terminate any parental rights. I am not interested in receiving child support.
When I get married, my husband plans to adopt my daughter.
How do go about this???
Thank you.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: adoption / terminating parental rights
Easier said then done.
The easy way is to have the father agree to an adoption;
The hard way is to go to court and convince a judge, assuming the father contests the matter, that because of the stated behaviors, that that his rights as a parent should be terminated.