Legal Question in Family Law in Texas
My child's father wants to give up his parental rights. I agreed that if he would sign over his rights I would in turn would agree that he not have to pay child support any longer. This has been a long time coming. Three years ago he moved to back to Indiana where he was born and our daughter lives with me in Texas. She has decided she no longer wants to have a relationship with him. Our daughter has my last name, because we were never married. We have a general order of child support and visitation that was set up a year after my daughter was born with the Texas Attorney General's Office. What is the first step to make this happen?
1 Answer from Attorneys
The first step is for him to sign a Voluntary Relinquishment of Parental Rights affidavit. Once you have that affidavit, you can file a termination case. One problem is that not every judge will terminate a parent if there is not a step parent ready to come in and adopt. There's all sorts of reasons for this, one of which is that if the father gets hit by a Pepsi truck and is either injured or killed, your child would be entitled to Social Security or Disability income until the child turns 18. Courts don't like for people to cut off these potential benefits from children.
But you can try.
Good luck!!
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