Legal Question in Family Law in Washington

My Parental rights were terminated without my knowledge

My ex husband and his new wife moved out of state and cut off all contact with the family. They took my daughter without notice to me and now I found out my ex's new wife adopted my daughter, my rights were terminated, my daughter's birth certificate was changed and now I'm only paying child support for 2800.00 back support that I owed. I was not contacted at the time any of this took place.I was never given the whereabouts of my daughter. I was able to be contacted at any time due to the fact that my family has lived in the same place for 25 years and knew my whereabouts and I was paying child support so, DCS knew my address also. What can I do to find out my legal rights, if any?


Asked on 5/15/03, 7:50 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Jahnis Abelite ABELITE LAW OFFICES, P.S.

Re: My Parental rights were terminated without my knowledge

What state was the adoption done in? If it is not in Washington, then you will need the advice of a lawyer from that state to find out what your rights are in that jurisdiction. If the adoption was done in Washington, then that is a different story. You could possibly have the decree of step-parent adoption vacated for lack of due process but that could be an arduous task indeed. Your legal fees could easily be at least $2,500.00 and up depending upon what had to be done. You might have a chance to recover some of those fees from your ex-husband, but that is never a certainty.

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Answered on 5/16/03, 1:56 am


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