What are the steps in having a father's right's terminated?

Question

We live in Texas and are in the process of adopting. However the young woman whom we are adopting from is not too sure on who the father is. She has named someone but has not been able to reach him. He is aware of the pregnancy and adviced her to abort and gave her the money to do so but she was too far along and decided to go with adoption. Therefore she contacted us. What would the steps be on having the father's rights terminated, being he has not been available and has no idea she couldn't abort the pregnancy, if he is in fact the father.?

Answer 1

You need to get an attorney to handle this for you. If the birthfather is unkown or can't be found his rights can still be terminated BUT you are risking him showing up later down the line and fighting it because he wasn't told about the baby. Your best bet is to find the BF and him sign away his rights. We are going to terminate my daughter's BF's rights so that my husband can adopt her, we were told it's prettu easy. I have a letter from him stating he will give his rights away but otherwise he is MIA.

Answer 2

The ethical way is to contact the possible father and get a genetic test to prove he is the father. Then ask him to agree to sign over his rights for the adoption.

The unethical way is to go to the courts and try to get his rights removed due to abandonment; but this may open the door to litigation later.

Unfortunately the unethical way is they 'normal' process of doing it.

FYI: the Newspaper notification (mentioned in a previous answer) has been getting attacked in the courts. There has been a pretty good series of attacks by natural fathers over the past 5 to 7 years that have improved our rights.

Answer 3

she has to name (to the agency or lawyer or social services handling the adoption or termination) all the "possible" fathers and points of contact...addresses, telephone, employment, relatives.  then they may have to run ads in local newspapers of the areas the possible fathers are known to be. they are given a time limit to respond. If they do respond then a paternity test is performed and he is given the opportunity to decide if he wants to have his rights terminated.  Its definitely not an overnight process.  could take a few months possibly a year. then after both parents rights are terminated there is a waiting period to give them a chance to appeal the termination.  some states may have a simpler process though.

Answer 4

This is complicated.  As the others said, first get a lawyer.  If this man wanted her to get an abortion, I doubt he would want to be in the child's life.  The baby would better off without him anyway.. If you can't get him to sign off his rights, you can petition the courts.  If they deem him unfit, they will give you parental rights as long as the mother signs off her rights as well.  She has to sign papers stating she is giving her baby up for adoption.  She has to agree to a "No contact" order.  Unless the adoptive parents want her in their lives.  If everything is done legally, you really shouldn't have to hard of a time.  She can't just give her baby to you, everything has to go through courts.  Political bull, you know.

I wish you the best.   I only know this because my best friend's sister-in-law, adopted a child. Be blessed

Answer 5

Hopefully you are using an attorney for your adoption.  If not, get one!!

Answer 6

I am adopting in Texas as of right now through an agency. First, the birthmom signed an affidavit stating who the birthfather is. Then they served him termination papers. If he doesn't sign the papers, his rights will autimatically be terminated in 3 weeks by a judge.

If you can't find him or locate an address for him, then you advertise in the paternity registry and the newspaper of his hometown or nearby city. If he doesn't contest paternity within 30 days, once again, his rights will be terminated by a judge.

Make sure this is done correctly. If not, he could come back later on and get the child back. A lawyer needs to draw up all the paperwork himself.

Answer 7

Step one: get off of Yahoo! Answers, which is a waste of time.

Step two: call an attorney.

Good luck!