Do I need to bring proof to court that my child has been adopted by his step father in order to terminate future child support payments?

An order of the court terminating your legal relationship to the child (and permitting the stepfather to formally adopt him) ends your future legal obligation for the payment of child support. An order of the court terminating your legal relationship to the child does not terminate any child support arrearage obligation outstanding as of the date of the termination order. So, if you owed 10,000 in outstanding child support as of the date of the order for termination of your legal relationship to the child, you do not get to avoid payment of that 10,000 obligation but from the date of the termination of your legal relationship to the child into the future, any order outstanding for the payment of child support from you ends and the probation department would need to correct its records to reflect that effective XXX date, they should not have been collecting any new child support from you. If a probation department officer ( the hearing officer) tells you that you are wrong and you are the father and you have to pay the child support - tell her that she is wrong and that you want to appear before the court to address it. Understand that this is a unique setting and 95% of hearing officers have not seen this type of setting before and may not understand the legal significance of the order for termination of parenting rights and therefore you need to insist on appearing before the judge so that you can address it to him / her. Make sure that you bring with you a copy of the order requiring the payment of child support, the order terminating your legal relationship to the child ( the order permitting the step father to adopt the child) and a print out of your probation department account statement showing that the probation department has continued to collect child support from you after the date of the order for termination. Make sure that you keep each of those documents in separate file folders so that they are easy to locate during the proceeding and make sure that you have copies to give the hearing officer and the judge ( instead of bringing 1 of each and expecting them to copy everything for you. Make it easy for everyone to review the records you want them to see. If you have any communication with your ex confirming the adoption or communications from an agency involved in the adoption matter, bring copies of those documents as well. If you have text messages between you and your ex or you and the stepfather confirming the adoption, take screen shots of those text messages and then print them out - otherwise the court cannot consider them. You cannot hand your phone to the court for its use in your proceeding since the material on the phone is not evidence that the court can retain in its file.