More details to this question:
I am a father of a six year old boy. When my son was a few months old the mother left and as barley had any contact. She has maybe seen him a handful of times his entire life. She has been in and out of jail and rehab has not been able to keep a steady job and when she dose have a job it is at a strip club. he has lived with me from birth and now is enrolled in school in my school district. I am now married and have another child with my wife. My wife has been in my oldest sons life his entire life. She is the only mother that he knows. How would I legally get full sole custody of him and legally make my wife his mother.
1 ANSWER
3 Awards
If the biological mother's involvement with the son is that little, you will have no problem obtaining full physical and maybe even full legal custody. You need to hire a lawyer unless your county has a court program that assists people do things like this without a lawyer, pro se. Beware that if you haul the bio mother into court, she could ask for visitation, and might get a small amount of visitation in the order. Whether she wants this or even shows up to court is not for certain. As far as your wife becoming his mother, you would need to file for a step-parent adoption and would need to consult with an adoption attorney. This would involve the bio mom agreeing to terminate her biological parental rights or the issue of the termination of her rights being litigated in a trial. You could always sue the bio mom for support and try to bargain with her that if she agrees to terminate her parental rights, you will not seek child support for the next 12 years. If she hardly ever sees him, you may want to ask yourself if this is worth the stress and expense.
Answered on Jan 10th, 2013 at 10:21 AM
William R. Pelger, Attorney Munhall, Pennsylvania 412-461-1900