QUESTION
How do I sever biological father’s rights?
Asked on Mar 18th, 2016 on Child Custody - Oklahoma
More details to this question:
I have a 9 year old little girl and she hasn't seen her biological birth father, or as I call him, the sperm donor, since she was 3 or 4 years old. We were never married and when he found out I was pregnant, I didn't hear from him until the day she was born. He pays $10 here and there for child support with him owing me somewhere around $13,000 that is paid to DHS but he doesn't ask about her and doesn't know what kind of wonderful child she is now. She has no memories of him what so ever because when he did visit, he was either high or drunk and we kicked him out. Since she was born in 2007, she has probably seen him 5 times and like I said, she hasn't seen him at all since was at least 3-4 years old. When we got married, she was involved in the ceremony that way, she got a good daddy and that was 3 years ago. We moved away when we married but he knows where my mother lives if he wanted to set up his visitation rights, but he has shown no concern about our daughter. I want to remove his rights to her once and for all but do not know how to get that started.
1 ANSWER
If your spouse desires to adopt your child, hire counsel and begin a step-parent adoption. If the bio father hasn't seen the child in over 14 months, and hasn't paid support is 12 of the the most recent 14 months, you can seek to proceed without his consent. He is still entitled to notice, and can contest the adoption. He may or may not. It does not sound like he has a lot of room to make a case. If you have been married over a year, you may be able to waive the home study, saving some of the expense involved. Other than that, the only other way to remove his parental rights is via state action, and they are not likely to get involved in your situation.
Answered on Apr 25th, 2016 at 6:06 PM