[joyclem]

I have hired an attorney to remove the rights of my ex husband and have my husband adopt my son. My ex has not seen my son in over a year and has never paid child support. Now that I have started the process my attorney states that if my ex fights that the courts will not remove his rights. I need to know what I can do to fight and get this to go through.

My ex has an prior assault, a warrant out for his arrest in my state, he has abandoned three other children and not paid child support on them either. He is known for drug use and alcoholism. I have voicemails where he shows just how vial he is to me as well as pictures of his last residence with food and beer bottles all over the place. I also have statements from people at a party where he was doing heroin and police reports of a party where he had his 13 year old daughter when he got drunk and got in a fight and ended up in the hospital and left her at the party with no attendant. Plus the night I went into labor with my son he had left his 13 year old daughter at home to go out drinking and came home with two men that had to carry him into the house. His daughter was scared and called her mom to come get her. He got mad and mistakenly called me to tell me how he was going to kill me for taking his daughter away.

How is it possible I can have so much on him and him still keep his rights?

[ruthmarx]

Try this site Child Welfare Information Gateway.
Your attorney is right. It is very difficult and very expensive. Be sure that you know what your getting into. You'll be spending time and money that could be better served on your child and new life.
Does he know where you live? If he hasn't seen your son in over a year, this action may just anger your ex and get him to exercise his rights more now.

Good luck.

[ScottGem]

If you read some of the threads here, you will see your attorney is correct. Getting an involuntary TPR is difficult.

However, I think you may prevail. The leverage I would use to get him to sign is that, when your husband adopts he won't be responsible for support any longer. This may not matter if he's been successfully dodging support.

If you can show the violence and criminal activity, I think a court will grant it but mostly because you husband will be adopting.

[JudyKayTee]

try this site Child Welfare Information Gateway.
Your attorney is right. It is very difficult and very expensive. Be sure that you know what your getting into. You'll be spending time and money that could be better served on your child and new life.
Does he know where you live? If he hasn't seen your son in over a year, this action may just anger your ex and get him to exercise his rights more now.

good luck.

I scanned the site and see nothing that addresses this question - would you post the part you think is pertinent.

Otherwise - you are paying an Attorney who knows all the details of your situation as well as the law in your State, none of which information the people attempting to answer you here have on hand. I would be pretty sure he/she is correct.

[ruthmarx]

Grounds for Involuntary Termination of Parental Rights
It's called Grounds for Involuntary Termination of Parental Rights: Summary of State Laws

[JudyKayTee]

Grounds for Involuntary Termination of Parental Rights
It's called Grounds for Involuntary Termination of Parental Rights: Summary of State Laws

I find it very non-specific but it may be of help to the OP if she wishes to sort through it. Otherwise, I think Scott summed it up very well.