Hi,

I live in Florida, and I need to know if I can terminate my daughter's father's parental rights without his consent. We were never married, and he never signed her birth certificate anyway. He has not seen her in over a year, and has not given me any money for her since the beginning of January 2009.

I do not want him to have any legal rights over her. He probably would agree to signing the papers, but I'd rather do it myself if I could, so I won't have to worry about trying to track him down.

Please help!

If you have never married or signed the birth certificate he doesn't have any rights to terminate.

However, no, there isn't unless there is an adoption pending and even then you would need his consent.

Edit: unless there was a court order granting him legal rights...

Excuse me, but do you have a problem reading instructions? At the top of the Children forum there is a sticky notes which says READ FIRST! That sticky directs questions of a legal nature to this forum.

Had you then gone to this forum you would have found another sticky which discusses terminating rights. Had you read that you would have had your answer immediately.

NO you cannot terminate parental rights period. Only a court can do so. And courts are very reluctant to issue TPRs. Generally they will ONLY do so to clear the way for an adoption or if the parents is a danger to the child.

As Steve said, unless there is some court order establishing him as the legal father he has no rights. However, he could get rights if he decided to go to court to establish his paternity.

So, at this point I would suggest doing nothing. Unless and until he makes a move to try to see her, you need not do anything. If he does make a move you refuse any contact. If he takes you to court you can then argue against him having rights. Though its unlikely a court will agree.

If you remarry, after you have been married for a while, you can then see about your husband adopting the child. I would suspect that the bio father would be happy to relinquish rights to clear the way for an adoption since it would end his relationship with your child.

Actually, in many states - since no one has acknowledged paternity - you may be able to have your future/husband to complete an Affidavit of Paternity - at least a few states do not require DNA or anything like that as long as no one has acknowledged prior.

An Affadavits of Paternity and/or a Birth Certificate are legal documents. Falsely filing one is a crime (perjury).

Actually, in many states - since no one has acknowledged paternity - you may be able to have your future/husband to complete an Affidavit of Paternity - at least a few states do not require DNA or anything like that as long as no one has acknowledged prior.


Of course the actual birth father could come back and prove it false and the new "father" could find himself charged with criminal charges for lying on the court documents

At this point the only "right" the father has is the right to go back to court and get other rights. But you can't take away them merely because he does not see or pay money.
With that he does not owe any money since you have not proved he is the father in court and you don't appear to have a court order for him to pay child support. So how can he be behind if he is not ordered to pay.

The only way to really take away rights is to have a step parent that wants to adopt