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View Full Version : Parental rights


shannban8509
Feb 9, 2010, 05:02 PM
I have a similar situation and could also use some advise.. my fiancé has a 5 year old son by another woman... both the mom and sonlive in Florida while my fiancé and I live in Massachusetts... my fiancé has seen his son only once since he was born while the mom and son visited family near us... this was 2 years ago... the mom contacts us every time they make a trip up here but yet when he asks to visit we get the run around... my fiancé always tries to contact the mom to see how his son is doing, what's going on in his life, school etc... sometimes she responds sometimes she doesn't... other than that he has never had any issue with the mom and pretty much just accepts the fact that she ran off to Florida with his son just because he has to... now a few weeks ago my fiancé got a letter from the state of Florida saying he missed 10 court dates to have a dna test so by default he was named the legal father and is required to pay back child support all the way from 2007... its almost $10,000... he has never resisted to pay anything to her... she has never even asked... I'm pretty sure she is on some kind of welfare, she doesn't have a job and she lives with her mom... that amount of money is really a sh** load to have to pay back to the government ( I'm assuming they're the ones asking for the support not the mom) especially where we are planning to get married and they will then also be able to take my money which is a better income than my fiance's... they already started taking money from my fiance's checks leaving us with less than half of his weekly income... is there anything we can do about that since he never received any other information? We have both moved quite a lot (him more than both of us) so its easy that anything regarding this could've been lost in the mail even though we've always filled out a change of address form... and also he was thinking possibly of signing over his rights... and not because he doesn't want them because he does... the mom is also engaged to be married. And since the new guy is around the child a lot more and makes more money my fiancé believes it would make Everyone's life easier, not just his... he has already told the mom he will give her any extra money we can to help support the child regardless if he signs over his rights or not... he knows its his child and he doesn't want to just give up on him like so many people do to their children... he simply wants his son to have the best life he can provide while also being able to support a household when we are ready... but he can't do that when half of his paycheck is gone every week... he will NOT sign his rights over if it won't help everyone involved... so is there anything we can do at all? We understand that it's the government taking the money so there may or may not be anything we can do but any advice would be appreciated... also, I'm pretty sure his name is not on the birth certificate if that makes any difference... email me at {removed}

ScottGem
Feb 10, 2010, 01:21 AM
First its not a good idea to piggyback your question on someone else's. This can lead to confusion. You should start a new thread. So I've moved your question to its own thread.

Did he know about the court requests? If not, then he may be able to get the judgement vacated. He really needs to consult an attorney to help.

He can't just sign over his rights. However, if the new husband is willing to adopt, he can relinquish his rights to allow the adoption. He will still be responsible for back child support. But, again, if he never received a summons or any documentation that a support order was filed, he can fight it to some extent.

P.S. answers are posted to your question. Its not a good idea to post your e-mail publicly.