I have a friend that lives in Mass and she has a 8yr old son. When the mom had the baby she put the father's name on the birth certificate, over the yrs the child has maybe seen the dad about 15 times and the father does not contribute much child support and does not pay for any medical or dental for his son.. the mom does. Now, the mom wants to have the father relinquish his rights to the son. Can she do this? She plans on getting a lawyer soon.

The father just recently got laid off from his job so how can she collect child support from him? And can she have his name removed from the birth certificate? He has 3 other children besides the son he has with my friend and he now supports his girlfriend and their son but not the son he has with my friend.

She cannot just have him relinquish his rights to his son, unless someone else is waiting to adopt him. As for being laid off from his job, she isn't realistically going to be able to collect child support from him while he is unemployed. Is there even a court order in place for child support to be paid? If there is, arrearages will continue to accrue, which he'll ultimately be responsible for, at least until he files a motion with the court for a modification of the child support order in light of the changed circumstances of him being out of work. The fact that he has other children also limits the amount of support he can pay to her.

No there is no court order in place as to child support or visitation. There never was being she didn't want to cause problems with him. I am wrong about the children he has, he has 2 boys over the age of 18. He has given her support when he can or feels like it but it was never on a consistent basis.