My son has not seen his father since he was five (he is now eleven). When we divorced, he was granted some visitation and was ordered to pay child support. He has not paid anything and has seen him a total of 7-10 times in his entire life. I have no contact with him, but I have heard he is residing in another state. Basically, I am concerned that if something happens to me (death, serious injury, etc), my son will go to live with a man he barely remembers. What legal obstacles do I face in terminating his parental rights. He is also a Navajo Native American and I am concerned of federal laws that may stop me from doing this.

Sorry to tell you this, but the odds of your getting a TPR are just about nil. Courts are VERY reluctant to grant a TPR and generally only do so to clear the way for an adoption or if the parent is a danger to the child.

Yes, unless the father has been to prison, I doubt you can take any of his rights away. What you have made the mistake is not to have forced the child support, by taking him back to court and back to court.

If for example you have a new parter and they want to adopt, often the other person is more willing if they are being forced to pay support.

But in most areas, merely not paying or not seeing the child is not grounds to take any rights away.

Comments on this post

theseus23 agrees: Thanks for the comment. I was hoping to terminate on grounds of abandonement... I'm in Colorado... why wouldn't the court consider abandonement

Please don't use the comments feature to ask a follow-up. Just reply to the thread.

I didn't say they wouldn't consider abandonment, but generally there are only two criteria for terminating rights as I indicated. The thing is, if a parent has abandoned their family, then a TPR is almost superfluous. Why should a court terminate rights when those rights aren't being exercised?

Most courts feel that a child should get the benefit of both parents if possible. Often a parent abandons their children for a variety of reasons and then has a change of heart. So the courts are reluctant to issue a TPR because of its finality.

I understand your point about parents popping in and out of a child's life. Such a parent can be restricted to supervised visitations or even have physical visitation blocked and only letters and/or phone calls allowed. So there is ways of dealing with that situation.