My fiancé has a 4 year old daughter, her mother will not let him see his child. Aparently he "Signed his rights" over and now we want to know if that means that leagally he can't see her or have anything to do with her. What is signing your rights over really mean when it comes to a situation like this. Please help us with our dilema.

Do they live in the same state? Same town? Which state? Did HE say that he signed over his rights? If so, under what circumstances?

First look at the court documents he signed, I doubt he signed his "rights away" he may have signed a child custody agreement that gave her full legal and physcial custody and did not give him any visits ( but that would have been stupid on his part) but you need to look at and have an attorney review the papers he signed.

Next file back for visitation though the courts.

Unless the mother is remarried and her husband adopted the child, I highly doubt he signed his rights away, since that has to be done through a court.

I suspect that it was something she drew up that sounded official and made him think he didn't have rights.

Did he ever go to court?

What has he done legally from the child's birth until now to see her and support her?

As you can see, we need more info to help you.

Among the things we need to know are the general locations of your fiancée and the daughter. Was he married to the mother when the daughter was born? Is he listed on the birth certificate? Is the mother remarried? What EXACTLY did he sign and was it affirmed by a court? Does he pay child support? Was any custody/support/visitation hearing ever held? What has he done to try and see the child?

US courts are very reluctant to terminate parental rights. Just signing a piece of paper does not mean that he legally signed his rights over. However, if the mother remarried, he might have relinquished his rights to clear the way for adoption by the step father.

If his rights were, in fact terminated, then he has no rights to see or contact the child without her parents permission. If he signed something that was not affirmed by a court, he can recant his signature and go to court to enforce his rights.

So please give us more detail so we can help further.