Hi my girlfriend has a little girl by another man. But he has not seen the baby or tried to help and he knows about her me and my girlfriend are getting married in April I want to adopt the baby and change her last name to mine its been alomost a yr since she was born and no contatc from the father do I still need to go to court to have his rights taken away . Beacuase people have told me after a year the father gives up rights automatically. Please help me out because I want to do this beofre the baby gets to old

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Originally Posted by kandyman

hi my gf has a lil girl by another man. but he has not seen the baby or tried to help and he knows about her me and my gf are getting married in april i wanna adopt the baby and change her last name to mine its been alomost a yr since she was born and no contatc from the father do i still need to go to court to have his rights taken away . beacuase people have told me after a year the father gives up rights automatically. please help me out because i wanna do this beofre the baby gets to old

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People who told you that after a year of no contact that the parental rights cease, were not telling you the truth. While this guy sounds like a dead beat, he still has the parental rights. He just chooses not to use them. You absolutely need to do this legally. Contact an attorney to start the adoption. The attorney will post the notices in the newspaper. There has to be proof to the court that all attempts were made to contact the biological father. Trying to find him through his family. Friends, notices, etc. all are methods to use. It is just the way it works. For the very reason of the following - say you adopt this child and in a few years along comes this guy claiming he did not know anything. What a mess. Good luck to you!