My son is almost 3 years old and his birth father had been in and out of his life for the first yr. he was an abusive alcoholic and I finally got out of it. He has domestic violence charges. He has not been a part of my sons life for the last yr and a half other than paying child support. I married 8 months ago and my husband has been the dad my son knows. We also moved out of state 7 months ago and his birth father is now trying to file for visitation. I want his rights terminated and my husband to adopt. Do I have a shot or is this a hopeless case?

Without the fathers consent NO!

If the father doesn't consent, then you have almost no chance of getting his rights relinquished and allowing your husband to adopt. If the father can show he has cleaned up his act (AA, anger mgmt, etc.) then he stands a good chance of getting visitation.

However, you do have a club you can wield. You can put in a claim for child support. That might give him pause and may even convince him to let your husband adopt the child.

Without the father saying OK, you will have to prove he wants nothing to do with the child, or he is so dangerous to the child.

I would say you will have trouble gettingthis, most likely your best shot is to have the visitiation he will get to be supervised visitation