I would like to know what my chances are for winning my current legal case. I am engaged to the father of my 3 children, only two being his biological children. My oldest was from a previous abusive relationship that I had left before my son's first birthday. I am currently working with a lawyer to terminate my son's biological fathers rights and in the process have my fiancé adopt him. I have never received child support in my son's 4 years of life, he has only seen my child off and on the first year of his life and maybe twice since his first birthday. He has made little to no contact with my child. The only father my son known is my fiancé and he has raised him since he was 13 months old. In the state of N.H. what are the conditions of abandonment? How long does the biological father have to be absent to involuntarily terminate his rights? I have been doing a lot of research on this matter and it seems things are in my favor but there are so many details I want to know that I have yet to fully understand by reading alone. If someone is familiar with a situation similar to this can you please give me all the information you would know regarding this and also advice and common outcome. Thank you for your time.

It would be much easier and much better if you were married and have been married for longer then a year. Is there a child support order on the father at this time of the oldest child?

Merely not paying and not visiting the child is not reasons in court to take away his rights. And a few things not cleared.
Is their a child support agreement, ( if not then he is not behind on payments and does not owe anything) if he does, then why have you not done more to force payment, like child support enforcement of your state.

Is he a danger the child ? That is one important issue.

It is much easier if you can get him to sign over his rights,
If he will not sign them over, and if he shows up in court to fight to keep his rights, it is very likely he will get to keep them.

Next the man with you is the father of two of the children, not three, since the other has a bio father. He will be the step father until he can adopt the other child.

I would assume your attorney has told you it is a hard case if he will not merely sign them over.

Our wedding is planned for November of 2011. But with us not being married my lawyer reassured me that it most likely will be looked at as domestic partnership with marriage being imminent. He said the fact that we have lived together for 3 years and have 2 other children and assume the role of a married couple it will most likely not pose a problem. About the custody order, we had gone before a judge when my son was 6 months and because I was a single mother, didn't have a lawyer, and there was no concrete evidence of anything, the judge wouldn't terminate rights even with abuse allegations and he only offered a temporary restraining order and didn't mention anything regarding custody. But, in my eyes, I have been custodial guardian and primary caretaker/provider, and I have yet to be told differently. He has not once pursued this legally until a month ago when the state went after him regarding lack of child support (my lawyer read on the petition)

So you never went to court to get a custody order ( not restraining order) to where you were given full or joint or even legal custody ?

And then there was no child support order either, so he is not behind one penny in child support now either.

And remember the attorney words, "most likely" and often but then most likely is not the same as will for sure.

So it is just another issue that will have to be cleared. It is just easier if all of the issues are cleared.