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My daughters father has not seen her in over a year, has not paid child support in over a year, although they are now garnishing his checks so I've received two. He does text message me often, rarely asking about her. Sometimes threatening me. I have sole physical and legal custody. He is supposed to have supervised visitation due to drugs, but hasn't used them. Is this abandonment? Can he lose his visitation rights? Can I change my phone number and not give him my new one? What are my rights?
No he is not going to lose visitation at this point. You have stated he is now paying child support and that counts as contact. His visitation is already at a minimum level. Do you have a restraining order against him ? If not then it would be reasonable that he have your number so concerns of the child can be discussed.
No, just for not visiting he is not going to love his visitation. And I agree, payment of support is considered a contact, even if father does not see child. ( for most courts) As for as the phone number, what does the custody agreement say about phone contact ?
If you have proof of threats, try to get a protective order against him,
As far as phone contact goes the court order states that he should have reasonable phone contact with her. He's only called once in a year and a half, on her birthday. At what point is he in danger of losing his rights? Is the child support still considered contact of dcss is garnishing it? Dcss was in the process of taking him to court because he had a job, but refused to pay. This is in California.
In California all child support is supposed to be taken by garnishment. So yes it counts as contact.Quote:
Originally Posted by Muchacha
No it's not. All child support is supposed to be paid through the dcss office, but it is supposed to be paid willingly. The child support office is not supposed to have to seek out the noncustodial party and force payment upon them. They were also in the process of revoking his drivers license which he doesn't have anyway. They were filing a case against him because he is supposed to be paying willing, but hasn't. So yea, FYI paying trough the child support office and garnishment are not the same thing.
It is standard that when the courts issue a child support order that a garnishment goes along with it. If the parent doesn't have a job at the time or changes jobs then they will have to chase after him/her. Garnishment is the preffered method.Quote:
Originally Posted by Muchacha
You can't hide your phone # from him. He has visitation so you can't cut him off, even if he is not using it. Abandonment won't get you anywhere. You are not going to get what little rights he has left taken from him.
If you could remove his "rights" what do you think you would gain? What would be your purpose?
What are the nature of the threats and what does he want from you ?
Ok, no. What your talking about is simply having the funds debited from the account. A garnishment is when the funds are removed by force. Which is what happened.Quote:
Originally Posted by califdadof3
As far as what I would gain out of him losing his rights. I also didn't mention that he has a son from a previous relationship who was my step-son (although technically we weren't married) since he was 2. He is now 8. My ex lost his weekend visits with his son and now is court ordered to have supervised visits with that child too, although he has not taken advantage of those either. It has been extremely traumatic for his son because he is old enough to understand what happened (my daughter is currently only 2 and has no clue what's going on). My ex was absent from his sons life when he was a baby because he was out partying. Then he attempted to grow up when we were together and he got joint legal custody and a bunch of visitation time during weekends and holidays and built a relationship with his son. I also built a relationship with his son and so did my family. His son was devastated when my ex lost visits with him since he no longer gets to stay with us for the weekends or see his sister often (my daughter). It's so awful, literally like grieving over a death in a way for all of us. Since he has come and gone twice in and out of his sons life and now is doing the same thing to my daughter I'm worried that if he were to return and then disappear it would be traumatic for her. Since he's done it before and is doing it now I don't think I'm too crazy in thinking he might do it.
The nature of the threats have been everything from he's going to kill himself on my front porch (I showed that one to the judge before when we were in court a year ago) to he's going to get custody of both kids (his son and my daughter) and never let me see them. It's doubtful those will come true, but it's distracting and emotionally draining to deal with on a weekly basis. I try to ignore him and he will continue to text. I also had thought if he didn't have rights to her that I wouldn't have to deal with these threats, since he's not a part of her life anyway
A garnishment is an order to deduct funds from a paycheck. If can be done voluntarily or through court order.Quote:
Originally Posted by Muchacha
As far as his being in your child's life. A court is unlikely to terminate his rights unless you can prove he presents a ckear and immediate danger.
Personally if you think he's a danger I would go to Court and prove he's a danger and skip the "he's not part of her life anyway" because that sounds like you are attempting to remove his rights to punish him for not having contact with the child.
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