[jburke751]

A friend of mine has two children whom he never sees and he pays child suport, more than half his check goes to child support in fact. He wants to sign his rights over, but he is unaware if Iowa is a state where they relinquish child support as well as parental rights. He has no phone number to get a hold of his children, no address for them, nothing! He has tried everything in his power, and can't get anywhere. I feel really bad for him. I told him I would try and find out some information for him. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[this8384]

I suppose I need more information before answering, but here goes anyway:

Unfortunately for your friend, relinquishing parental rights doesn't mean he gets out of paying support.
If he has no phone number or address, then how does the money get to the children's mother?
On a more personal note and if you don't mind me asking, why is he willing to sign away his rights? Is there a reason that he hasn't seen them? Is this what the court ordered or is the children's mother simply keeping them away from him?

[jburke751]

The mother is just keeping them from him. He has called child support to see if they would give him a phone number or contact her and they said they can not do that. Child support is taken directly out of his paycheck and sent to the child support recovery unit then it is then sent to the mother. He said he wants to sign over his rights because he doesn't have a say in his children's life, he doesn't get to see them, can't talk to them... nothing! He can't afford to get a lawyer because they take more than half his check. He doesn't even have enough money left to pay his monthly bills. He can not afford to live. I feel bad for him, but I do not know what else to do.

[stinawords]

Well a judge won't allow him to just sign over his rights, you can read hundreds of threads about that. What he can do is go to court to ask for visitatioin. The mother can not refuse court ordered visitation because if she does she can be held in contempt.

[jburke751]

He has been to court and asked for more visitation. But the court will not enforce the mother to comply!! Half the time, the mother doesn't even show up for court.

[cdad]

If the mother is refusing to comply with the orders then he needs to go back to court for contemp hearings against her. If she doesn't show up then that would be a good thing. Arrest warrant issued and when she goes to jail he steps forward and files for full custody based upon parental alienation. He really needs to see a lawyer and some will work with him for low or no cost. There are many fathers advocate groups out there that may help also.