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CrystalMalice · Aug 27, 2009, 06:30 PM

Originally Posted by ScottGem

What do you think filing abandonment will get you? Abandonment is generally for when a child is left totally alone, NOT when one parent declines to exercise his rights.

I would have to disagree with this. I am in a custody battle right now with a man who moved out of state 8 years ago when my son was 1 year old. He got thrown in prison and has been out since last April. December 09 he decides that he wants to have every weekend and everyother Wednesday. No contact since he moved out of state and now he wants to be a dad.. That looks like a case of child abandonment to me. :eek:

JudyKayTee · Aug 27, 2009, 06:54 PM

Originally Posted by CrystalMalice

I would have to disagree with this. I am in a custody battle right now with a man who moved out of state 8 years ago when my son was 1 year old. he got thrown in prison and has been out since last April. December 09 he decides that he wants to have every weekend and everyother wednesday. No contact since he moved out of state and now he wants to be a dad.. That looks like a case of child abandonment to me. :eek:

This is a legal forum. Please post your State and the law that would indicate to you that "the man" has legally abandoned the child.

I am also a little confused if in December 2009 he decided he wanted to have every weekend and every other Wednesday because it is presently August 2009.

If your experience is different from what has been posted, please let us know.

stevetcg · Aug 28, 2009, 04:47 AM

Originally Posted by CrystalMalice

I would have to disagree with this. I am in a custody battle right now with a man who moved out of state 8 years ago when my son was 1 year old. he got thrown in prison and has been out since last April. December 09 he decides that he wants to have every weekend and everyother wednesday. No contact since he moved out of state and now he wants to be a dad.. That looks like a case of child abandonment to me. :eek:

What you are talking about is using parental abandonment as a reason to deny visitation. That is a far cry different than "filing for abandonment"

ScottGem · Aug 28, 2009, 04:55 AM

I have moved your post to its own thread since the thread you responded to was about a year old. Normally I would just have removed it.

But you have clearly not read my answers carefully. As both Judy and Steve have reiterated, abandonment is a criminal charge that stems from leaving a child without adult supervision. That's not what the father of your child did.

You can use abandonment as grounds for denying visitation and you may win on that. But that's NOT filing for abandonment, that's filing to deny visitation.

And, as Judy pointed out this is the Family Law forum, answers here need to conform to existing statute or case law. It does not matter whether it sounds like abandonment to you, it matters what the LAW says it is.