What is the name of your state? Wisconsin
My son is 13-1/2. His father (my ex) is from another country, although he holds dual citizenship and lives about 20 miles from us. Has not seen my son or had any type of contact whatsoever for 13 years. I get "token" support payments (put thru the court system) about 3 or 4 times a year ($130 at a time) based on his claimed "unemployed" income from the time of our divorce in 1992. Again... absolutely NO contact between anybody for 13 years. I am remarried (for 4 years). My husband wants to adopt my son. My son wants to be adopted. We cannot afford a custody battle, which while unlikely is always a possibility. We're told we need to notify bio father and have his parental rights legally terminated.
Based upon the history of cases like this in the court system, what are the chances that a judge might NOT grant the adoption and terminate the bio father's rights? Abandonment, according to the statutes, happens after a very short period of time, like 6 months (I could be wrong, but its certainly a lot less than 13 years!!!) My fear is that the bio father can suddenly decide he wants to be part of my son's life, and fight the termination of his rights. My son does not even know what his bio father looks like (neither do I after all this time).
Should the bio father fight it, do I have the right to rectify the child support for the past 13 years, and ask for income verification going back to 1992? Can I ask for 17% of his gross income for 13 years if he fights me on this?
The alternative is for my son to legally change his last name to mine/stepfather's. We are informed that he can do this without consent of the other parent, once he is 14. However, changing a name is not the same as a legal adoption.
There is a chance here for a lot of emotional damage to be done; we need to weigh the cost/benefits to my son. We already use "our" last name for school records, etc., they have his legal last name on file but he is not known by that name.
My son is 13-1/2. His father (my ex) is from another country, although he holds dual citizenship and lives about 20 miles from us. Has not seen my son or had any type of contact whatsoever for 13 years. I get "token" support payments (put thru the court system) about 3 or 4 times a year ($130 at a time) based on his claimed "unemployed" income from the time of our divorce in 1992. Again... absolutely NO contact between anybody for 13 years. I am remarried (for 4 years). My husband wants to adopt my son. My son wants to be adopted. We cannot afford a custody battle, which while unlikely is always a possibility. We're told we need to notify bio father and have his parental rights legally terminated.
Based upon the history of cases like this in the court system, what are the chances that a judge might NOT grant the adoption and terminate the bio father's rights? Abandonment, according to the statutes, happens after a very short period of time, like 6 months (I could be wrong, but its certainly a lot less than 13 years!!!) My fear is that the bio father can suddenly decide he wants to be part of my son's life, and fight the termination of his rights. My son does not even know what his bio father looks like (neither do I after all this time).
Should the bio father fight it, do I have the right to rectify the child support for the past 13 years, and ask for income verification going back to 1992? Can I ask for 17% of his gross income for 13 years if he fights me on this?
The alternative is for my son to legally change his last name to mine/stepfather's. We are informed that he can do this without consent of the other parent, once he is 14. However, changing a name is not the same as a legal adoption.
There is a chance here for a lot of emotional damage to be done; we need to weigh the cost/benefits to my son. We already use "our" last name for school records, etc., they have his legal last name on file but he is not known by that name.