Visitationa nd finaicial support

I reside in Missouri. I have physical custody of my our two sons. I was divorced in Nov 97. I have received 1 payment of child support during this time. His last visit to the boys was Jan 98. (It has been Jan 98 to present with no contact from him physical or phone call). We have not seen or heard from him since this date. Financial support is not an issue at this point because I provide for my children. I heard that I could file abandonment. I was told that I would not receive any child support if this happened. I am at the point where this is better for me. Is this an option? Is there a time limit for this to pass?

[LegalBeagle]

Is there a hubby to adopt the child ?

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by LegalBeagle:
[b]Is there a hubby to adopt the child ?[/b]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

In the future....trying to get some info on how to handle things now?

[LegalBeagle]

Without someone to adopt it is hard to get the other bio parent to give up all rights. Since he is not bothering you then leave things alone for now. Many absent parents suddenly take a great deal of interest when they are faced with losing all rights and the next thing you know, he is petition the court for visitation.

Is there a court order in place for child support ??.. I assume he is behind with CS payments and the longer he gets behind, the more chance of him giving up rights the day you have someone to adopt.

I have no idea how true this is, but it was my understanding that after a year of no contact and no child support, you could file for abandonment. I didn't think there needed to be anyone to adopt under these circumstances. You have proven you can support your children on your own, and if you put a notice of some sort in the newspaper (where you knew he last resided) and give a specific time frame of when to reply and he doesn't, then I think the chances of having his rights terminated are good. This is not legal advice, just hearsay so please follow up on it as best you can.

[LegalBeagle]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by newmom:
[b]I have no idea how true this is, but it was my understanding that after a year of no contact and no child support, you could file for abandonment. I didn't think there needed to be anyone to adopt under these circumstances[/b]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

This is true to some extent. Abandonment is generally referred to in law when both parents have abandoned the child. In this case the state can force termination of parental rights and put the child up for adoption.

It is not common for courts to just terminate a parents rights because they have not paid CS or had no visitation. In fact most states status do not always detail this side of abandonment and so in the event that you want to follow this path, you basically jump on the back of the general law of child abandonment of both parents. You have to prove though that the parent in question is currently able to visit and has chosen not to. Of course, you can still try this route if you have the money, nothing ventured, nothing gained.


What you can do in this situation is to cancel out any existing court orders. Therefore,

If you have joint custody, you will easily get it changed to sole.

If there is court ordered visitation, get it cancelled until such time as the father returns. This will mean he has to petition to court and explain why he should be allowed back into the children’s life.

Ensure that there is a court ordered child support agreement. Therefore, if he does appear in years to come and starts demanding his rights, you nicely point out that he owes you $27,545.23 and you would be happy to take a check.. or, just sign this adoption paper and it will all disappear.

Also, if there is someone to adopt then follow this procedure which will force termination of parental rights should they not respond to repeated attempts at contact.


The reason I am not pushing the abandonment issue is because you have to think about the children in years to come. If you force a termination of parental rights and later in their life, the father tries to make contact, most parents at this point tells them to go away. Later on, the children learn about this and hold it against the custodial parent. It is seen by some children as if it was the CP who stopped the NCP from having contact. They have an actual document to show that the CP went out of their way to terminate the other parents rights. This can have a negative effect on the children.

By taking the route to cancel all existing orders you are not stopping the NCP from coming back into the children’s life. You are just ensuring that they will have to fight, and pay a lot of money to start the ‘healing’ process. They will need to prove to a court why they should have visitation and this visitation will be short, few and supervised to begin with. It a court decides against any of this, then that is the judges decision and not the CP.

If you want to study this for yourself then I believe that it is MO Chapter 211 Section 447 that details the petition to terminate parental rights. Best thing to do is contact a few local attorneys and ask.