Interpretation please

[faithnlve]

What is the name of your state? VT....HI Cjane...I met with the attorney and am going to be meeting with her again on Monday. I gave her all my documentation and talked to her about my issues. Nothing yet has been decided. She wanted time to go over the documentation first. Anyways, I found this under a Vermont case. Can someone interpret this into laymans words so I can understand what this means?

T.P.R. - STEP-PARENT'S STANDING
In re J.M., No. 99-386 (Feb. 22, 2000) (mem.)
In a broadly applicable holding the Court holds that a stepfather, who had married the child's mother, lived with them for a number of years, and at one time had custody of the child, was nevertheless not the child's "parent" and had no right to party status in the TPR proceeding. The TPR court might have allowed him party status "in support of [the] mother's rights" but he never asked for this sort of derivative status. Besides which, the Court says (icing the cake), the stepfather was the parent of two other children involved in the same case and had party status with respect to them, so "any denial of party status as to J.M. was therefore harmless."
The court rejects a number of challenges to the family court's findings regarding the mother's and step father's parental abilities (both had disabilities) and the state of their home. Thanks Faith

 

[LdiJ]

What is the name of your state? VT....HI Cjane...I met with the attorney and am going to be meeting with her again on Monday. I gave her all my documentation and talked to her about my issues. Nothing yet has been decided. She wanted time to go over the documentation first. Anyways, I found this under a Vermont case. Can someone interpret this into laymans words so I can understand what this means?

T.P.R. - STEP-PARENT'S STANDING
In re J.M., No. 99-386 (Feb. 22, 2000) (mem.)
In a broadly applicable holding the Court holds that a stepfather, who had married the child's mother, lived with them for a number of years, and at one time had custody of the child, was nevertheless not the child's "parent" and had no right to party status in the TPR proceeding. The TPR court might have allowed him party status "in support of [the] mother's rights" but he never asked for this sort of derivative status. Besides which, the Court says (icing the cake), the stepfather was the parent of two other children involved in the same case and had party status with respect to them, so "any denial of party status as to J.M. was therefore harmless."
The court rejects a number of challenges to the family court's findings regarding the mother's and step father's parental abilities (both had disabilities) and the state of their home. Thanks Faith

Well, this was a termination of parental rights case. Obviously dad was married to mom, she had one prior child, and they had two children together.

The court determined that he had no parental standing regarding the prior child. That being a stepparent did not give him that standing. However the court did go on to say that since he had standing in the overall case anyway, because of his two children, that it was more or less irrelevant that he didn't have standing regarding mom's prior child.

 

[faithnlve]

Thank you. So, can a step parent actually adopt a child from another parent if the spouse of the step parent has sole legal? I mean I have visitation with my child, that doesnt give them a right to adopt does it? faith

 

[LdiJ]

Thank you. So, can a step parent actually adopt a child from another parent if the spouse of the step parent has sole legal? I mean I have visitation with my child, that doesnt give them a right to adopt does it? faith

No, it absolutely does not give them any right for the stepmother to adopt your child.