Q: how is the process of termination of rights
My son's biological father has never seen my son and has expressed intrest in terminating his parental rights. My son has a father in his life who has been around since birth. him and I are no longer in a relationship and he is now married. Despite our relationship not working he is still in my son's life and wants to adopt my son. I went to a lawyer but was told there was nothing we could do because him and I are not married to each other. However, the biological parent does pay support payments, set up through court order. At the time of birth I was not working and was receiving services through my local DSS and was instructed that in order to receive the services the absent parent would have to pay support, but now I am a full time employee more than willing to drop monthly child support payments if need to, do we have any options? thanks
A: Obviously a man married to someone else is not a candidate to adopt your son and his continued presence in your child's life is potentially not in the best interest of his new family or your child. As to the father terminating his rights, he can not do that unilaterally - you would need to start that process. If you do and his parental rights are terminated, you will stop receiving court ordered child support. If you are receiving state benefits, the state will likely object to the termination because they want someone on the hook to help pay other than taxpayers. So this is all not necessarily a bad situation but it is definitely not optimal. Your best bet would be to consult with a local family law attorney who can review your situation in more detail and lay out all your options and help you pick the best way to go from here. Best of luck!
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