We often get questions about how to terminate a parent’s parental rights. There are two ways to terminate a parent’s rights: through a contested proceeding proving that the parent is unfit or through a voluntary relinquishment. In either case, a court must find that it is in the best interest of a child for that child’s parent’s rights to be terminated.
Unfitness can be shown in many ways, including, but not limited to: abuse, neglect and abandonment. Usually unfitness must be shown by clear and convincing evidence.
Even if a parent wants to voluntarily relinquish their parental rights, in order for termination of their parental rights to be legal, a court must accept that voluntary relinquishment.
It is against public policy for a court to legally “bastardize” a child by terminatinga parent’s rights unless there is someone else to step in and accept and take on those parental rights (by adoption), unless it can be shown that it is clearly in the best interest of the child.
Please reply with any questions or comments you have with regards to this information.
I have a question, maybe you can answer for me. My husband and I want sole custody of his children from his previous marriage and we honestly believe the mother of these children is unfit. She goes out drinking at bars every single week, leaving the kids alone. The other night she told my step-daughter she was going out for two hours and didn’t come home till 3 in the morning (10 hours later). Her excuse? Her and her friends drank so much at the bar that her friend got alcohol poisoning and had to go to the hospital. She lives in Utah. We live in Chicago. We got her to send the children out to us to live with us for a while, but we want it to be a permanent arrangement and want the divorce decree changed so that my husband has custody. Do we have a case?
My response to this question as presented is to first point out that this is really a divorce and custody question, not a termination of parental rights question. What you are seeking is a modification of the divorce decree. In Utah, this is done by way of a petition to modify the decree in the original divorce action. In order to modify a custody order in Utah, a person must show (1) (a) substantial and material change in circumstances (b) not anticipated at the time of divorce and (2) that it is in the best interests of the child(ren).
Using the above legal information and the facts as presented and having no further information, but without giving legal advice, I would opine that your husband has a case. Again, it would require a very close look at the actual facts of the case and legal advice from a lawyer licensed to practice in Utah. As always, anytime you bring a legal action, you need to be sure and gather all your evidence (facts) that you can present to the court to prove your case. Before filing the petition, you may also want to see if the mother is willing to simply agree to the change in custody.
I had a child with someone and the relationship didn’t work out, I got married to someone else and he wants to adopt my son, He hasn’t seen his biological Father in about five years and hasn’t had any contact with him in over a year, what do I need to do to have my husband adopt him and and is this an abandanment issue? Im just not sure of where to start the whole process,
This situation occurs more often than you might think, both with mothers and fathers. It can be a bit tricky to get started, but once you do, the path forward is fairly clear.
In Utah, two things need to happen: (1) the rights of the biological father need to be terminated and (2) the child must be adopted by the step-parent.
In order to terminate a parent’s parental rights, you must (1) show grounds and (2) it must be in the best interests of the child. Grounds can be found by agreement (the parent gives up their parental rights) or you must prove to the judge that there is some other basis such as abandonment, abuse, failure to support, etc. “Best interests of the child” is very specific to every individual situation. All these facts must be proven to the judge.
First, a couple of preliminary questions. Is the biological father on the birth certificate, or has he taken the necessary legal steps to protect his parental rights? If the answer to this is no, then the first step is complete and you can move on to step 2. If the father must be dealt with, then press on.
To obtain the adoption there are legal requirements to show that the adopting parent is good enough of a parent to adopt. This is usually shown by getting a background criminal investigaton (BCI) report and a report from family services. Depending on the case, a judge may require that an adoption home study be performed.
Now, specifically to the case presented above, the case appears to present as an abandonment case, but it may not be necessary to prove that if the father has not preserved his parental rights. Check with a lawyer with additional factual information in order to ensure that you are taking the best way forward.