When my daughter was born, my husbands name was put on the birth certificate, even tho, biologically speaking, he is not her father. I did this, because I was told it was state law that no matter what, if I was married 10 months prior to the baby's birthday, my husband was to be listed as the father. No, he did not mind this at all.

My daughter's birth father wanted to stay in touch with her and he did for the first 5 years. Now, he's not called, emailed, texted or in any other way, asked about her or her welfare in more than 6 months-even after he begged me to see her and talk with her more often. I have not kept her from him in any way.

I want to know what the abandonment laws are in AZ. I think that if I can legally get him out of our lives, life would be much simpler for my daughter. She has no desire to have him for a 'dad'.

If your husband is named on he birth certificate, than the father is currently nobody to the child - he is as much a legal stranger as would be your mailman, your boss, or me, for that matter.

Any part he currently HAS in your life is legally only because you have allowed him to have it. He's already legally out of your lives, because he was never legally IN. Until and unless he files a paternity suit, is estabished as the father, is shown on the birth certificate, and is granted visitatation from the courts, you have the absolute legal right to completely cut him out of the picture. There is no abandonment, because he legally doesn't even EXIST as far as the courts are concerned. YET.

You should be aware that at some point, if the father of the child DOES come forward and pursue a paternity case, there is a strong possibility that the courts WILL grant him at least SOME level of access to his child UNLESS there is some SUBSTANTIAL reason why such access should be denied (ie he's a convicted child molester, he's on death row, he's facing a decade in prison, etc.).

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While pointers can be helpful, ultimately the number one lesson in any legal action is: don't take legal advice from books, family, friends, co-workers, police officers, grocery clerks, web sites, or people on legal message boards. The only person who can give YOU legal advice is YOUR attorney.

http://www.aardvarc.org

I agree with aardvarc on this. Have you browsed through the information in LawInfo's Free Legal Resource Center to learn more about your issue yet? See: http://www.lawinfo.com/consumer.html and http://resources.lawinfo.com/en/index.html. You can certainly try to speak to a lawyer to determine what legal options may be available. In the meantime, you may be able to learn more on your own. Search the "Free Legal Resources" tab, or browse the Consumer Resources. Good luck.