I have a 3 year old daughter who is my life. Her Father (a 9 time convicted felon) threatens to "take custody" of her anytime he's mad at me- which in the past has been extremely frequent. He has NEVER been a consistant part of her life. He has gone this time 5 months without so much as a phone call to her. The weird thing is, he sends money on time, every month. We have never gone to court, paternity has never been established. Her Father has a history of verbal, and physical abuse, so the longer he stays gone- the better for us. I recently got married to a wonderful man who really wants to adopt my daughter. Even though the bio Dad has made no contact with us for months, my husband and I know that the minute we petition the court for adoption, a war will break out.

I have closed the account bio Dad has been sending money to, in hopes that we can simply cut ties with him. I'm really not sure what to do, and we do not have money for an attorney at this time. I've heard that if he goes 12 months with no attempted contact with my daughter, that's grounds for termination of his rights for abandonment. My question is- If paternity has never been established, and he's really considered a nobody as far as the law can see, can we still relinquish his rights? I would hate to have to go through the whole establish paternity, child support, then fight for termination of rights process. He is a horrible person to have to deal with, and really- he emotionally abuses my daughter. What are our options? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Did he sign birth certificate or acknowledgment? Were you married to Father at time of birth? If you seek adoption and no Father is named you will have to find and prove who Father is then get him to release his parental rights. Doing this without the aide of an Attorney is not recommended

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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. 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.