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Originally Posted By Dale Gwilliam

Hi Sandra:

This is not all that strange of a question. In fact, it is a very common question.

There is a lack of total agreement in what you have said that interests me. You close your question by saying that there is no way to know who this guy is or what he looks like, yet there was a case to find him open with the office of the District Attorney for four years. This makes me suspect that there is “some kind” of information available to go on, although I have no way of knowing that.

In order for you to make the best efforts that you can to give the biological father of this child legal notice of your efforts to terminate his parental rights and replace him as the father of this child, you are going to have to show the court that you have made reasonable efforts to locate him. Depending on what was done by the office of the District Attorney, that may have already been done in a way that will satisfy the Court, or you may have to employ a private investigator to follow up on any loose ends that were left in that investigation. It is difficult to know without seeing what the office of the District Attorney did, but you are fortunate to at least have that investigation as a starting place.

In any event, you are still going to have to publish a notice of the hearing to terminate the parental rights of the biological father in a newspaper of general circulation in the place or places that are most likely to give him actual notice of the hearing. In reality, this is kind of a legal fiction that is used to satisfy constitutional requirements for the giving of notice, but in most cases it is highly unlikely to result in this biological father actually finding out about the hearing. Even if he did, it sounds to me like he is not the type that would be very likely to show up and object.

By far the best option is always for a biological father to be found and personally served with a copy of the Notice of Termination Hearing, but if the Court can be convinced that this cannot be done, then there are other acceptable ways to accomplish this legal notice, so that the adoption can move forward.

Just for background information on this topic, you could also look at the post I made on this board on July 12, 2000.

Once you get your stepparent adoption to the point where it is “uncontested,” meaning that the parental rights of the biological father have been terminated, either by his signing of a written Consent to Adoption, or a termination of his parental rights by the Court, then your stepparent adoption can be handled FREE of charge by the office of the County Attorney in your county. For more details, look at the post that I made on this board on June 6, 2000, in response to a question by Ben.

Good Luck!