[sandic]

I am divorced from a man who molested his own daughter (my stepdaughter) and her friend and is serving time in prison for it-12 years. We had a son together who is now 5 and I am remarried to a wonderful man. They get along great and my son wants him to adopt him and my husband wants to. Our concern is how hard it is going to be to terminate the parental rights of the biological father (who has been in prison now for 3 years). Does anyone know anything about how to go about it or how hard it will be?
Any help would be appreciated. We're trying to decide whether we need professional assistance or if we can file the paperwork on our own. If it looks like it will be a battle, better to spend the money and get help, you know?
Please reply.

Thanks,
sandi

[sneezyone]

If your son's biological father is willing to terminate his parental rights, you may be able to complete the adoption on your own, without a lawyer (it depends on what state you're in, some have easy forms to fill out and file). If biodad's rights have to be terminated involuntarily (without his written consent), you will need a lawyer. Even with a lawyer though, it might not be difficult. In some states, incarceration terms longer than X years are considered abandonment (grounds for termination of parental rights). In others, the very fact that he was convicted for a crime against a child means that his rights can be terminated. Talk to a lawyer though...your consultation will probably be free. Every state is different. =)

[sandic]

First of all,I would like to thank Sneezyone for replying to my post. It has been 5 months now and we have found that in Ohio we have to have an attorney (the courts won't even let us have the paperwork and acted "huffy" about us picking up "consent to adopt" forms as our atty advised us to do to help cut our costs-not having him do it). Anyway, I went online and looked at Ohio's laws for termination of rights and found very quickly that several applied to my ex. Including being convicted of abuse to the child OR SIBLING of the child and also rape. I did write to him in prison and request he sign off, but I haven't heard a reply and don't really expect one so we are going to proceed in May-after giving him 30 days to reply. Wish us luck-will keep you updated.