I have a 10 yr old daughter who has very limited, if any, contact with her biological father. He has spoken, made contact with her maybe three times,?, in the past two to three years- and any contact is supervised…she has asked about getting her last name changed to my husbands, but my husband wants to adopt her. How do we go about this and can this be leaglly done with out much fight from her biological father? He has not , does not provide financial support but I am afraid because of his ego, he may try to fight this…but my husband truly has been the one to love and care for her and claims her and she also wants him to adopt her. On what grounds can we terminate her biological fathers rights so that legally my husband , who by all accounts is her dad, has the actual legal rights as her dad- as he should. Can we avoid a court battle with the ex? The ex does have a criminal record for assaulting me and my daughter…would this help us in court?
You must move to have the biological father’s parental rights terminated before you husband can adopt the child. It will have to go through the court system. I would suggest you contact an attorney who specializes in the area of step-parent adoption and termination of parental rights cases to ensure you have the proper guidance though the process.
So I know it may sound like a crazy question, but there are so many attorneys with specialized fields…divorce, real estate, criminal…etc…Is there a specialized attorney for something like this? If so, what type of attorney? Or would we have to use more than one attorney ; one for the termination of parental rights and one for adoption?
Yes, I would suggest you start by contacting an adoption attorney (they handle adoption and termination cases).