Does child support end if you terminate a parents parental rights in NC? If not what is the process?
Termination of Parental Rights also eliminates a child support obligation. A party cannot voluntary terminate his or her parental rights. If that were the case, we would have a lot of parents trying to use termination as a means to avoid their child support obligations.
The termination of parental rights statute has two parts. First, there must be grounds for termination. Some examples include abandonment and failure to support. After the court finds grounds, it has to ask what is in the best interests of the child.
So a parent can’t voluntarily terminate parental rights? What if the custodial parent is manipulating things so badly that you have not seen your child in 5 yrs and now the child does not want any contact due to the parent doing so? What if the you have proof from a concerned parent that the custodial parent is stopping contact and harming the child by not letting this child contact at all? I can see why you can’t terminate. Just looking for a way out of a huge mess. thanks
No, there is no way to voluntarily terminate parental rights so that you won’t have to pay child support. If your former spouse is acting in the manner you have described, I would file a motion regarding custody. Almost every custody order has a provision that prohibits “bad mouthing” of the either parent in front of the child, and it sounds like your former spouse is withholding visitation in contravention to an existing order. These would be grounds to revisit your custody arrangement.
I had one more question about the termination of parental rights. If a parent is purposely maligning a parent to a child and has been and you have proof as I do does it impact her support for say alimony in any way?
Alimony is not related to children, it is spousal support, and as such, her behavior regarding the children wouldn’t be grounds to alter an alimony award. If your alimony payments are prescribed by a court order, you can always file a motion to have the alimony award changed based on a substantial change in circumstances (i.e., you are making substantially less money now than when the order took effect). However, if the alimony provision is included in a separation agreement that hasn’t been incorporated into a court order, you cannot modify it.
There should be a provision in your court order or separation agreement prohibiting either parent from intentionally interfering with the child’s relationship with the other parent. If it your custody arrangement is included in a court order, she could be held in contempt for this intentional interference. If custody was handled via separation agreement, you could sue for breach of contract.