Termination of Parental Rights - Michigan, Tennessee

[labj]

My ex-husband has not seen my son in over four years and has not talked to him in over two years. My son and I live in Michigan and his dad has lived in various states but is now residing in Tennessee with his wife and her family. The child support is six months over due and he keeps filing for a modification review and then canceling it before a determination is made. In Michigan, there is no enforcement of child support while it is in the modification process. I have filed for the enforcement to be transferred to Tennessee. My ex-husband has made it clear that he does not want anything to do with our son. Can I have his parental rights terminated? If so, where do I begin?

[sunlover]

You will find stripping the other parent of his/her rights very very difficult. You can certainly try under abandonment but that might not even wash. are you currently married? does your current husband wish to adopt this child?

It's another example of how lazy and incompetent our family court staff are. This is clearly a case of abusive and deceitful filing.

File a motion with the court to have him barred from frivolous motions. He's abusing the court system with his petty foolishness.

Push for the enforcement the second he drops his case. Get the State's Child Support Enforcement Agency involved. They will garnish his wages, (among other things).

[labj]

The problem with that is it takes my county two months to do an audit. This is required to be transferred to another state. Then, Tennessee has another month to respond. So, I am looking at another three months before I get any help. Michigan can not do any enforcement in Tennessee. The only thing they can do from here is to call him and tell him to pay. He has made it very clear that he does not want to be part of our son's life. However, he is not the type to take the initiative to find out the process for terminating his rights. If something happens to me, I do not want my son raised by someone that doesn't want him in the first place. Also, if my ex-husband is not going to pay anyway, why should I have to continually deal with the courts? I feel it would be in everybody's best interest to terminate his rights.

[sunlover]

Its not about what you feel sadly. Terminating his rights will be near impossible and will be impossible if there is not step parent willing to adopt