Can I Terminate His Parental Rights?

by Anonymous from Florida

I have had my child support case open for 2 years, and my son is now 3 and child support still has not been able to locate the father. My son has never seen him and his father has never helped with a penny.

He just refuses to do anything, he won't even call child support to set anything up.

He went as far as putting his cell phone on with someone else's name and according to child support, he has nothing under his name.

It sounds crazy to me that they can't locate him. I just want this to be over and have his rights taken and would like to know if it was possible?

Answer to Florida Child Custody Question

Dear Anonymous,

It is generally not possible to terminate a parent's rights without notification; or terminate parental rights unless there is a pending adoption.

I am sorry, but not surprised, to hear that child support enforcement has been unable to locate him.

The Florida Department of Revenue (DOR) seems to hold out hope that someday absent parents will re-surface and decide to pay their child support.

My suggestion is that you take a pro-active approach and try to locate him yourself, and then notify the Department of Revenue of his whereabouts. Do not do anything illegal or dangerous, just some online searches.

If you believe he is working and have an idea of his whereabouts, at least a city or area, a private investigator may be able to help.

Be careful about agreeing to pay a percentage of back child support owed to you to any private company.

Some of the private child support enforcement companies are scams, and some are not. Just be careful.

Notice: We provide these answers to the general public and our website visitors as a means to further their online legal research. These answers are merely suggestions and should not be regarded as legal advice.

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