Call from DSS

[klmno]

So here I am out of town and I got a VM on my cell from DSS asking if difficult child and I had ever taken DNA tests for DSS. I left a few mins early to get back to hotel to return call, wondering if DSS's sudden interest after doing NOTHING on this for 1 YEAR had anything to do with bro trying to get custody or PO looking into another placement for difficult child upon his release. Nope. It was for my CS case on difficult child's father. Which now has to be closed because she hadn't even been informed that difficult child was back in Department of Juvenile Justice. Sigh. Department of Juvenile Justice files automatically on both parents, whether paternity has been established or not and they had a case on difficult child before and I paid CS then and am doing so now. If they knew to contact me this time difficult child was incarcerated, I'm sure they have a case for Department of Juvenile Justice on his father, too. So they can still get the paternity tests done, it just has to be under a different case number and of course, they will get one from me where I live but have to send one to Department of Juvenile Justice to give difficult child. Fine but it holds things up a little. IN any case, it lets me know that something did get sent to the other state and they contacted the father and he said he wasn't the father or requested a test, one or the other. It doesn't matter to me- I expected that- what I'm glad about is that they looked and found him. It will be the same dss office that went after him for many years for CS for his daughter, who is now grown. Hopefully they'll do a better job keeping up with him on this case.

Now, when and if my bro catches wind of this and after paternity is esatblished (I know it will because there is no chance it could be anyone else), can the father sign over any rights to my bro? I wonder about this because a parent can sign over custody and/or give up parental rights. But can a non-custodial parent sign a kid over to someone so the other person gets some rights over the kid? My bro would gladly pay the father to do this and I'm sure the father would gladly accept. I'd never agree to it but I'm wondering if the court could do it anyway- without taking custody away from me?

 

[JJJ]

Nope. Courts see a lot of the old "sign over rights to get out of child support". Dad would need to go to court to fight anything about his rights (or more key -- his responsibilities). Just be sure to respond to any court papers you receive but one parent can't give away their rights over the objections of the other parent. Even if.

 

[klmno]

I hope that holds true here. About the last thing I want, short of difficult child being seriously harmed or incarcerated for the majority or all his life, is to be legal "co-parents" with my bro. That just would never fly. And how sick is that- your mom is your mom; your uncle has your father's rights? YUK.

 

[Mattsmom277]

One can surrender their rights, but if the law there is anything rational like here, one can give up their rights but it doesn't pertain to support. difficult child's dad had his rights severed by the family court "except for the purposes of support". There is no way in hades he could hand over rights to someone else, for support purposes or practical purposes, being a non custodial parent. As a custodial parent, one could grant rights to a third party IF the non custodial parent consented and chose to not pursue being the new custodial parent. I don't even need to read the family laws in your area to pretty much gaurantee that no court is going to take a teenagers non custodial and uninvolved fathers rights and hand them to another man that the father presents as an option. It's laughable. Wouldn't happen. Honestly, don't sweat it. Hope they can track him down to make him pay support, he SHOULD be paying support. Don't give your brother more power in your mind than he could possibly have. As for bio dad, what a jerfus to not manning up for his son, sounds like he didn't for his daughter either. He joins rank with my difficult child's dad. Coincidentally he has high privacy settings on his facebook but with recent changes to privacy settings, he must be unaware that right now you can view his current employer listed on his profile without being on his friends list. So just today I learned the company he is working for. difficult child turns 18 in March and support technically ends when he turns 18 or leaves high school (whichever comes first). I know he'll be no longer attending after his birthday so no new ongoing support will go into arrears. But he owes me tens of thousands in back support. So tomorrow morning I'm alerting the enforcement agency to his employer. Here they garnish 60% of someones salary for unpaid support. Sounds like he's going to be having a rough time of it financially for a while. Looks good on him! Hope your ex is forced to take care of his responsabilities.

 

[Hound dog]

Hmm. He can probably give up his rights............but very doubtful it would do him any good as he is not the custodial parent, therefore it would stand to reason he can't give up "custody" he doesn't have. Only way it would work in bro's favor is if you were to do the same. Which of course you're not going to do. Doubtful it would even get him out of child support, they'd probably laugh him out of court. They don't usually accept such things unless there is someone willing to step up and say they'll take over that support. (like a step parent who wishes to adopt)

I've never done it, I'm basing it on what my own bro's did concerning step kids they wished to adopt and bio kids they needed to have removed from neglectful/abusive biomoms. (they don't choose the best wives)