Child Abandonment

[baseballmom]

What are the laws on child abandonment? I have a son who is 14. His father was incarcerated for the majority of his school years and just released approximately 16-18 months ago. He is currently out on bail for felony VOP (possibly going back to prison). He has made no attempt to have a relatonship with his son in over a year. No calls, no visits, nothing for birthdays or holidays. He is court ordered to pay child support but that is sporatic at best. He is trying to have his child support reduced and has even sent our son a text message saying he wanted to sign his rights away but would only do so if he would not be responsible for paying back the nearly 40k he is behind right now. My priorty is our son and his well being, health/mental state/etc. I told him I was okay with him signing his rights away but he would need to hire the lawyer. Do I have any grounds to have his rights terminated for abandonment? I was told (not by a lawyer) that even though he has no contact with our child that because he pays child support occasionally that it is not considered "abandonment". Recently I talked with a lawyer about preparing a will. I wanted for custody of my son to go to my parents or husband but was told that his biological father would be able to get him if something was to happen to me before he turned 18. This is the reason for my question. I understand that if he goes back to prison that I then do have the grounds to terminate his parental rights due to some law that states if a parent is incarcerated for the majority of the child life that is grounds for termination. Sorry for the long question ... thanks in advance for responding.

[Attorney Cheri Hobbs]

It would be a very good idea to meet with an attorney that handles dependency law to discuss filing a Petition to Terminate Parental Rights. A family law judge in a paternity action will not terminate a parent's rights but dependency court is the way to do so.