Hi everyone,
I need some clarity on how California handles the termination of parental rights due to abandonment. What’s the process like, and what qualifies as abandonment in this context? Any advice or experiences would be really helpful.
Thanks for the input!
The best you can do in California without having a step parent to adopt the kid, is write up a custody agreement between the 2 of you granting you (petitioner) full legal and physical custody. Also for visitation “other” visitation based on petitioners agreement. (If he ever returns it will be up to you if he sees the kid or not). He could try to change the orders later but the longer these are the established orders the harder that will be for him. He can sign away his physical and legal rights but he cannot sign away his child support responsibility (which is handled separately from custody and you can choose when or if to ask for that).