Legal Question in Family Law in Alabama

Judge, I am a single mother of a 5 yr old son. I have never received child support, or any support for that matter from my sons father. The only support that I receive from him is medical insurance for my son, and even with that I cover him under me as well because I can not depend on his dad to provide for him as he should, and since I am older than his dad by a few months, my policy is primary. In February my employer changed our insurance plans, and the plan that covered my son was dropped. It was similar to Medicaid, in that I only had to pay 1.00 - 3.00 per co pay and prescriptions, but he recieved the same level of care as I did. It catered to low income employees who had too much income to receive Medicaid. That plan was replaced with a similar plan, by a different name, and the only difference was that the subscribers could not be double covered. Knowing what I could afford, I asked my sons father to drop him from his plan, and explained why, and that I only had a 3 week window to get all of my information in. He refused. My son has been having health issues since the age of 3 with seziures and ailments than accompany them, we visit the doctor at least 3 to 4 times a month, so having affordable health insurance is very important, especially since I dont get any financial support from his father. As of May 1st, my son has only had coverage through his dad, I have gotten a 98.00 dental bill, when I didnt have to pay anything, just last week I spent almost 200.00 in co pays, and I had to cancel and appointment for my son because I could not afford to pay a 250.00 deductible as well as 50 percent of what the doctor charged for the office visit. I ignored his ignorance up until this point, I never made a big deal about child support, he has since fathered another child, married that mother, bought a house and is taking care of his step daughter. I do not interfere with his life, we live less that 10 minutes apart, and months will go by before he will see my son, and then its just coincidental, that we see each other at a store. I have been reading about terminating parental rights, and Alabama has rules about there has to be someone waiting to adopt the child before the parental rights can be terminated. I don't have that, but I do have a strong family support system that has filled in where his dad has failed. Do you think that I would have a legitimate case to terminate his rights? He is preventing me to provide the basic care that my child needs.


Asked on 7/11/11, 7:35 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

Mari Morrison Mari Morrison

Is he the "legal father"? That is, has there been a petition for paternity and child support filed in the Juvenile Court. If not, he is not the legal father. Have you filed for child support and is there an Order? If not, he does not have to pay child support. But, neither does he have any legal rights to claim the child or put the child on insurance. You have all of the rights. There is no need to terminate his parental rights as he has none. Now, if his name is on the birth certificate, that still does not make him the legal father. Correct, if the child were to be adopted by anyone or by a future husband, you would need to go thru Probate Court and give him notice, but as he has not paid child support or been involved in the childs life, then I am sure the court would grant the adoption. That is not a termination of parental rights, but is a backdoor means of terminating his rights because the child becomes adopted by the new parent.....and obviously, the old parent has no rights, period. Now if you want to go to court and ask for child support, you can do that and go back 2 years plus 12% interest and get child support. Please feel free to call me using my telephone number available thru my web site.

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Answered on 7/11/11, 8:23 am


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