Do we stand a chance in court?

Question

My son has two daughters by two different women. They are only nine months apart in age. He chooses not to have contact with either daughter and signed away rights to his younger daughter because it freed him from his child support obligation. That child has since been adopted by he stepfather. The older daughter lives in a neighboring town with her mother who is still receiving child support, but my son has no visitation agreement and hasn't bothered to try to get one. He loves his daughters and regrets signing his rights away to his younger one and wants a relationship with both his daughters now. They are both 3 years old. I want to hire an attorney to help him get back into their lives. Should I expect a long fight in court? Neither mother wants their daughter to have anything to do with them. They both say that he had the chance and walked away when the girls were little and he can't float in and out of their lives. They need to realize that sometimes people make mistakes.

As for the signing away parental rights:
He didn't want to sign away his rights because he was afraid he'd never see her again. At the time of court, the mother told him that he would be able to visit once a month in her home and then she had him arrested. When I called her about it, she said she changed her mind because her daughter couldn't grow up in that environment and if he had time to get drunk (which he wasn't) then he had time to show up at the agreed time instead of after she put the child to bed and that it was "obvious he didn't care." I think she knew all along she was going to screw him over.

Answer 1

I'm not sure about your chance in court, but my guess is that the judge will say if he really wanted to see her, he wouldn't have signed away his rights to begin with. Plus, in these situations, the court tends to favor the parent currently living with the child.

Answer 2

I can only tell you how it is in Michigan but the states should not be too different. Child Support and Visitation here are two separate things. Even people who are way behind on support get to see their kids even if the mother says no.Here you do not need an atty for visitation. You go the the court where they handle that sort of thing and fill out visitation papers, they should have all the divorce things on file since he is paying support,and wait for a court date so the order can be signed.It doesn't matter what the mothers of those kids want.The court has the last say and he is their father. He is still paying for the one anyway so it isn't like he has abandoned her.If he is really serious, he should make a heartfelt effort to make good on all of this. Signing off on a child because of the support is his biggest mistake.Good luck.

Answer 3

Bad mistake is more like it. Your son signed away his rights, because he did not want to support his own child. Now that child has a adopted stepfather. If it were not for you, he would probably still not care to see his children. Sounds like he wanted to be a irresponsible parent in the first place, by not wanting to pay child support. He needs to leave this child alone, and let the Mom and stepdad raise this child, he had his chance when that baby was born, and he gave it away.
As for as the other child, I do not blame her for getting him arrested, this child is three years old, and he has absolutely no business trying to visit at this time, when that child has been put in bed for the night. I have never in my life heard of a court granting visitation for a three year old , after her bedtime. If your son really wanted to see that child, and be a daddy, he should have fought for his visitation rights, and he did not. Yes, you can expect a long fight in court, your son was a irresponsible father to start with, did not give a damn about his children, now he wants to see them. I have a feeling that your pushing this yourself more than he wants to push it. I understand that you have woke up and realized now that these two children are you grandchildren, and you want him to have visitation, so maybe you can be a part of their life yourself. Since grandparent's rights are not usually looked at being important these days, you have to get your son's rights back for your own benefit. Be careful, you may be doing more damage to these children than you think. First you have to admit that your son is a total jerk and is now getting exactly what he deserves. OH yeah!! he made a mistake, a big one, so now, he needs to live with it, all the money and lawyers in the world want make him a good daddy, which he seems to have proved he want be. Sorry, but sometime it important that people have to pay for their mistakes, as they will never learn nothing, if they do not have to pay for them. One I feel sorry for here is you, not him.

Answer 4

It could be a long fight. It depends a lot on the state. As a father, he has a right to spend time with his non-adopted daughter, however, to ensure this you have to go through the courts to get a visitation order since she seems erm reluctant to allow him access to his daughter.

As for the other, it is hard to know without seeing the exact wording of "signing his rights away" The only way will know for sure is to contact a lawyer. I would however, start with a legal aid office.

Good luck

Answer 5

The daughter that he gave up is not his anymore. He signed away his parental rights...he has nothing to say about her, no rights to visit her, no right to access at all.

The other daughter, he has right to access completely. He has the right of visitation and for his daughter to spend time with him at his house on weekend, summer vactions, etc.

It doesn't make any difference what the mother says.....he has as much right to his daughter as she does.

He needs to get a lawyer, go to court and get set visitation times..... Nothing the Mom can do about it.

It's too bad he valued money over his other daughter. She is going to find him one day when she is an adult - and she will have some very hard questions for him... Can you imagine how she is going to feel when she is old enought to know that her dad gave her up??

There's nothing he can do about it at this time, though. It's too late.

Answer 6

Judges understand mistakes, but they also have common sense. If a son is not online asking this question, but his mother is, he's not that interested. If he went ahead and signed a paper to relinquish rights to his daughter, then he was not that interested. Who knows what held his interest more back then? That's not important.

He can mature and make more babies later on for you to be a grandmother to. Accept it. Maybe someday the mothers will forgive and an agreement can be reached, but he will have to mature and prove himself over a long period of time.

Answer 7

Domestic cases can get very ugly.
He said she said, story changes.

The attorney is to be represending the son, not you the mother-in-law, to get at what he wants.

Younger daughter ... he signed away his rights, he might never be able to recover any ... note that this does NOT reliuish him of obligation for support, depending on state law

Older daughter ... if the child support is coming from him, then he can go to the court to seek visitiation rights

Answer 8

The late fees may be excessive, but the point is you still have been consistently late with the rent. While you do have a case for that, it will not stop the eviction. Any payments that have not been in full will not count for anything. A 1/2 payment is still not paid. Any proof of money coming in will also not count. A promise is still not paid. I don't see why you want to fight to stay in a place you obviously cannot afford. You need to find a place more4 within your budget.

Answer 9

Assuming I handled this kind of thing, I would not accept representation on these facts, particularly for the younger daughter.

Children need stability. As part of that, they need to identify with one parent. If your son suddenly gets thrown into the lives of these kids who THINK they know who "mommy and daddy" are, do you think that might confuse them? "Hey, I wonder just how many daddies I might have. Is that guy my daddy, too?" Do you think they might grow up looking for a real daddy? Learn the wrong lesson about what men and women do, or worse, figure to be better parents than they had and try to do it at sixteen?

Tell your son to leave these people the hell alone. He's only thinking of himself. You didn't say one word about how he might actually make their lives better by being part of it, so his motives are all wrong.

He was irresponsible a few years ago, and that made children. He was irresponsible and left them to their mothers. Now he wants to be irresponsible and come into their lives at a time he can really screw up the lives of total strangers.

Buy him a Betsy-Wetsy doll and tell him to be happy with it, but leave these people alone.

Answer 10

The man is being selfish and thinking about himself, not what is best for the children. He clearly is not a "father" and does not deserve a relationship with the children. An attorney will take your money and do his/her best for him to have certain rights, but is that what is best for the children? He had his chance and did not step up to be a man. He should stay away.