Friend Needs Info on What to Do?

When my son 4 I was able to get his biological Father to give up his rights. I had to hire an attorney to draw up the papers. It cost me $1600 that I didn't have to do it but I'm so thankful I did. In my case the dead beat Dad wanted to give up his rights because he had never seen my son and had never paid a dime ever. I had to take the papers to him myself and have them signed in front of a notary and then go before a judge to have them signed off. It wasn't super easy or cheap but it made a world of difference when I did get married 4 years ago and my son was adopted by my husband.

she shouldn't revoke his parental rights, but she should fight to get sole physical and legal custody with the dad only having supervised visits. Obviously there needs to be some drug testing added in so he can only see the child when he's clean.

My friend is going through something simular. Her lawyer is requesting the courts to do a hair stand test to prove the drug use. With his past history of drug use, my friend's lawyer doesn't think it will be a problem getting the test approved, and getting either supervised visitation or full custody upon a positive test result.

Good luck to your friend, it's a tough situation to have to deal with.

This story is very familiar to me. My daughters father was in Rehab and has not paid child support in almost 6 yrs. I have not gone thru the courts to push teh custody issues. He is not smart enough to know that if I say supervised visits that he can push for his regular visits. I would suggest trying to just say we are doing supervised until he cleans up his act. If this does not work she can contact CPS and they will help her take his rights away. Just make sure she is prepared for a big battle and investigation on her end also. If she has to let the child go she can call the local police (where he lives) and request a well child check up. The police will go to the house and check out the situation. If they feel it is not a safe situation they will remove the child. This will also help with the CPS investigation.

Hi H. your friend can go to legal aid in her county, if she make les than i think 2000.00 they will help her with no problem. the problem is how good is this man to the child if hes a good father she might not be able too ave them striped but she can have hies visits supervise when he see her. if she lives in rockwall legal aide meets the thrid tuesday of every month at helping hands there off of 66 in Rockwall, she can go there and talk to a lawyer either to get advice or they will take her case if they think they can help her. Best of luck to her.

Tell her to get to an atty. pronto or legal aid.
His rights can be revoked. The school should be notified ASAP that Dad cannot pick the child up from school, etc.
She may qualify for aid to families with dependent children (federal assistance) or social security benefits. Catholic charities has lots of info. on what's available regardless of your religion; they don't ask.

i have a friend that just started as a lawyer if she needs that kind of help... maybe he can. also, i have another freind that her little girls dad won't pay child support. they filed something with teh court and if he does not do any aciton for it, then the state is auto taking his parental rights from him for negligence. she might need to read up on it. or let me know if she wants the info for the lawyer and maybe he can help/

I am a divorced mom of 1 son. Like many moms, I have had my share of child support issues. Anyway, revoking a person's parental rights isn't as easy as many think. I know that dealing with the Texas Attorney General's office can be frustrating, but it is their job to make sure the kid is supported. They will help, but you must ask for it & be persistent. Yes there is a lot of repetitive paperwork & it gets so aggrevating but it's worth it in the end. Once she finds someone that can help her @ the AG's office, she needs to get their name so she can talk to them directly everytime.
Oh one more thing...that helped me get my child support going again. I did the research myself to find my ex. I found out where he was working & turned the information over the the AG's office. They in turn, sent out a writ of withholding that day & I started collecting again the next month.

Best of luck to her.

Here are some websites on legal aid and pro bono in TX.

http://www.texasbar.com/Template.cfm?Section=Pro_Bono_and...

http://www.texaslawyershelp.org/

http://www.lanwt.org/programs.asp