How can a father find his baby if it was put up for adoption without his consent?
Starr asked:
My fiance’s ex left him while she was pregnant and he has not been able to find her. Her family disapproved because he is of another race. He was told the baby was put up for adoption. He never was contacted or agreed to this. How can we go about finding the baby? What legal rights does he have? Who should we contact to do this on our own. We cannot afford an attorney? We live in florida.
This entry was posted
on Sunday, May 31st, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Adoption.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
My fiance’s ex left him while she was pregnant and he has not been able to find her. Her family disapproved because he is of another race. He was told the baby was put up for adoption. He never was contacted or agreed to this. How can we go about finding the baby? What legal rights does he have? Who should we contact to do this on our own. We cannot afford an attorney? We live in florida.
June 1st, 2009 at 9:04 am
How long has it been? Is the baby already in a home?
June 3rd, 2009 at 11:56 pm
He may have legal rights but the simple fact of the matter is that if the mother did not name him on the birth certificate then he will not only have to find the child but then petition for a paternity test (DNA for both of them) and then convince a court that he should regain custody of the child. All of this will take time, lots of money and lots of luck to convince a Court to overturn or reverse an adoption that has most likely already been finalized and passed through any probationary period. I’m not saying it’s not worth the fight and that your fiance shouldn’t fight if he wants to (and as is his right if he is the child’s father) but it will certainly not be easy. Good luck though with what ever choice you make.
June 7th, 2009 at 1:18 am
Under Florida law, the father only has up until the baby is born to file a claim with the punitive father registry and assert his parental rights, even if he had no knowlege of the pregnancy. Since the child has already been born and placed for adoption, it is unlikely that there’s anything he can do at this point.
This site explins how the registry works, and the laws reguarding the rights of the biological father. (scroll down to the setion “birthfather related”)
June 8th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
You need to get a detective. They can trace people via driver’s licenses and bank accounts.
He can overturn the adoption although in states with those registries, he may have more problems. Suing the mother may get you somewhere.
Those registries are flat-out unconstitutional, but until a case gets to the Supreme Court, there isn’t a lot you can do unless you get a sympathetic judge. You should fight it. Get a second job if you must.