Does anyone know if I can get my daughters fathers rights terminated on the fact that he has not seen her or had any contact with her for 2 years and has not paid child support for longer then that. Her stepfather wants to adopt her. We live in Illinois she is only 4 but he has missed half of her life.

Does anyone know if I can get my daughters fathers rights terminated on the fact that he has not seen her or had any contact with her for 2 years and has not paid child support for longer then that. Her stepfather wants to adopt her. We live in Illinois she is only 4 but he has missed half of her life.

First you need to find out if the bio Dad is willing to terminate and allow your husband to adopt:

IF he is willing, it will be very easy to have an attorney draw up the termination and adoption papers. However, if there is a court order for CS he'll still be responsible for paying the arrears.

IF he is willing, but balks because of the arrears responsibilty- you can use that as a bargaining tool (as long as you've never been on public assistance) you can offer to forgive arrears. However, if you were on any public assistance he'll still have to pay the state back for that.

IF he is unwilling, you can remind him that you can have him jailed for non payment of CS- that might help change his mind. If he is still unwilling, you'll have to file a petition to terminate his rights by court order.

IF you don't know where he is you can file a petition to terminate also.

Go see an attorney. you need to locate bio dad and ask him to terminate, and if he is not findable do service by publication, as part of the stepparent adoption process.