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HI My husband and myself are not married but have lived together for 12 yrs. He has a daughter from a previous marriage who is now 14. The daugher has always lived with her dad, and has lived with me fulltime for 12 yrs. Her bio mother has had very little to do with her in these 12 yrs and for 14 months now has not called or contacted her nor paid any support. The bio mother has a court order to pay support but we have not received any money for 14 months. Anyways I am in Nova Scotia Canada and I am wondering if the birthmothers rights can be terminted and I can adopt or at least have legal guardianship of her. Afraid someday something could happen to her dad and I would be devastated if I had no rights to "my" daughter. Please anyone iwho knows any thing about this in Canada let me know, after 2 yrs of no contact can the "bio"'s rights be terminated?
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Actually I have gone to a lawyer about my situation and the advice given was if the father makes a legal will and states that I was to have guardanship to the daughter if something were to happen to him , the "birth" mother would have a very little shot at getting rights to her, for the simple fact that she abandoned her many times for yrs and this last time has been over 2yrs again. In my case the child is old enough to speak and her request would to be with me the mother who has raised her ,although without a legal will by the father things would be much harder.
nydaddyof15 was a little harsh. As far as I'm concerned, she is your daughter but yes only a court order can give you legal rights to make parental decisions. I'm not sure what the Canadian laws of adoption are but most US states, particularly California, require that you are married in order to adopt your stepchild. Just because your husband's will states you as the guardian, the biological mother will still have legal rights to your daughter and can pursue to have physical custody. Your best bet is to terminate her rights in court and legally adopt her. In California, your name will be added to the birth certificate and you will have the same rights as her father and the biological mother will have none and will no longer be required to pay support. I would check with your local Children's Court to pursue this legally without an attorney. The attorney you mentioned is correct to a certain extent but there has to be a court order terminating her rights due to abandonment. Without this, she can take you to court and will have a case if she's given some support. You have to make a determination if this is something you'll expect her to do - especially if your husband will be leaving her something in his will.
crabcakes , I agree I thought he was very harsh, I do realize that the mother needs to have her rights terminated, but i'm told this is VERY hard , maybe our laws are different . I asked the attorney this and he said to terminate her rights would be very difficult, on another hand I don't believe the ** would ever want her, she never has , but then again you never know. My daughter is 15yrs old now so the daughter would make the decision , which would be not to go with her ** if something happened, I guess really in a few yrs she's an adult and she will look after herself. This is just something that I ( and herself and father) always wanted to pursue and I guess I never wanted to be the one to have "taken" her mother from her. The more I think about it, the best thing to do is leave things be , she is once again out of her life for almost 3yrs and gone against the court orders, and I am afraid if I llegally start things it will expose my daughter to this woman she would rather not see. Thanks for your understanding and reply.....Lucky for me she is 15yrs now and I have been her mom since she 2 and that is the most wonderful thing in this whole situation.