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I am so glad I found this forum, but very sad to read about so many parents missing out on their kids lives but refuse to release their parental rights...... I am wondering, has anyone tried to push for a contested step parent adoption without there being a year or more of no contact? It seems like in a lot of cases such as these, you need to try and prove abandonment, but the lawyers I have spoken to make it seem like no judge will even hear your case if there hasn't been a year or more of no contact AND a year or more of no financial support. But I have yet to find a lawyer that ACTUALLY HAS tried a contested step parent adoption, it doesn't seem to be a common practice around here. Any tries or successes from anyone? Thanks!
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We did win a termination of parental rights that was partially contested. I say partially because, while she did protest strongly when contacted by the investigator, she did not show to court. However, this was after almost 7 years of no contact or support. It is my understanding that the standard of one year of no support or contact is absolute in California and that you are not even eligible to submit a petition unless that standard has been met. The advice you have been receiving is correct. Without that, it's not "contested", it's just not eligible to proceed.
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Thank you for the response, this whole "1 year no contact" thing is really upsetting...... I got to 11 months no contact and then BAM, there she was wanting to to see the child because it was the holidays......and then she disappeared for another 2 months but my husband decided to be proactive and filled for supervised visitation at that point because the child is special needs and it was very upsetting to the child to have this person show up and push herself on him when he had no memory of her......so the order was made into judgement and there has been no visitation for 9 months now so I'm sure history will repeat itself again right around that same holiday.....