Mississippi Petition for Termination of Parental Rights
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FAQ
You may voluntarily give up your parental rights if someone else wants to adopt the child, or if someone else has filed a petition to terminate your rights. You will typically need to go to a court hearing to let the judge know your wishes in person.
Desertion or abandonment of the child by the parent; Contact not having been made with the child for a significant period of time (at least six months for a child younger than three years old or at least one year for a child three years old or older);
Absent parent: If a parent has been absent for 6 months or more, the law allows the other, more responsible parent, to petition to terminate parental rights. Not just parents can terminate: in fact, anyone with an interest in the well-being of a child can attempt to terminate one or both parents' rights.
Parental rights can be terminated voluntarily by the parent(s) to allow an agency, independent, or stepparent adopfffdon to take place. Parental rights may also be terminated involuntarily when the court finds one or both parents to be unfit.
To terminate parental rights, a person, agency or institution must file a request in the chancery court of the county where the child lives. The mother, legal father and biological father become parties in the action, and the court appoints a guardian to oversee the child's interests temporarily.
How Can an Absent Parent's Legal Rights be Terminated? In order to terminate their rights, a petition to terminate an absent parent's parental rights will need to be filed in family court. The judge will then proceed to review the case and the circumstances and determine whether parental rights should be terminated.
As such, the termination of parental rights is very rare. While you may feel that your deadbeat ex isn't worthy of the privilege of time with your child, the courts look on the matter differently, taking a child's needs and well-being into account over a parent's personal grievances.
Child abandonment occurs when a parent, guardian, or person in charge of a child either deserts a child without any regard for the child's physical health, safety or welfare and with the intention of wholly abandoning the child, or in some instances, fails to provide necessary care for a child living under their roof.
Desertion or abandonment of the child by the parent; Contact not having been made with the child for a significant period of time (at least six months for a child younger than three years old or at least one year for a child three years old or older);