One of the most challenging situations a family may go through is divorce. It entails a plethora of taxing mental, physical, and monetary difficulties and frequently leads to rifts in families that are irreparable and can endure a lifetime. The possibility of losing your child is one of the divorce’s most terrible components; this anxiety causes stress and annoyance.
Click here to watch the video on What Qualifies A Father To Lose His Rights In Michigan?
Choosing to walk away from a child forever is a life-changing decision for a child. Even though this is a regrettable and depressing outcome in some divorce cases, parents can be ready for it by being knowledgeable of Michigan’s termination of parental rights laws.
The Simple and Popular Process That Will Make You Parents
When talking about being a parent, we are not referring to the biological process of being one. We are referring to the legal process of acquiring the status of parenthood.
Being a woman in our species gives you the unique opportunity to bear a child inside your body and give birth to a baby months after. By virtue of your ability to give birth and actually and literally bring forth a child to this world, you become a mother.
A father on the other hand will sort of earn his way to fatherhood. The simple and popular way to do it is to just be married to the mother of the child at the time of birth.
If you are unmarried, you will have to do any of the following:
- [a] Together with your unmarried partner, fill up a form called Affidavit of Parentage and both of you declare under oath you are the father of the child.
- [b] Any of you or a prosecuting attorney request the court to assist in establishing paternity which in most cases means going through genetic testing followed later by a court hearing.
- [c] Or just go through the process of adopting the child.
Of course being a father, a mother or being parents now endows you with the responsibility of raising and caring for the child. There are healthy advantages of being married if you have children. It signifies you and your partner love each other and have held each other’s hands to commit to a life of service to family, and children. Until one or both of you decide to end the marriage with a divorce.
In Michigan, either of you can initiate the process of divorce. Ending your fatherhood or motherhood, however, is not an option you can use easily. The state has a say of how that process will work for the best interest of the child.
If you don’t want to be a father anymore, you will have to terminate your parental rights. In Michigan, this is not something you do and get back to. Termination of Parental Rights or TPR is not reversible in Michigan.
Let’s take this a little further.
This Will Make You Lose Paternity Rights Guaranteed
There are two ways you can lose your rights as a father in Michigan, by consent or contest and abuse or neglect.
Consent or Contest
One, you have to give your consent in making the child available for adoption so an individual like a guardian or a step parent can legally acquire the right to be the child’s parent and care for the child. Or, someone will contest your right to be a parent which in the law means you not having any contact with your child for two years at least, and you failing to respond to your child’s needs in spite of your ability to do so. In this case, your parental rights in Michigan can be terminated through the Adoption Code.
The Adoption Code governs the termination of parental rights, and it serves the objective of making the child available for adoption. In the case of stepparent adoption, this can either be done with the father’s approval or it can be contested. If there is a dispute, the parent whose rights are being terminated cannot have supported the child despite having the means to do so and have had no contact with the child for two years. The step-parent adoption cannot move forward without consent if these two requirements are not met.
If your child ends up in the care of the state, and you desert your child, it is technically abandonment. You are in essence opening your child up for adoption.
A kid may be considered deserted for one of two reasons: The parent of the child cannot be located, has neglected the child for at least 28 days, and has not sought custody during that period.
Additionally, for a period of at least two years prior to the petition for adoption being filed, the parent failed or neglected to visit, speak with, or communicate in any meaningful way with the child.
Abuse or Neglect
Two, you are charged with abuse or neglect of the child. These charges are initiated by groups of people. In Michigan, this usually means the Department of Health and Human Services or DHHS. This is made possible through the Juvenile Code of Michigan.
Due to child abuse or neglect, the Court may terminate a parent’s rights under the Juvenile Code. Several organizations may file this petition, although the DHHS and the prosecutor’s office do so most frequently. The Juvenile Court will handle the case. In some circumstances, the Court will provide the parent the chance to fix the problem that led to the abuse or neglect; nevertheless, the parents are subject to a number of rigorous rules, court supervision, and deadlines.
You should also take false accusations about child abuse because it can get you in trouble with DHHS and its enforcement arm the Child Protective Services or CPS. Read our articles on, “What Evidence Can Be Used In A Custody Battle In Michigan?” and “How To Deal With False Domestic Abuse Claims In A Michigan Divorce” to defend yourself against the possibility of losing your parental rights.
There are two stages to the hearing to terminate parental rights.
The first step is to ascertain whether the legal reasons for terminating parental rights are supported by clear and persuasive evidence. In the second stage, it is decided whether or not terminating parental rights is in the child’s best interests.
If you are at this moment contemplating ending your parental rights as a father, think very carefully. Think long and think deep. Think even more with someone like your lawyer. Do it together if you can.
The legal connection between a parent and child is permanently, completely, and irrevocably severed when parental rights are terminated (TPR). While other states have laws restoring parental rights, Michigan does not.
Read this: Michigan courts will not restore your parental rights if you give it up. It is irrevocable.
Best interests of the child and statutory grounds are usually the basis for the court’s decision.
Termination may occur at the time of initial disposition or at a later time.
You might ask yourself if somehow there is any difference between just losing custody and losing parental rights.
A parent does not lose their parental rights if the other parent is granted sole legal and/or sole physical custody of their child.
When a parent’s parental rights are revoked, they are no longer in any way legally obligated to the kid, and this cannot be reversed.
First, if a parent loses legal and/or physical custody of their child, they are still obligated to provide for that child.
Second, custody can be modified by demonstrating to the court that there has been a change in circumstances or justification. This is not so with TPR.
The game is over after parental rights have been terminated.
This Will Make You Lose Maternity Rights Too Guaranteed
Now, we always have a soft spot for mothers especially when it has anything to do with keeping them together with their kids. But, mothers can lose their parental rights too just like fathers. Courts are no longer biased towards any gender.
Like what we mentioned here, the decision of the court really revolves on two things: best interests of the child and statutory grounds.
Just like the father, the mother can lose her parental rights if she is charge with child abuse.
Rights shall be terminated if the court establishes child abuse has occurred or is occurring and there is a plausible likelihood a child could suffer further harm if returned to the mother. Accordingly in Michigan, the following behaviors qualify as child abuse:
- Abandoning a child
- A lot of physical violence
- Illicit sexual activity
- Killing or attempting to kill
- Sexual assault
- A potentially fatal injury
All of these are crimes, so in addition to the termination of parental rights, criminal charges might also be brought. A trial will be held in a family court to decide whether or not a kid is in danger, based on evidence that has been shown by the prosecution.
A mother won’t have to support her child anymore if she ceases to be a parent. Once done that’s it.
Only when parental rights are dissolved does a parent’s need to provide support end. A mother who releases her child from wedlock renounces both her parental rights and obligations, according to the Michigan Court of Appeals. That is in the Adoption Code, MCL 710. According to section 29 of the law, a parental support obligation is dissolved.
Just like how a father can have TPR, a mother can also through her action or inaction lead to opening up the child for adoption such as abandonment.
Michigan courts almost always choose to give the parents a chance to settle the matter leading to TPR stage rather than automatically leaning toward the termination of parental rights. However, once the court decides to revoke parental rights, that choice is irrevocable.
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Goldman & Associates Law Firm is here to with information about Child Custody and Divorce in the State of Michigan.