Does anyone have any advice on stepparent adoption in NC or guidlines for having parental rights taken away?

The biological father of my 3 yo daughter has never seen, supported, or otherwise had anything to do with her. He has been given the opportunity several times and refused. How could I go about having his parental rights taken away and filing the paperwork to allow my husband to adopt her. We live in North Carolina. Any real help would be greatly appreciated.

I do not want to run the risk at this point of him taking an interest in her because he is on drugs and has been abusive to his recent girlfriend (and to me before-I had a restraining order against him). The child is healthy and happy now and I don't want that disturbed. I would like to prove him an unfit father but am unsure of the guidelines to have his rights stripped.

If he has not seen or supported your daughter in more than a year, then you can file for a TPR (terminationn of parental rights) under the abandonment laws.

If you do not know his current whereabouts, then you may be able to publish a public notice in the paper which tells of your intent to have his rights terminated. He will have about thirty days to respond to the notice, if he does not then you can proceed as though he is not contesting the adoption.

You will have to show the court that you took every measure to locate the father, you can use sights such as anywho.com to search for him, call old mutual friends, or family of his if you still have contact with them.

If you do know where he is then you will have to have him served, unless you can get him to sign over his rights willingly. Many parents are willing to sign their rights away when they learn that it releaves their child support obligation.

If he has been in and out of jail, as well as had restraining orders against him, not having contact with the child, nor supporting him, gather your proof together and take him to court you have a good case to get his rights terminated. Check out the link below for more information on stepparent adoption!

Im from Pa, but I'm sure this is pretty standard from state to state nowadays. I would suggest, the easiest method is to have the bio-parent sign over their rights willingly. I would suggest file for child support first and foremost..long before approaching the person on this matter. I say that because, once they are in the heat of paying for the child, and truly don't want to see the child or whatever their deal is. This could be that final peg to motivate them into signing willingly. Remember, visitations has nothing to do with the liability for child support, so even if he never seen the child he is still bound to pay child support.
The only other option is to prove him as an unfit parent. I am not sure exactly how your state defines this, but up here it is common practice that a person can be a jailbird, a the worst homekeeper, and yes even a hooker or drug dealer. But this actually has nothing to do with the price of tea in China. The focus has to be on the Father to child relationship, and it is in here you have to prove him an unfit father.
You really should be talking to a lawyer in Family Law, find out about an absent parent, how that if viewed under the unfit parent.
The fact is, in proving this you are preparing for court, and if he intends to fight an adoption he will be preparing for court also, and looking for stuff to use against you. This is where it all gets messy.
This is why I say, give him a motivating factor ( something he will gain by doing this) and then speak to him about signing over his parental rights. Right now he is off scot free, and the child still bears his name. He is not losing anything so he will not gain anything. He just walked away and is staying away hoping nothing else developes that could cost him ...is my opinion.
So again, child support first, once you begin to get the checks, wait about 4 months then speak to him on this matter, make sure he has time to feel the pain. It would probably be much more successfull if you held out for a year.

It may be easier to prove him an unfit parent who should not have visitation with the child (or supervised visitation at most until his drug problem is resolved) than to terminate his parental rights. You should contact an attorney. If you go to the NC Bar Association, http://www.ncbar.org/public/lrs/index.as... , they provide a free lawyer referral service. You will be charged no more than $30 for a 30 min consultation with an attorney in your county.