Divorce Attorney - Child Abandonment Law in Louisiana

In order to adopt a child in Louisiana, the biological parent’s rights must have been terminated. When the biological parents voluntarily offer their child up for adoption, there is generally no contestation regarding the termination of their parental rights. They voluntarily terminate it. However, when seeking to adopt a child against the biological parents’ will can be much more acrimonious and difficult for a divorce attorney.

Some people may wonder how this can happen. Well let’s look at the most obvious situation. When a couple ends their marriage, one spouse may decide to remarry. Sometimes the new spouse seeks to adopt his spouse’s child from a prior marriage. The biological parent may object to this, and the divorce attorney may have to come in and show why that parent’s rights should be terminated. This is especially true when he or she may have visitation rights. Nonetheless, when a parent abandons a child, that parent loses his parental rights.

For example, Ryan and Luella have ended their marriage with the help of a divorce attorney, though they had one child together. Luella remarried and her child lived with them. Luella’s new husband wants to adopt the child. Ryan has no contact with the child for nearly six years. Ryan made all types of excuses such as medical problems, unemployment, and even a pre-existing protective order in favor of Luella. If a court finds that Ryan lacked communication and support of his child, then his parental rights will be terminated and Luella’s husband will be able to adopt the child. When reviewing adoption cases arising from the trial court, the appellate standard of review is usually manifest error.

The Louisiana Children’s Code asserts that failure to communicate or attempting to communicate with the child without just cause for six months is grounds for dispensing that biological parent’s consent. When offering reasons for non-communication and non-support, a person should always support his claim with documented objective evidence. Simply having a divorce attorney make assertions with nothing more likely will not get you the result you desire.

For example, if you claim you were in the hospital for any length of time, support your claim with documented evidence. If you were unemployed for a period of time, provide some type of evidence. Simply stating these things with no evidence will most likely be viewed as self-serving statements. Your reasons should be truthful and persuasive. Additionally, a court will be able to determine if you made a good faith effort to communicate and support your child.

If you are a biological father and want to keep some form of custody of your child, then you should make every attempt to do such at the child custody hearing. Just abandoning the child and then wanting custody of your child after years or even six months might deprive you of your argument to challenge to your child’s adoption. As acrimonious as it may be, cooperating with your ex-spouse and her divorce attorney in relation to custody matters can be necessary in order for you to maintain the required communications with your child to prevent an adoption.

Will Beaumont’s office is located in New Orleans. This is not legal advice, rather it is only informational.