Question:
I am not married but have been in a serious relationship for 3 years. We have a 17 month old daughter.
My girlfriend has had a another relationship for the last 6 months she has been with me. She is now trying to be with me once again.
All I am interested in is making sure she cannot bring our daughter into something like this again, which she had brought our daughter into these relationships before, and even used her to get the attention of these other guys.
I got her to agree to Voluntary Termination of her parental rights. How do I go about taking care of this?
I want to jump on the ball before she changes her mind. With this I can still give our family another chance but not have to worry about her making the same decisions and taking out daughter away from me in the process.
Answer:
Allow me to preface my answer to your question with the disclaimer that I am not licensed to practice law in the state of Washington. At this point, you are not the legal father under any Court Order, based upon the information you have provided. With that assumption, I would say that you need to file for Paternity and Custody. Within that action ask that her rights be terminated. Each jurisdiction has very different rules regarding how to terminate parental rights, so I suggest you speak to an attorney immediately.
