questions & answers

Question: I am engaged to be married to the love on my life. She previously had a baby with a man before we met who I absolutely adore and consider her to be my own. His name is not on the birth certificate and he has been absent for the greater majority of her life. There is a child support order but nothing else. Is there any way I could adopt her or get parental rights of her?

Answer: The short answer is yes. However, it would be wise for you and your future spouse to meet with a lawyer (whether a private attorney or a legal aid attorney) to discuss the particulars of her (and her child’s) past and present relationship with the child’s biological father. Under Arizona law (A.R.S. Title 8), the specific methods by which your future spouse may seek to terminate the parental rights of the child’s biological father, and by which you may seek to adopt the child, will depend on a number of factors, whether or not the biological father agrees.