In ruling on the topic of child support, a court might order one or both parents to make payments to cover a child’s living expenses. Basic requirements such as food, shelter, and clothing are included in these costs.

Whether or not a divorce is involved, a child support order is typical in situations when two parents do not live together. The parent with more or complete physical custody — the custodial parent – is usually the one who receives child support payments from the non-custodial parent. Because the child spends most or all of their time with the custodial parent, this parent is already spending money to maintain their child.

What happens to child support responsibilities if a kid is adopted? Even though they have no legal rights to their children, are birth parents still expected to financially support them?

As far as the latter question, the answer is “no,” but we’ll go through the reasons why in more depth below.

Adoption: Terminating Parental Rights

The legal process of transferring the legal rights of birth parents to adoptive parents is known as adoption. In the majority of adoption cases, one or both birth parents choose to relinquish their parental rights. This is an important step in the process of giving those rights to the adoptive parents. When a birth parent’s rights are terminated, he or she loses custody, visitation, and is no longer bound to any duties, including child support payments.

For instance, if a divorced mother remarries and her new spouse wishes to adopt her children as stepchildren, her previous spouse must first consent to have his parental rights revoked. If the former spouse agrees to the adoption, he will lose custody and visitation rights to his children, but he will no longer be responsible for child support payments.

While terminating one’s parental rights can relieve one of child support responsibilities, the courts are not lenient in this regard. Parental rights cannot be deliberately terminated for the purpose of avoiding child support payments.  It can only happen in the case of an adoption, if someone is ready to take on the rights and duties of the person who is relinquishing parental rights.

Child Support and Adoptive Parents

When a person becomes an adoptive parent, they take on all of the legal rights and duties that come with being a parent to a kid. That implies that if their marriage ends in divorce, even adopted parents may be forced to pay child support.

Child Support Is Always Owed If It Isn’t Paid

Child support payments can be tough to come by, especially when one’s income is lower than when support was first ordered. If a judge rejects a request to alter child support, a significant portion of it may go unpaid and become debt. Failure to pay child support is also a crime, thus there are even more serious ramifications.

Parents who relinquish parental rights for adoption are not accountable for future child support payments, but they are still liable for any that were not paid before the adoption.

Child support is an obligation that never goes away.  It’s impossible to get out of it even if you declare bankruptcy. Paying down child support debt is the only way to get rid of it.

Do You Require Legal Help?

Whether you’re attempting to guarantee that your child support obligation ends after your kid is adopted or you need help enforcing child support payments, our attorneys can provide you with the legal assistance you need.

Please call the highly skilled attorneys at Spodek Law Group immediately to learn more about how we can assist you.