A common question that clients ask is “can I file for abandonment?” This begs the question, what is filing for abandonment? What people tend to mean is that they want to terminate an absent father’s parental rights because he hasn’t been involved in the child’s life, and the mother wants “sole custody” or “full custody”. But in family court, abandonment is not grounds to terminate a parent’s rights. Parents who have been uninvolved in their child’s life are given an opportunity to reestablish (or establish for the first time) a relationship with the child. It can certainly impact the ultimate time-sharing schedule, and the abandoning parent could end up with limited time-sharing.
Abandonment of a child is grounds for the State of Florida to terminate a parent’s rights in dependency court, or for one parent to terminate the abandoning parent’s rights in an adoption proceeding. Abandonment can be financial or emotional, and that abandonment can occur before or after the child is born. But absent an adoption proceeding, the State of Florida will not simply terminate one parent’s rights and leave a child with only one legal parent, except in the most extreme circumstances.
One more thing to keep in mind – there is also no such thing as abandoning real property that you own or have a marital interest in. Moving out of your shared residence is not an abandonment of your legal rights to the property, period full stop. It may mean that the other party will have a credit due them for certain payments for the property that they paid in full without contribution from you, but that’s just a math problem, not an ownership issue.
If you have questions about family law and divorce, please contact us at Brodzki Jacobs and Associates. 954-344-7737
