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Child Support Obligation Extends Beyond Termination of Parental Rights, in Alabama Anyway

By Janet Langjahr

Children are taken into protective custody by the state.

In time, biological parents’ (Parents) parental rights are terminated, freeing Children to potentially be adopted.

So, after their parental rights are terminated, are Parents responsible for child support for Children?

Well, Alabama’s Supreme Court has just ruled that they are.

The Court’s rationale is that parents who abandon, abuse or neglect their biological children should not be rewarded by being relieved of their obligation to support their biological children.

Still, the state’s highest court’s ruling seems to defy logical as well as being counterintuitive.

Taking the ruling to its logical conclusion, does the biological parents’ support obligation continue if the biological children are legally adopted by adoptive parents?

Or, for that matter, do the biological children still have the right to inherit from their biological parents (as well as from their adoptive parents)?

Read more in this Auburn [AL] Plainsman editorial: Our View: Ruling on Child Support Creates Questions, Worry.

Full post as published by Florida Divorce - Child Custody - Domestic Abuse Law on November 08, 2009 (boomark / email).