Question about signing over right's?

[Sweetie]

My sister's ex husband is wanting to sign over his rights of their daughter.  He is wanting to do this to keep from paying child support.  He has visitation but has only seen the girl once in 5 months.  Every weekend when he is suppose to have her he comes up with a reason not to get her.  There are months that he does not pay child support or ony pays a small amount of it. He will hold a job because he doesn't want to pay child support and they hold it out of his check.  Can he just sign his right's over to keep from paying child support?  He has I think 5 kids that we know about.  Has nothing to do with any of them but just adopted his wife 2 kids.

[janM]

Child support is not a right. It's an obligation.

Rights can be exercised or not (like parenting time).

Even if he did give up his rights (which I doubt the court would do) he would still owe support.

So unless she has a husband willing to adopt (like dad did...unreal...) and assume dad's responsiblities, he has nothing to gain by it. He should either pay support and zip his lip, or his pants.

[mistoffolees]

>My sister's ex husband is wanting to sign over his rights of
>their daughter.  He is wanting to do this to keep from paying
>child support.  He has visitation but has only seen the girl
>once in 5 months.  Every weekend when he is suppose to have
>her he comes up with a reason not to get her.  There are
>months that he does not pay child support or ony pays a small
>amount of it. He will hold a job because he doesn't want to
>pay child support and they hold it out of his check.  

No. Signing away his rights will not reduce his child support unless someone else adopts the kid(s). Even then, the judge may not grant it.

As for not holding a job, I would make sure that income is imputed to him. At the very least, he should be allocated child support based on minimum wage. If he has  profession, the court may impute a greater amount. While you may not be able to collect it now, if he ever comes into money or starts working again, you can go to court to collect past due amounts.

Furthermore, in some (most? all?) jurisdictions, he can be thrown in jail for not paying support. Given that choice, holding a job might look better to him. At the very least, he won't be fathering any MORE children.