Subpoenaed by Publication for Adoption

My question involves adoption law for the State of: Florida/South Carolina


I live in Florida where my daughter was born but her mother has moved with her to South Carolina. Paternity has never been established and she wants me to sign my parental rights over to her husband so he can adopt her and I refused. She said she had me subpoened by publication for the adoption but if that is so...wouldn't she have to establish paternity to prove that I am INDEED the father???

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Quoting JasonsDaddy

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My question involves adoption law for the State of: Florida/South Carolina


I live in Florida where my daughter was born but her mother has moved with her to South Carolina. Paternity has never been established and she wants me to sign my parental rights over to her husband so he can adopt her and I refused. She said she had me subpoened by publication for the adoption but if that is so...wouldn't she have to establish paternity to prove that I am INDEED the father???

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Why haven't you filed in court to establish paternity?

You should do so ASAP.

I can not figure out her address and she refuses to give it to me. She wants to get away with this adoption without my knowledge. I just want to know if she can subpoena me by publication for an adoption without an establishment of paternity?? I want paternity established and I want my rights to my daughter but she has refused since day one, unfortunately when I did know where she was living I did not have the money to take care of all this and now that I do, she is making it very difficult. I have offered my support and she said she didn't want anything from me and ignored my calls. I'm hoping that she does need paternity established that way she can't go through with the adoption because I don't know how to find out if I've been subpoened by publication...I DO NOT WANT THIS ADOPTION TO TAKE PLACE.

I thank everyone for their support...I will take all your advice in your private messages and put it to use.

It's really going to depend. If you choose to try to establish your rights, it will turn into a contested adoption, and it's still possible for mom to prevail.

How old is your daughter?
How much contact have you had with her?
When was the last time you had contact?

That's all going to matter a great deal.

She may be lying to the court and stating that she has no way of locating you.

She's in touch with you... by phone? Have you tried tracking her through her phone number?

Even if paternity has not been established, if you're the father (or may be the father) she would serve you notice of the adoption so you could not later come back, claim paternity, and try to set aside the adoption order.

I have tried for the past year and a half to be in my daughter's life but the mother always had some excuse why she couldn't make time or would completely ignore my calls. She has now moved out of state with her husband. My daughter will be turning 3 in August. I never even knew she existed until she was 14 months old. I've tried finding her through her husband's name, since he is in the military but all's I found was an old address, and her cell phone is still set up through the state of Florida. She refuses to give me her address because she doesn't want me to subpoena her back to Florida for Paternity. But my next question would be, once paternity is established and child support and visitation are taken to court, how will visitation work since I live in Florida, and she lives in South Carolina and could move somewhere else at anytime considering her husband is in the Marines? I understand that it is going to take time to get alone time with my daughter considering I'm a stranger to her. But her mother is completely ignorant and rude, everytime we actually do talk on the phone it ends with her pretty much telling me I will never see my daughter and that I need to "F" off and she hangs up.

Supposedly she subpoened me through publication...can that be done with an adoption? Because I know that it can't be done with paternity, I need to have her physical address to subpoena her. I tried contacting her local courthouse to see if I was indeed subpoened but the clerk said she can not release any information pertaining to an adoption case.

If I have filed with the Putative Father Registry, will she have to establish paternity in order for her to subpoena me for the adoption? I'm hoping so, so that it can stop the whole adoption process because if paternity establishes me the father, I refuse to sign my rights over. She seems to think that since I have another child now that I will do easily sign my rights over to my daughter and it isn't going to happen.

You said that her husband was in the Marines and you know his name. Try working through the Marines to find their address. She may have subpoened you through publication and if you didn't see it you wouldn't know.
If your daughter really means this much to you. Hire an attorney to get your rights to see your daughter. If she is in a military family. They will most likely need to either get your permission to move or notify you that they are moving and keep you informed on where they live.
Please be respectful that the step-father is only hearing one side of the story. He is serving OUR country. I'm sure he loves her just as much as you do and just like you only wants to be a dad to her.
It is in the best interest of your little girl to handle things the right way. Be polite, even if the mother is not, do not speak bad of the mother in front of others, even though I'm sure she speaks poorly of you and most importantly follow the law, even if the mother does not.
Good Luck

I have no problem with her husband. She is my problem, she has lied from day one and kept my daughter from me. Now from what I hear the adoption went through. Now I've talked to a lawyer and they said that she could only really do that if she didn't know where I am, which in her case she does know where I am because I have lived in the same house for the past 15 years. She's getting ready to move with my daughter to Japan and if I don't know her current address I can not file anything. I guess I'm going to have to see if the Marines will help, but I don't really think they are going to give someone's home address out. I know the city and state she lives in, even the area. Can I even do anything still if the adoption has gone through???

You really need to hire an attorney as soon as possible.
If you want to see if she really has been adopted.
There will be a record of the step parent adoption on file in their local court.
If there isn't one, she probably lied.
Keep all of your phone bills that have her number on them and any other correspondence to prove that she did in fact know where you were.
The only way you can make sure that you get to see your daughter is to have the court order a paternity test and move on from there. You are going to need a lawyer for that.
Good Luck!