No custody order in place because the baby was just born mother has the baby for 10 days and will hide Him another 10 days. Because “both parents have equal right to custody”. But what if I took the baby and hid the baby for 10 or 20 days? Would that be OK hmm... I don’t think so.
[+]AEHIILRS3 points [recovered] (15 children) | Copy Link
Curious if someone in this scenario could sue for violation of their equal rights to access the "Safe Haven" abandonment process. Further, does police complicity in this violation constitute racketeering, due to their foreseeable enrichment via the money extracted by child support?
[–]tenchineuro 2 points3 points4 points (14 children) | Copy Link
[+]AEHIILRS1 points [recovered] (13 children) | Copy Link
Curious how it would go if you just went in to file the paperwork, absolving yourself of all rights and responsibilities, but had no newborn on hand.
[–]tenchineuro 1 point2 points3 points (12 children) | Copy Link
[+]AEHIILRS1 points [recovered] (11 children) | Copy Link
There is usually no required paperwork, but there may be optional paperwork that the would-be abandoner can fill out. I'd expect you to be able to obtain some sort of record acknowledging that you attempted to access the provided Legal Parental Surrender process to terminate your legal rights and responsibilities.
You probably still end up in the shakedown, of course, but it could be an interesting court case.
[–]tenchineuro 1 point2 points3 points (10 children) | Copy Link
[+]AEHIILRS1 points [recovered] (9 children) | Copy Link
There is no required paperwork, yes; the process can literally be "no questions asked" (or no questions answered, anyway).
While every state has a "Safe Haven" abandonment statute, they are not identical in wording, policy, or practice. It may be the case in your jurisdiction that they give the abandoner a tracking number and "that's it". In most of the statutes I've read, the receiver may request (but not require) various vital statistics and/or the abandoner may (but not shall) provide them.
Since the purpose of the exercise is to establish a paper trail that a father has performed all applicable steps of Legal Parental Surrender, that in theory a mother could drop the unwanted child off with considerably less hassle isn't especially relevant.
[–]tenchineuro 1 point2 points3 points (8 children) | Copy Link
[+]AEHIILRS1 points [recovered] (7 children) | Copy Link
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Jurisdiction shopping is an option, due to the various differences in statutes.
District of Columbia is interesting as termination of parental rights/responsibility is mechanical at the moment of surrender, rather than upon some notification filed by the reciever. So, it leads to a situation where a couple could go in, one surrenders the child, the other immediately objects and gets the child back, then they go on their separate merry ways. But, by statute, the first parent has legally terminated their rights and responsibilities.
[–]tenchineuro 0 points1 point2 points (6 children) | Copy Link
[–]jinladen040 0 points1 point2 points (0 children) | Copy Link