Biological father abandoned his opportunity interest in developing parent‑child relationship with child born out‑of‑wedlock, such that granting of his petition for legitimation of child was abuse of discretion; father waited more than four years after conclusively learning that child was his daughter before deciding that he would like to have parent‑child relationship with her and filing petition, there was no evidence that any action by child’s mother or mother’s family prevented him from filing petition earlier, and his own voluntary commission of criminal acts resulted in 18 months of incarceration and residential drug treatment during which he was purportedly unable to contact mother.
Laura Morgan is a Family Law Consultant. Laura is available for consultation, brief writing and research on family law issues throughout the country. She can be reached through her website. www.famlawconsult.com
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