In Florida, if able and aware of the pregnancy, a birth father who desires to establish and/or protect his rights is expected to pay a fair and reasonable amount of the expenses incurred in connection with the mother’s pregnancy and the child’s birth, in accordance with his financial ability, when not prevented from doing so by the birth mother or others. We attempt to locate and contact birth fathers to see if they will voluntarily cooperate with the adoption and sign a consent or affidavit of nonpaternity. For unmarried biological fathers who are located and will not cooperate, the Florida law has mandates that we serve them with a notice of the birth mother’s intended adoption plan. The notice gives the potential father a period of 30 days within which to indicate his intent to contest the adoption by taking certain specified actions which include that he register with the Putative Father Registry, file an affidavit with the court committing to certain obligations with respect to the child, and provide physical and financial support to the unborn child. If the unmarried biological father fails to timely complete the required actions, we seek a court determination that he has no rights to the child. If the unmarried biological father timely completes the required actions, he preserves his right to notice and his consent to the adoption is required as if he had been married to the birth mother or was otherwise established to be the child’s legal father. In such cases, his failure to provide financial support to the birth mother during her pregnancy remains a basis for the court to waive his consent and the judge will determine if he provided the pre-birth support necessary to veto an adoption. All placements are at-risk. This means you may have to return the child should termination or finalization be denied by the court. Additionally, birth parents and legal parents have a period of 1 year to challenge termination of parental rights and any subsequent adoption, measured from the time the termination of parental rights order is entered. Arguments may be made to extend these time frames if there is fraud or other misconduct.