There is no question that a child is harmed when a parent fails to pay court-ordered child support. What many don't realize, though, is that failure to comply with child support obligations can also threaten a person's parental rights.

Normally, a biological parent must give consent if the other parent marries and the step-parent wishes to adopt the child. However, this consent requirement is waived if the biological parent has not paid child support for at least one year.

The Ohio Supreme Court recently interpreted this rule in the case of a father who paid child support for several years, but did not meet his obligations in the year preceding the adoption.

Small Gifts Are not "Support"

The case involved an Ohio couple who were divorced in 2000. They had one child. The father was ordered to pay child support of $1,000 per month. He met this obligation until February 2007, at which point he stopped paying support.

The mother remarried in 2001. In September 2008, her new husband filed papers to adopt the child. Although the father contested the adoption, the new husband argued that the father's consent was not necessary, since the father had not kept current with his child support obligations.

In his defense, the father asserted that even though he had not made his court-ordered child support payments, he had provided monetary support for the child. Specifically, he pointed to a $125 gift card he gave to the child at Christmas and $60 in cash he had given her for her birthday. He said that these gifts clearly demonstrated his intent not to abandon his child.

The court disagreed. It held that small gifts don't do anything to preserve a biological parent's rights when a stepparent wishes to adopt a child. What matters is whether the parent is paying court-ordered child support.

If there is one lesson non-custodial parents should take away from this case, it is that nonpayment of child support can have disastrous and unanticipated consequences. If you are having trouble meeting your child support obligations, don't just stop paying. Try to find a way to modify your obligation so that you do not risk losing your parental rights.

Source: The Supreme Court of Ohio, "Natural Parent's Small Monetary Gifts to Child are Not 'Provision of Support and Maintenance' Under Adoption Law," Press Release, Jan. 25, 2012.