If parental rights have been terminated, how does father stop paying child support?

Full question:

In state of Az if father pushed by mother to terminate his rights and he does and he still pays child support how can he have it stopped?

• Category: Minors
• Subcategory: Child Support
• Date: 04/07/2025
• State: Arizona

Answer:

According to Arizona statute, termination of parental rights may be based on any of the following factors, in consideration with the child's best interests:
• the parent has abandoned the child;
• the parent has neglected or willfully abused a child, including serious physical or emotional injury or situations where the parent knew or reasonably should have known a child was being abused or neglected;
• the parent could not satisfy his/her responsibilities because of mental illness or deficiency or a history of chronic drug or alcohol abuse and there are reasonable grounds to believe this behavior will continue;
• the parent is incarcerated due to a felony conviction and the child will be deprived of a normal home for a period of years;
• the potential father failed to file a paternity action as required by statute;
• the putative father failed to file a notice of claim of paternity pursuant to Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 8-106.01;
• the parents have relinquished their parental rights to an agency or have consented to the adoption;
• the child is in out-of-home placement under the supervision of the juvenile court, the department or a child welfare agency, which has made diligent but unsuccessful attempts at reunification, and either:
• the out-of-home placement has been total period of nine months or longer and the parent has substantially neglected or willfully refused to remedy the circumstances that caused the placement; or
• the out-of-home placement has been for a total period of fifteen months or longer, the parent has been unable to remedy the circumstances that caused the placement, and there is a substantial likelihood he/she will not be capable of exercising proper and effective parental care and control in the near future;
• the parent's identity is unknown and continues to remain unknown after 3 months of diligent attempts to identify him/her;
• the parent had his/her parental rights to another child terminated within the preceding two years and is currently unable to discharge parental responsibilities due to the same cause;
• all of the following are true:
• the child in out-of-home placement pursuant to court order;
• the agency responsible for the child's care made diligent efforts to provide reunification services;
• the child, pursuant to court order, was returned to the legal custody of the parent from whom he/she was removed;
• within 18 months after the child was returned, the child was removed from that parent’s custody and is being cared for in out-of-home placement and the parent is currently unable to discharge his/her responsibilities.
Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. §8-533(B).

Many times the parent who voluntarily terminates his or her parental rights will be willing to consent to termination of their parental rights because they will be relieved of child support obligations and any other responsibilities that the law requires as a parent.

If he or she continues VOLUNTARILY to pay child support after termination of rights, he or she is acting without a court order to pay. Therefore, may be able to stop paying voluntarily. However, if a court order to pay exists, then he or she would have to file a motion with the court to terminate the payments on the grounds that all parental rights and obligations were terminated.