Losing Child Custody in North Carolina: Laws & Conditions

Photo byFamily Law Firm | Wilmington, NC

Navigating child custody cases can be complex, whether it involves high-profile battles or typical divorce proceedings.

In North Carolina, several laws guide custody cases and stipulate the conditions under which parental rights can be terminated.

Here’s an overview of child custody laws in the state and the circumstances that can lead to the loss of parental rights:

How Can You Lose Custody of Your Child in North Carolina?

Parental rights can be terminated under multiple conditions, according to North Carolina statutes:

• Abuse or Neglect: If a parent has abused or neglected their child.
• Incapability: If a parent is found incapable of providing proper care due to substance abuse, intellectual disability, mental illness, organic brain syndrome, or any other condition rendering the parent unable or unavailable to care for the child. There must be a reasonable probability that this incapability will continue.
• Criminal Convictions: Convictions for certain crimes, such as the murder or voluntary manslaughter of another child or a child residing in the home, or certain sex crimes that resulted in the conception of the juvenile.
• Previous Terminations: If a parent's rights to another child have been terminated involuntarily and they lack the ability or willingness to establish a safe home.
• Foster Care: Willful failure to make reasonable progress in correcting conditions that led to the child's placement in foster care for over 12 months.
• Financial Neglect: Willful failure to pay a reasonable portion of the cost of care for a child in custody or foster care for at least six months, despite being physically and financially able.
• Abandonment: Willful abandonment of the juvenile for at least six consecutive months, or voluntary abandonment of an infant for at least 60 consecutive days.

It is important to note that parental rights cannot be terminated solely because the parents are unable to care for the child due to poverty.

Specific Conditions:

• If one parent has been awarded custody and the other parent has willfully failed to support the child for at least one year.
• The father of a juvenile born out of wedlock may lose parental rights if he fails to file an affidavit of paternity, provide substantial support, or establish paternity under state laws.

What Are the North Carolina Child Custody Laws?

Under North Carolina law, child custody includes the right to make major life decisions for the child and the right to have the child in your care:

• Legal Custody: The right to make major decisions about the child's life, such as education and medical care.
• Physical Custody: The right to have the child in your physical care, either full-time or part-time. Both legal and physical custody can be shared (joint custody) or held solely by one parent (sole custody).

Visitation: Defined as a secondary form of custody, allowing the non-custodial parent to visit the child at times set forth in a court order.

Custody Orders:

• Parents are not required to obtain a custody order but may choose to do so to formalize agreements about the child's care. Without a custody order, both legal parents have equal rights to the child.
• Either parent can be awarded custody depending on the family's circumstances. Custody decisions are based on the child's best interests, not on the payment of child support.

For more information and answers to frequently asked questions, visit North Carolina Judicial Branch - Child Custody.