EKB News

Although parents who relinquish their parental rights argue their responsibility to pay child support has ended when their parental rights were terminated, the West Virginia Supreme Court ruled this week that it disagrees. The high court says, "Child support obligations are not only responsibilities parents owe to their children, they are also rights which belong to children." Those who disagree with the court's decision point to a 2006 amendment to state law in which the language "guardianship rights and/or responsibilities" was changed to read "guardianship rights and responsibilities." The court says, however, the state's child welfare law clearly shows lawmakers' primary interest is to assure the best interests of the child, and,if it was intended that parents obligations be eliminated, justices would have done more than remove the word "or" from West Virginia Code.