2013 Mississippi Code
Title 93 - DOMESTIC RELATIONS
Chapter 15 - TERMINATION OF RIGHTS OF UNFIT PARENTS
§ 93-15-105 - Petition for termination of parental rights; setting cause for hearing; service of process; determination of rights of father of child born out of wedlock in certain cases; waiver of 30-day service in adoptions of children from foreign countries

(1) Any person, agency or institution may file for termination of parental rights in the chancery court or the family or county court sitting as the youth court of the county in which a defendant or the child resides, or in the county where an agency or institution holding custody of the child is located. The chancery court, or the chancellor in vacation, or the family court, or the family court judge in vacation, or the county court when sitting as the youth court, or such county court judge in vacation, may set the cause for hearing in termtime or in vacation. The petition shall be triable either in termtime or in vacation, thirty (30) days after personal service of process, and in case of nonresident defendants, or defendants whose addresses are unknown after diligent search, thirty (30) days after completion of publication; such publication to be otherwise as provided in the Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure.

(2) In all cases involving termination of parental rights, minor parents may be served with process as an adult.

(3) In the event that one (1) parent voluntarily releases his child for adoption, a copy of the summons served on the child shall not be required to be served on the releasing parent.

(4) In an appropriate case, determination of the rights of the father of a child born out of wedlock may be made in proceedings pursuant to a petition for determination of rights as provided in Section 93-17-6.

(5) In the event that an adoptive child was born in a foreign country, the child was put up for adoption in the birth country, and the child has been legally admitted into this country, the thirty (30) days' service of process required by subsection (1) of this section, whether by personal service or publication, may be waived by the controlling court.