Let Our Adoption Attorneys Help You Complete Your Family
Adoption is life-changing for both children and their adoptive families. It is an experience that should be heartwarming and exciting. The adoption process is guided by laws and regulations from start to finish. Both state laws and federal laws apply to adoptive families and birth parents. Unfortunately, the process can be extremely complex and sometimes a challenge to navigate. Rick Law can help you through the process from start to finish. We enjoy working with families to make the joy of parenthood a reality.
Adoption attorneys are generally lawyers with experience in family law. While we do not locate potential birth parents for clients, we handle the legal process.
The Various Types Of Adoption
Public adoptions are funded by local, state and federal entities. Public agencies arrange meetings between prospective adoptive parents and social workers to try and match children with adoptive families through the process.
Private adoptions occur where the birth parents work through an agency to choose a prospective adoptive parent or parents for their child.
Stepparent or stepchild adoption is the most common type of adoption. Stepparents who adopt their significant other’s child become a legal parent of that child. The parent releasing their rights will no longer have parental rights or responsibilities to pay child support or care for the child. A stepparent must have the consent of both the spouse and the noncustodial parent in order to proceed.
Kinship care occurs when a child enters the public dependency system, through services like Children and Youth. Though the goal is for short-term placement and then return to the child’s birth parents, this doesn’t always happen, unfortunately. The agencies would then attempt to place the child into a kinship care situation, sometimes referred to as foster care, but other times permanent care through a birth family member who may be more adequately prepared to care for the child.
How Do You Know If You Need An Adoption Attorney?
If you are uncertain how to go about adoption, we are a good place to start. Adoption lawyers are knowledgeable as to state and county-specific adoption laws and provide guidance based on your specific situation, whether it be a private adoption, a stepparent adoption, or if you are a same-sex couple wanting to adopt. A lawyer can prepare you for any hearings that are required. Your attorney will represent you in court if there are any legal complications, such as birth parents changing their minds or trying to extort you.
If you are on the other side of the matter where you’re the birth parent and you would like to get your child back in your care, your adoption lawyer will zealously represent you and will be in your corner when going up against the public agencies that removed your child or children from your care. We are here to fight for you.
Contact Our Firm For Assistance
If you are looking to adopt, we will discuss your family’s needs and wishes with you and come up with a course of action. If your child has been removed from your care, we can discuss a plan to get them back and work with you in cooperation with public agencies to make the process as painless as possible. No matter what your legal needs may be, we invite you to contact us to discuss them with an attorney during a free consultation. You can call us at 610-850-9036 or send us a message online.