Adoption/Termination of Parental Rights

Adopting a child or adolescent can be the most rewarding experience of your life. The process by which an adoption takes place requires several steps. If you are trying to adopt your spouse’s child then the parental rights of the biological father or mother must first be terminated in an action for the “termination of parental rights”. If you intend to adopt a child and the biological parents of that child consent to your adoption, then the process for terminating the parental rights and the adoption can proceed more smoothly. The adoptive parents will need to be certified for the adoption and a home study will need to be conducted.

You may have heard such terms as “open adoption” and “closed adoption”. An open adoption is one in which the birth mother and, commonly, the birth father know something about the adoptive parents. The birth parents and adoptive parents may even exchange photographs and, to some level, may even maintain some contact with the child. A closed adoption is one in which the birth mother and the adoptive parents probably never meet each other or know each other’s names. There is no contact between the birth parents and adoptive parents. For a consultation, please contact us.