Blog Layout
What You Need to Know About the Adoption Process
A family law attorney can help you navigate the process of adopting a child.
Every child deserves to grow up in a safe and loving home, and adoption helps make that possible. Perhaps, you’ve decided to open your heart and your home to a child. Now what?
CONTACT US
A family law attorney can help you navigate the process of adopting a child, but here are some of the basics from the experienced adoption attorneys at Bingaman Hess.
What is Adoption?
Adoption is the act of a person (typically an adult) formally becoming the legal guardian of another person (usually a child) and taking on all of the rights and responsibilities of a parent. The adopted person (adoptee) becomes the legal heir of the person who adopted them (adopter) and terminates any legal rights with the natural parents.
The adoption can be made through an agency – public or private - or through independent contact with the biological parents.
There are two types of adoptions – open and closed. With a closed adoption, the birth parents and adoptive parents never meet or exchange information, and the birth parents relinquish all rights over the child. An open adoption allows the birth parents and the adoptive parents to have contact before and/or after the adoption and sometimes allows for visitation and contact rights.
While just a few decades ago, closed adoptions were more common, 90% of today’s adoptions are considered open adoptions. According to American Adoptions, the increased transparency, information, and communication of an open adoption is often beneficial to everyone.
Every open adoption is different, ranging from semi-open to fully open. Information that may or may not be shared includes the first names of the birth and adoptive parents, the medical history of the birth parents, and contact information for birth and adoptive parents. Visits with the birth parents may or may not allowed in an open adoption.
Who Can Adopt?
The U.S. Constitution does not give every citizen the right to adopt. Individual states can limit who is permitted to adopt. Pennsylvania - one of the least restrictive states when it comes to who can legally adopt - allows any person to adopt or be adopted. If the person being adopted is twelve or older, his or her consent is required for the adoption. In certain circumstances, a minor may even adopt another minor, which is most common when one sibling adopts another sibling.
In the majority of adoptions in Pennsylvania, the birth parents must consent to the adoption unless it is determined that the birth parents are unable to care for the child properly.
The Adoption Process
Adoption begins with the termination of the parental rights of the adoptee’s biological parents, which permanently ends all legal parental rights of the birth parent. This can be voluntary or involuntary. In Pennsylvania, if the birth mother voluntarily terminates her rights, she has thirty days to change her mind and take the child back.
If the biological parents do not want to terminate their parental rights, they have an opportunity to speak to the court, and the petitioner must provide evidence that the adoption is in the child’s best interest.
Once that the parental rights of the biological parents are terminated, the person who wants to adopt petitions the court to grant the adoption. They have to prove that they are suitable to become adoptive parents. The state adoption agency conducts an investigation and provides a report and recommendation to the court.
These reports include detailed information, including the petitioner’s religious background, financial status, criminal history, moral fitness, and more. The court can accept or reject the agency’s recommendation.
How Can an Attorney Assist in an Adoption?
There are many laws surrounding the adoption process, many decisions need to be made, and many legal documents that need to be created and signed. An attorney experienced in adoption law can help ensure that the process goes as quickly and as smoothly as possible.
Give us a call at 610.374.8377
or find us online
to discover how the experienced and compassionate family law attorneys at Bingaman Hess can help.
News & Information
Discover What Probate is, the Probate Process, And Times That Probate is Not Required.
The Law And Civil Litigation is Complex; Here Are Some Legal Terms You May Encounter if You're Involved in Civil Litigation.
The Basic Purpose of the PA Sunshine Act is to Prevent Government Agencies From Making Decisions Without The Knowledge of And Input From The Public.
How do Mergers and Acquisitions work? Learn all about M&A law with the help of Bingaman Hess - your trusted Pennsylvania law firm.
Corporations can safeguard their future by prioritizing corporate compliance. Here is a description of common legal obligations and key compliance strategies.
Learn about about corporate governance and its role in long-term business success.
Eminent Domain Gives Governments The Power to Seize Private Property, But Those Powers Have Limitations, And Property Owners Have Rights.
For Many, a Will is Sufficient. But a Living Trust, Which is More Expensive but Can Bypass Probate and More, May Be Beneficial for Some.
Real Estate Asset Protection Helps Protect Your Real Estate And Other Business And Personal Assets From Lawsuit Judgements And Creditors.
Cause of Action is The Reason The Person Filing a Claim (The Plaintiff) Believes They Are Entitled to Compensation From Someone Else (The Defendant). Learn How it Works.
Contact Us Today
Sound legal advice is based on years of training, hard work, and passion, as well as familiarity with legislation and precedent and sound consideration. You’ll find all that and more at Bingaman Hess.
We have been providing expert legal advice to clients for more than 60 years.
Serving Berks, Lehigh, Northampton, Bucks, Montgomery, Philadelphia, Chester, Delaware, Lancaster, Lebanon, Dauphin, Schuylkill, York, Carbon, Luzerne, Monroe, Columbia and Northumberland counties
The Bingaman Hess web site is intended to provide information (not advice) about the firm, its lawyers and new legal developments. Visitors to this web site should not act upon this information without consulting with legal counsel. Transmission and receipt of materials provided by Bingaman Hess's web site is not intended to and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Please be further advised that the act of sending e-mail to an attorney at Bingaman Hess will not create an attorney-client relationship. If you are not currently a client of Bingaman Hess your e-mail will not be privileged and may be disclosed to other persons. This web site is not intended to be advertising and Bingaman Hess does not wish to represent anyone desiring representation based upon viewing this web site in a state where this web site fails to comply with all laws and ethical rules of that state. This web site is meant to be informational only, consistent with our profession's obligation to help inform not only our clients but to cultivate knowledge of the law in the public in general.