A thought of adopting a child is truly a rewarding voyage, even though, depending on the type of your adoption, it can be time-consuming and taxing too. Even if, anyone goes through an agency, meeting an attorney is essential; which is why, these days, couples interest to bring home a child prefer working with a knowledgeable adoption attorney in The Woodlands. Hiring a trusted well-versed family law attorney focused on adoption practices ensures you to navigate the process in a protected, lawful, and relaxing way. To make sure that the attorney you hire is specialized and equally dependable for adoption, consider asking five questions at the first meeting.
What Are the Different Types of Adoptions You Handle?
Commonly a specialist adoption attorney in The Woodlands is expected to deal with either open or confidential adoptions or in a combination of both types. By asking this question, you can expect the lawyer to focus on his/her preferred types of adoptions that they deal with, whether the lawyer work more with potential adoptive couples/families, or with birth mothers or biological parents, etc. Are the adoptions handled by the attorney is of independent types, traditional non-relative adoptions or they’re also working on step-parent adoptions? With this, you can have an idea of whether the attorney is ideally fit to handle your adoption type as well as their coverage area in adoption cases.
What Kind of Services can I expect From You?
It’s a very vital question that you should ask at the very first meeting with the attorney. Not all family law attorneys are specializing in adoption law, and that is where you will find a difference in their activity areas. For example, some attorneys help the prospective adoptive families with consultancy, meeting both the parties involved in adoption, ask for documents to conclude the adoption. However, when it comes to a background check, they might offer limited service or having a tie-up with some other law offices who will handle the legal portion of the process. Being a prospective adopting couple, it’s is not recommended to work with attorneys who do not offer all inclusive adoption services since that might be vulnerable. Nowadays, adoption process has been a focused area of family law while a dedicated adoption attorney in The Woodlands are solely committed on adoption procedures and help their clients with comprehensive services from the first consultancy to court representation as well addressing future issues, if any.
Can a Biological Mother/Parents Come Back to Claim the Child?
A very scary part of adopting a child experienced by adopting families is the sudden appearance of the biological mother who claims the child back. Logically, this should not happen since adoption is a legal process provided you’ve gone through the detailed legal ways and have adopted the child through a family court. The law has been designed in such a way that for a child to get adopted, the birth mother/ parents should relinquish their legal parental rights.
Working with a dependable adoption attorney in The Woodlands ensures that the child you adopt (even if you’ve identified) is legally free for adopting prior to its legal placement to your home, approved through a family court. The background of the biological parents is duly checked by the attorney as well by authorities and future; they are required to sign the adoption agreement together with the adopting group. This is finally placed before the court, and the process of adoption is thereby approved by a judge. Unless the birth parents change their mind before it’s finalized, they don’t have any legal claim on the child henceforth.
What Are The Different Types of Documents You Require?
Depending on whether you are adopting part or birth parents, an adoption attorney in The Woodlands will require documents like details of your ID, marriage certificate ( if any), birth certificate, medical report, child abuse clearance certificate, criminal background check, character certificate with reference from local public authorities or prominent personalities of the society, your income certificate etc. On the other hand, for birth parents, documents to be submitted are personal ID, reference, marriage certificate (must), birth certificate of the child, discharge certificate of the hospital after the child’s birth, etc. All these documents are cross-checked and verified by a network of adoption authorities, and after clearance, the process is done.
What will be The Expected Cost?
Knowing the budget for adopting the child is essential for you for needed preparation. Let the attorney focus on how much is the average cost of adoption and what will be their professional fees? It can be on per service basis, hourly basis or a flat package rate.
