ADOPTIONS
Top Family Law Attorneys
Handling Private and Stepparent
Adoptions in Maryland
An adoption is the rare instance that allows for all parties in a family law matter to leave a courtroom happy. At SmollonLaw, our lawyers help keep the experience a happy one by ensuring that all aspects of the adoption are performed professionally and compassionately. Our lawyers handle private adoptions and stepparent adoptions. We also represent birth mothers and birth fathers when choosing to give the gift of parenthood to others.
Private Adoptions
Private adoptions take place when adoptive parents and birth parents find each other and complete the adoption process without involving an adoption agency. A private adoption can allow for more flexibility, including greater contact between birth and adoptive parents, than adoption through an agency. Private adoptions involve a large number of laws and regulations that must be complied with at all times, including rules regarding adoptive parents’ efforts to find a child to adopt and to what extent birth mothers can be compensated for expenses. At SmollonLaw, our experienced legal team will handle all court filings and compliance issues, allowing your family to focus on the joy of adding a new child to your lives.
Stepparent Adoptions
A stepparent can adopt their spouses’ child from a previous relationship when the birth parent agrees to the adoption by signing a consent or by inaction after being served with a Court Order to explain why the stepparent should not be permitted to adopt the child. Some stepparents also adopt a child following the death of a biological parent. If a biological parent will not agree to an adoption and termination of parental rights we can help you to move forward with the adoption over his or her objection. After a successful adoption, the stepparent is now the legal parent of the child, taking on the same rights and obligations a biological parent would have, including the right to pursue child custody and child access and visitation as well as the obligation to provide child support in the event the marriage ends in divorce.
Representing Birth Mothers and Birth Fathers
Birth mothers and birth fathers sometimes choose to give the gift of parenthood to another, having their children adopted via agency or private adoption. Birth mothers and birth fathers making this choice have a right to legal representation. Our lawyers are experienced in protecting the interests of birth mothers and birth fathers in adoption proceedings.
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