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2 Reasons To Hire A Family Lawyer When Adopting

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One of the most important reasons to hire a family law attorney is in order to make sure that your adoption case proceeds as smoothly and as safely as possible. Listed below are two ways that a family lawyer can help you out with the adoption process.

Investigate Agencies

A family law attorney is a great resource when you are trying to decide on an adoption agency to use as he or she will be able to investigate the agency in order to determine if they are legitimate. This is necessary because there are a lot of potential scam artists out there that will promise to help you adopt a child only to steal your money and disappear. These potential scams are especially common when someone is trying to adopt a child from another country.

One way that an attorney can help you decide on an adoption agency is by investigating any agencies that you are considering. The attorney will look for common red flags, such as a lack of physical address, numerous complaints, high-level staff members with a history of fraud, and a short history of operation.

If any of those issues are present, then your attorney will likely recommend that you avoid the agency. An attorney can also supply you with a list of adoption agencies that he or she has dealt with in prior cases and that he or she is certain are legitimate.

Protect Your Finances

Another way that a family law attorney can help you is to protect your finances in the event of a failed adoption. While not common, there is a risk with a private adoption that the parent or parents will change their minds and choose to keep the child instead of letting you adopt him or her. The issue with this is that by that point you may have already spent a lot of money on pregnancy-related expenses in exchange for the opportunity to adopt the child.

A lawyer can help you in this situation by making sure that you and the birth parent or parents sign a contract laying out the requirements for the adoption. This is very unlikely to get you awarded custody of the child if the parents change their minds, but it can help you sue the parents to get reimbursed for the money you that you spent on pregnancy-related expenses.

Contact a family law firm today to discuss how they can assist you with an adoption process. These types of law firms can help you find a good adoption agency and protect your finances from a failed adoption.


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