Attorneys Can Help Ease Adoption Process for Parents
BY MEGHAN WALSH | CLEVELAND JEWISH NEWS
Adoptive parents often have a great deal of steps they need to take before legally calling a child their own. Many of these steps involve family court, so they need the assistance of an attorney who specializes in adoption.
Carly Boyd, partner at KJK in Cleveland, and Silas Pisani, attorney at Slater & Zurz LLP in Cleveland, discussed how attorneys help adoptive parents navigate the legal process of adoption.
“The parents should hire an attorney who specializes in adoption or family law because adoption is state-by-state; it’s different within the county and so you need to have an attorney who does this regularly and who can understand the process,” Boyd advised.
Because adoption entails a lot of paperwork, having an attorney who works with that regularly is wise, she noted.
When meeting with an attorney, adoptive parents should ask about the timeline, costs and legal requirements, especially in a stepparent adoption.
“The (step) parent and their spouse have to be married and they have to be married for a year,” she said.
Many people think their new spouse is going to adopt their child, but they don’t meet certain requirements and then get disappointed, Boyd noted.
Read the full article, as published on CJN’s website, here.