Adoption

The court order that makes a child legally the son or daughter of someone other than the birth parents - the kinds of adoption, whose consent is required, how the birth parents' rights end, the home study and the hearing, and what the order changes about inheritance, records and the child's name.

Looking for a lawyer rather than a definition? Skip to the state-by-state list of law firms for this.

What it means

Adoption is a court proceeding, created entirely by statute, that ends the legal relationship between a child and the birth parents and creates a new one with the adoptive parents that is identical in law to a relationship by birth. Every state has its own adoption code, and the code distinguishes the routes: adoption by a step-parent or relative, adoption of a child in foster care after the state has ended the parents' rights, private placement arranged through a licensed agency or directly with a birth parent, and adoption of a child from abroad, which also runs through federal immigration law and, for most countries, the Hague Adoption Convention. Adult adoption exists in most states and is used mainly to formalize a long-standing parental relationship or for inheritance.

The center of every adoption is consent, because a parent's rights are constitutional and cannot be transferred by contract. A birth parent's consent must be in the form the statute prescribes, given after the child's birth (many states impose a waiting period after delivery before a consent is valid), and in most states it becomes irrevocable after a short window or once the court accepts it. Where a parent will not consent, the adoption can proceed only if that parent's rights are first terminated on a statutory ground - abandonment, unfitness, failure to support or to establish a relationship - in a separate hearing with its own notice and proof requirements. An unmarried father's consent is required if he has established paternity or taken the steps his state's putative-father registry or case law requires; a father who has done neither may lose the right to object. A child above an age the statute sets must also consent. Where the child is a member of or eligible for membership in a federally recognized tribe, the Indian Child Welfare Act adds placement preferences, a heightened standard of proof and the tribe's right to intervene.

Before the order the court receives a home study or investigation of the adoptive household and, in agency and foster adoptions, the agency's report; in private placements the statute limits what a birth parent may be paid to reasonable medical, legal and living expenses, and payment beyond that is a crime in every state. The final hearing is usually short. The decree changes the child's legal parentage for every purpose - custody, support, inheritance from and through the adoptive family, the birth certificate, which is reissued with the adoptive parents' names - and, in most states, seals the original records, with access later governed by the state's open-records or mutual-consent rules. A finalized adoption can be set aside only on the narrow grounds the statute allows, such as fraud or a consent that was never valid, and only within a period the statute fixes.

Where this comes from

When people hire a lawyer for this

Step-parent and relative adoptions are often uncontested, but the consent or termination step is where they fail, and an adoption completed over a defective consent is an adoption that can be attacked later. A lawyer is needed whenever a birth parent will not consent or cannot be found, whenever ICWA may apply, in any private placement (the expense rules and the interstate compact for children placed across state lines are both traps), and in intercountry cases, where the immigration steps must be done in the right order. Birth parents considering consent should have independent advice before signing, because the window to change one's mind is short and in most states closes for good.

Worried about the cost? A lawyer can be hired for one part of a case only (limited-scope representation), may be paid from what a claim recovers (contingency fee), or may be free through a pro bono program or legal aid; a court can also waive its own filing fees.

Find a lawyer for this in your state

Choose your state to see Adoption law firms in the city where we list the most; your city may be under “other cities”, A to Z.

• Alabama (Birmingham)
  +1 other city

  • Montgomery
• Alaska (Anchorage)
• Arizona (Chandler)
  +6 other cities

  • Gilbert
  • Glendale
  • Mesa
  • Phoenix
  • Scottsdale
  • Tucson
• Arkansas (Little Rock)
• California (Chula Vista)
  +19 other cities

  • Anaheim
  • Fontana
  • Fremont
  • Fresno
  • Irvine
  • Modesto
  • Oakland
  • Riverside
  • Sacramento
  • San Bernardino
  • San Diego
  • San Francisco
  • and 7 more with fewer listed firms
• Colorado (Colorado Springs)
  +2 other cities

  • Aurora
  • Denver
• Connecticut (Bridgeport)
• Delaware (Wilmington)
• District of Columbia (Washington)
• Florida (Orlando)
  +5 other cities

  • Hialeah
  • Jacksonville
  • Miami
  • St Petersburg
  • Tampa
• Georgia (Atlanta)
• Hawaii (Honolulu)
• Idaho (Boise)
• Illinois (Chicago)
• Indiana (Fort Wayne)
  +1 other city

  • Indianapolis
• Iowa (Des Moines)
• Kansas (Wichita)
• Kentucky (Lexington)
  +1 other city

  • Louisville
• Louisiana (Baton Rouge)
  +2 other cities

  • New Orleans
  • Shreveport
• Maine (Portland)
• Maryland (Baltimore)
• Massachusetts (Boston)
• Michigan (Detroit)
• Minnesota (Minneapolis)
  +1 other city

  • Saint Paul
• Mississippi (Jackson)
• Missouri (St. Louis)
  +1 other city

  • Kansas City
• Montana (Billings)
• Nebraska (Lincoln)
  +1 other city

  • Omaha
• Nevada (Henderson)
  +2 other cities

  • Las Vegas
  • North Las Vegas
• New Hampshire (Manchester)
• New Jersey (Jersey City)
  +1 other city

  • Newark
• New Mexico (Albuquerque)
• New York (Buffalo)
  +2 other cities

  • New York City
  • Rochester
• North Carolina (Charlotte)
  +5 other cities

  • Durham
  • Fayetteville
  • Greensboro
  • Raleigh
  • Winston-Salem
• North Dakota (Fargo)
• Ohio (Cincinnati)
  +3 other cities

  • Cleveland
  • Columbus
  • Toledo
• Oklahoma (Tulsa)
  +1 other city

  • Oklahoma City
• Oregon (Portland)
• Pennsylvania (Philadelphia)
  +1 other city

  • Pittsburgh
• Rhode Island (Providence)
• South Carolina (Columbia)
• South Dakota (Sioux Falls)
• Tennessee (Nashville)
  +1 other city

  • Memphis
• Texas (Houston)
  +12 other cities

  • Arlington
  • Austin
  • Corpus Christi
  • Dallas
  • El Paso
  • Fort Worth
  • Garland
  • Irving
  • Laredo
  • Lubbock
  • Plano
  • San Antonio
• Utah (Salt Lake City)
• Vermont (Burlington)
• Virginia (Chesapeake)
  +3 other cities

  • Norfolk
  • Richmond
  • Virginia Beach
• Washington (Seattle)
  +1 other city

  • Tacoma
• West Virginia (Charleston)
• Wisconsin (Madison)
  +1 other city

  • Milwaukee
• Wyoming (Cheyenne)

Related terms

Other entries in the same area of law, each written from the same primary sources.

• Annulment (Void and Voidable Marriage)A court judgment declaring that a marriage was never valid, as distinct from a divorce that ends a valid one - the difference between a void and a voidable marriage, the grounds each state recognizes, who may bring the case, and what an annulment does to property, support and children.
• Child SupportMoney one parent pays the other toward a child's living costs, set in most cases by a state formula rather than by negotiation.
• Common-Law MarriageA marriage formed without a license or ceremony by living together as spouses and holding yourselves out as married - which states still allow it, what has to be proved, why every state recognizes one validly formed elsewhere, and what it means for property, support and inheritance when the relationship ends.
• Dividing Retirement Accounts in Divorce (QDRO)How pensions, 401(k) plans and IRAs are divided at divorce without tax or penalty - what a qualified domestic relations order is and why a divorce decree alone is not enough, the difference between a defined-benefit and a defined-contribution split, the plans that need a different order, and the mistakes that cost a former spouse the share the decree awarded.
• Establishing PaternityThe legal step that makes a man a child's father in law - and signing the hospital form is one of two routes, not a formality.
• Grandparent and Third-Party VisitationWhen a court can order that a child spend time with a grandparent, step-parent or other non-parent over a parent's objection - the constitutional limit set by the Supreme Court, the circumstances in which state statutes allow a petition, the special weight a fit parent's decision receives, and what a petitioner must prove.
• Grounds for DivorceThe legal basis a divorce is granted on - and in every state today at least one basis requires proving no wrongdoing by anyone.
• Guardian ad Litem and Custody EvaluatorThe two neutrals a court most often appoints in a contested custody case - what a guardian ad litem does and does not do, how it differs from a child's attorney and from a custody evaluator, who pays, what they may see, and how their reports are used at trial.
• Guardianship of a MinorA court order giving an adult who is not the parent legal authority over a child's care, or over the child's property, without ending the parents' rights - how it differs from custody and adoption, who can be appointed, what the parents keep, and how it ends.
• Legal and Physical CustodyTwo different things the word "custody" covers: who makes major decisions for a child, and where the child lives.
• Legal SeparationA court status in which spouses live apart with binding orders on support, property and children, while remaining married.
• Marital Property DivisionHow a court splits what a couple owns - and "equitable" means fair in that state's judgment, which is not the same as half.
• Modifying a Custody or Support OrderChanging an existing family court order - which usually requires proving something has changed, and never happens by the parents' agreement alone.
• Parenting Plan and VisitationThe written schedule and decision-making rules for a child after separation - and the document courts increasingly require rather than invite.
• Prenuptial AgreementA contract made before marriage about property and support - enforceable in every state, and set aside more often than most people expect.
• Protective Order (Restraining Order)A court order telling one person to stop contacting or coming near another - enforceable by police, and valid across state lines.
• Relocating With a ChildMoving a child away from the other parent - the family law dispute most likely to require the court's permission before the move, not after.
• Spousal Support (Alimony)Payments from one former spouse to the other - discretionary in most states, and taxed differently for instruments made after 2018.
• Termination of Parental RightsThe court order that permanently ends the legal relationship between a parent and child - the grounds a state must prove, the heightened standard of proof and right to counsel, the difference between voluntary relinquishment and an involuntary petition, and what the order does and does not end.

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