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Hi, I was just wondering about the cost for the court appointed investigator. About a year ago, I read on a law page that the court appointed investigator could charge anywhere between $50-$700 for the investigation and report. Does anyone know if $700 is the max per investigation, or if it's the max per child? We filed for adoption a little over 6 months ago, but the investigator is waiting to write the report. This is because bio-mom will not consent, but the investigator is on our side, and thinks that it is in the best interest of the kids for them to be adopted. So she is kindly waiting until our Lawyer terminates the parental rights of the bio-mom before she gives a report...For some reason she can not do a report with out consent? At least that is what it seems that she is implying to us.
Well any help is appreciated, thanks in advance!
~Brandee
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According to Family Code 9002:
9002. In a stepparent adoption, the prospective adoptive parent is liable for all reasonable costs incurred in connection with the stepparent adoption, including, but not limited to, costs incurred for the investigation required by Section 9001, up to a maximum of seven hundred dollars ($700). The court, probation officer, qualified court investigator, or county welfare department may defer, waive, or reduce the fee if its payment would cause economic hardship to the prospective adoptive parent detrimental to the welfare of the adopted child.
Looks like 700 is the max for the investigation. Ours was $700 and we had to pay 1/2 of it before the first court date. I am trying to adopt my two step kids and what the cost was $700 total. If you make less than around $50k/year you might be able to get it reduced.
We got our report w/o having to first terminate the parental rights. It recommended the adoption pending the bf rights were terminated. In fact, in our case, her report will be used against the bf in the termination of parental rights because he stated to her he had not seen them in 3 years and he had not done anything to see them. Seems odd that you can't get your report until the termination goes through.
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I think she is just waiting instead of filing it "pending termination" because we had told her that we were going to go ahead and get a lawyer to terminate the rights. She said that way she would just wait until we had figured out what we were going to do, and she would be able to communicate with the lawyer directly, because we gave permission for her to do so. Thank you so much for letting me know, I as well am trying to adopt two step kids, and we make plenty more than 50k, but at the same time don't neccessarily always have $1400 laying around, if it was going to cost that much. We can handle the $700 though, I just wanted to know because we are going through selling our house and buying one all at the same time, so I just wanted to have enough money set aside for when we get billed. Thanks again!
~Brandee
My social worker wrote two reports. One for the termination and one for the adoption.However there was not much differance between the two. I was also told that we could not get a court date for the termination until she filed the report. That report is as important for termination. She or He determines whether or not the are even grounds for the termination. OUt in this county we can not get a court date untill the 700 dollars is paid also. We paid it right away.The sooner we paid off the debt the quicker the process went, however we were never billed for the amount we were just made known about it. I would talk to your lawyer and find out what is going on. He knows of the report.