Step parent adoption in Louisiana

You will have to check with your local county laws to make sure that you do not need a lawyer. You are going to need your daughter's birth certificate, as well as yours and the man who you wish to adopt her. You will need your marriage certificate from you and her biological father as well as the divorce decree and custody papers. You will also need your current marriage certificate. You are going to need the biological father's permission before an adoption can occur. Having him sign his parental rights away is the fastest and cheapest way to have an adoption done. If he refuses to sign you can still petition to the courts for the adoption, but you will have to prove him as an unfit father. If you do not know where the biological father is you will have to prove to the court that you have done your best to locate him, and then pay for a public notice to be run for about a month, which usually runs a few hundred dollars because of how long it has to run, and how long the notice itself usually is. Most lawyers give a free initial consultation, you can make an appointment with one and discuss your case, as well as what you will need to meet local law requirements without having to pay for the conversation or being obligated to hire the lawyer. We spoke to several lawyers before hiring one. While she turned out to be a pain to deal with, she did get the job done, and that is what is important! We ended up getting a new credit card and putting most of the adoption related expenses on there and paid it off over time, until we had enough money saved up to just pay the balance off completely. Having the peace of mind of a lawyer was definitely worth the money for us!

Hi. I just thought I would offer some advice in addition to stepadoptionblog's.As mentioned you will need to get all the of the paperwork together (birth certificates, marriage licenes, child support order, divorce decrees, etc...) and petition the court. It would also make things much easier if you can get a signed termination of parental rights document.I'm a bit confused by your post. Is your current husband listed on the birth certificate or is the actual birth father listed? It appears that the bfather was not present during your pregnancy (you said your current husband "was there for me my entire pregnancy") and so I presume that you had your current husband (technically the step-father) listed as the birth parent? This complicates things because you have to establish paternity if that is the case. BUT if you were still married to your ex-husband I suppose he would have to be the one on the birth certificate. Typically that's how it works. If you are married and your wife becomes pregnant you are the father (period) unless someone orders a DNA test... that's just how the system works. Ok so anyway I was just confused on that part because it's not clear who is seen as the biological father. If your ex is on the birth certificate then everything is fine. He is in fact the bio, the state sees him as the bio, and he is on the certificate... so no surprises and you could proceed to have him sign a termination document. Otherwise you need to establish paternity before doing anything.The main glaring issue is that you mentioned you are not actually with your current husband in the traditional sense. You two have apparently stayed married for the sake of adoption. The court is not going to like that situation at all and, unfortunately, they would find out. You will need a social study and this will all come out undoubtedly during the interview and subsequent home-visit(s) from the social worker (especially if you don't even live together anymore). They really dig deep to make sure the home life is good. Granted in step-parent adoptions it is much more lax than, say, a CPS or private placement situation but they still check everything and ask a zillion questions and make at least one house visit.If the social worker doesn't give a green light then a judge likely wouldn't grant the adoption.

After making several calls to attys. in my city, and being told that I it would cost me anywhere from$1200 - $1500 for a Step-parent adoption (uncontested); I finally spoke to a very nice paralegal who told me to go to the local libary and look for the forms under the Louisiana Childrens's Code Article 1243(Intrafamily Adoptions), and that I could file the forms myself without an atty. I went to the library and told the librarian about the forms that I was looking for and she took me straight to the book. I copied the forms, they are fill in the blank type forms. So I have re-typed them with all of our names and info. I have contacted Dept of Social Services and found the name of the person who is in charge of reviewing the Adoption Petitions for our Judical Services. She has agreeded to review the forms once I get them signed and notified to make sure there are no errors before I go to file them with Clerk of Court's office. The Clerk of Court charges a $250 file fee. We will sign the papers this weekend and I will file them by next week. If anyone else needs the Step-parent Adoption Forms in Louisiana; go to your local library and ask for this information: West Group Practice Series Louisiana Civil Practice Forms 3rd Edition Author(s): Susan B. Kohn and Denise M. Pilie Then look in the book for: Intrafamily Adoptions The forms for the Intrafamily Adoption is in this book as well as the Release to adoption by birth parent. Try to contact someone at Dept of Social Services to review your forms once you have retyped them with your information before filing with Clerk of Court, because the Clerk of Court's office charges a $250 fee, and if there is 1 error, you will have to correct it and refile forms again for another $250 fee. 11/16/2007

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