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I can tell you that in the Richard case and the Jessica case, the fault, (as I'm told by an adoption attorney), was due to the attorney NOT following ALL procedure in the termination of unknown fathers. It's still done, I'm told.....that when some attorneys go to TPR of the birthfather......they assume it's done 'automatically'. Also, there isn't that extra part to terminate 'any and all unknown birthfathers'. Without this, I'm told, there's always a loophole. Now, while I can respect that a birthfather could come forward and claim a child.....there's been a huge debate (here) a couple of years ago concerning the idea of 'how far does the agency/acouple have to go to pursue a possible birthfather'? It could become endless, of course. For someone to outright lie is one thing, but let's face it, some birthmothers have no clue who the birthfather could be. How long does the court have to wait until one's found? And, then, there's always the arguement that if a man's had sex with a lady where a possible pregnancy could exist, is it his responsibility to file his name with the putative father's registry within that state? So, I'm told...when there is doubt........an attorney in most states is allowed to publish a notice for several weeks as to the 'father and any unknown fathers'.....but also to file paperwork in court to terminate 'any and all unknown fathers of baby XX, born on XXX', etc. With this in place, unless some sort of fraud can be shown, and the possible birthfather who might have come forward could prove he really tried to find the birthmother and/or supported her during the pregnancy (in many states both emotionally and financially).......it's very hard to reverse an adoption that's already been finalized. And, as I understand it, with the Baby Richard case, the bio couple ended up divorcing and I believe the birthfather had been up on charges of physical abuse. IMO...what a shame this child was lifted from the only parents he'd known....and ended up with all of that too...... (sigh) Sincerely, Linny
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I may be wrong, but I think the legal precedent setting case of the only finalized adoption case overturned was in Michigan.It was not overturned by the parent's, but by relatives that had been ignored in another county. The relatives have the girls now after the adoptive parents had them for close to 2 years. The aps were named Smith from Dewitt, Michigan.I will look for a link.
benhenny
and Evan Parker Scott - this one made national news a few years ago - having to do with the bfather returning to claim custody and the bmother objecting to the bfather's custody, so she sued for custody and won. This one's a real heartbreaker. [url=http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=News&id=2543722]ABC7Chicago.com: Adoptive parents ordered to give up toddler[/url]
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on the point about termination of bfather rights, a friend of mine is going through this in California. The attorney told her it could in theory be a neverending process because they have to publish, and hire a search company etc then submit to the courts. If the courts dont feel like they have done due diligence they must continue until the court is satsified. Once the bfather is identified though he has 30 days to respond or his rights are terminated. To me it seems this process, though long, might stop cases like those mentioned above where bfathers either are unaware of a child or have been lied to. gina.
In our case, the named birthfather was husband of birthmother although they were not together and the child definitely wasn't his. Our agency did TPR of his rights and also advertised for unknown birthfather to cover all bases. The advertising part took about 3 months. Obviously no one came forward and we're nearing finalization hopefully within the next month. It's good to be smart about the choices you're making, but also remember that 1000's of kids are adopted and never have any problems with biological parents trying to reclaim them.
It's frustrating. Texas has a fathers' registry, but simply not signing up for it will not terminate a father's rights. The laws also read that a bfather must provide emotional and financial support to the bmom during pregnancy and support the child afterward in order to be considered the father. But, our attorney said that is not enough. Our bfather took off when he found out about TJ offering no support at all to the bmom, nor did he sign the registry. But, we have spent copious amounts of time (and money) searching for someone who doesn't want to be found. Publishing alone cost us $2500. We think we have located him and the attorney we had to hire on his behalf (that still kills me) has made contact but he has not responded. So, he still has the right to walk back in and try to get custody. The whole process still amazes me. But as someone said earlier, 1000's of adoptions happen yearly w/o so much as a hiccup. We only hear the horror stories
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How are the laws changing in Illinois? This is whats happening in out situation--father was named- angency goes thru their typical search avenues, according to this he doesn't exist. So- After birth, attorney runs legal notices for 30 days, and father rigstry for 30 days.Is there anything else?
I think every adoptive parent has that thought:) But, we as parents (unlike the court system it seems) truly do have our child's best interest at heart and it seems unlikely that a life on the run would be in a child's best interest. Of course, this depends on the person gaining custody. It's funny, I always think of TJ's bfather as this evil man who will someday come and try to take my baby when in reality, he was probably just a very scared young man who will be happy to know that TJ is in a loving home. I wrestle with these thougts every day and God is helping me to find some peace. I won't be completely at peace until we are final.
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