Stepparent Adoption (2021)
Category: Materials
Member Price: $15
Non-Member Price: $15
Product Code: M110921
Areas of Law: Family
CLE Credits
Faculty
Featured Speaker
Moderator
Presenters
- Donald C. Cofsky, Esq.
- Past President, Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproduction Attorneys
Cofsky & Zeidman LLC, Haddonfield - Robin A. Fleischner, Esq.
- Deputy To the President, Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproduction Attorneys, New York
- Debra E. Guston, Esq.
- Past President, Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproduction Attorneys
Guston & Guston, LLP, Glen Rock - Lauri Steinberg, Esq.
- Fellow, Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproduction Attorneys
Pine & Steinberg, LLC, Summit
Many stepparents provide their stepchildren with love and support and are eager to adopt them. Clients often ask lawyers to handle stepparent adoptions, and attorneys should be aware of the problems and pitfalls they may encounter. Our program features Debra Guston, Adoption Director and Past President of the Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproduction Attorneys. She discusses the issues and steps involved in a stepparent adoption, the mistakes attorneys frequently make, and the problems that can impede an adoption.
Topics for discussion include:
- Qualifications for becoming a stepparent
- Notification of the biological/legal parent
- How notification needs to be done
- What to do if you have difficulty serving/notifying the parent - Is the biological/legal parent named on the child’s birth certificate?
- Requirements for adopting
- Consent of both biological/legal parents
- Situations in which consent of the non-custodial parent is not needed
- The child’s consent
- Proving abandonment or lack of biological connection
- Obtaining permission for termination of parental rights
- Showing abuse and neglect when permission cannot be obtained
- Best interest of the child standard - Forms and paperwork needed for the adoption
- Caselaw relating to stepparent adoptions
- Background checks and home studies