Legal Question in Family Law in Washington

My sons biological father has not had contact with him for over a year, I am married now and would like to know what steps I should take to for my husband to adopt my son?


Asked on 3/24/12, 4:14 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys

Amir John Showrai The Pacific Law Firm, PLLC

There are a couple of ways to handle this situation. The easiest and least costly is if your son's biological father is willing to sign a relinquishment of his parental rights. If he does so voluntarily, we can do an agreed upon step-parent adoption that should go through with no problems assuming everyone can pass the appropriate background checks and the social worker assigned to investigate your husband's suitability for adoption has no adverse findings.

The other way is to ask a court to terminate your son's biological father's parental rights as part of a contested adoption petition. So long as the biological father pushes for his rights, the Court is likely to decline to terminate and will likely deny the petition for adoption. However, each case turns on its own facts, so the best thing to do is contact an attorney, sit down, go through everything and then get a better or more detailed idea of what you are facing.

If you like, my office can help you in that regard.

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Answered on 3/25/12, 12:40 am
Gary Preble Preble Law Firm, P.S.

The prior answer sets out the options. Your best course is to see an attorney who handles adoptions.

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Answered on 3/25/13, 1:18 pm


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