Adoption attorneys are necessary to provide the legal services required in adoptions. If you are pursuing an agency adoption, your adoption agency can coordinate attorney services for you, and you will not need to hire adoption attorneys separately.

Adoptive parents who choose to work with an attorney or law firm as their primary adoption professional are pursuing an independent adoption. In this case, the attorney might provide additional adoption services or refer the adoptive parents to other professionals who can provide these services at an additional cost. Regarding many independent adoptions, the foster family and birth parents find each other independently of an adoption professional’s screening and matching services.

In some states, adoption attorneys are not legally able to perform these screening and matching functions. Available services will vary from one adoption attorney or law firm to the next.

Why Work with Adoption Attorneys?

There are various reasons to consider working with an adoption attorney during the adoption process, as well as some problems take into account. Here are top pros and cons to contemplate before choosing to seek an independent adoption with an adoption attorney:

Pros

• Adoption attorneys are required in every phase to reach finalization. They can give expertise in adoption law. They will be able to complete legal work finalizing the adoption. You can guarantee that your legitimate interests and rights are served throughout the adoption method. And that the passage is lawfully sound.
• They may be the only adoption professional required for an independent adoption. If you have already matched with a birth mother, your attorney can help you complete the adoption without an adoption agency or other adoption specialists if you do require additional resources or support. Your attorney should be capable of partnering with an adoption agency or other adoption professionals to give these services.

Cons

• Their charges may differ based on the amount of time it needs to finish the adoption. Adoption attorneys typically do not charge a set fee like an adoption agency. The longer the approval takes to complete, the more work is needed by the adoption agency, meaning the cost of your adoption may rise. It may be challenging for the attorney to give an estimate for the value of the passage at the beginning of the process, and you will not receive a refund if the adoption does not work out.
• They may not provide every necessary service. Your attorney will offer little or no assistance finding a match with birth parents, and you need to work with another adoption professional, like an adoption agency, to match with an expectant mother. If you choose to promote your family separately, you will likely spend more money on less effective advertisement mediums than those that are available to adoption agencies.
• Besides, counseling and support assistance will either be provided by an unlicensed paralegal or outsourced at the adoptive family’s account. The attorney also will not be ready to keep up with post-adoption agreements, such as sending photos and messages to the birth parents, whereas adoption agencies usually have programs in place to regulate these services.

• Communicating with proposed birth parents may be very complicated. Families often must answer initial birth mother calls from their advertisements, as attorneys do not provide matching and screening services. In addition, because law firms lack a social services department skilled in evaluating, educating and guiding expectant mothers through the adoption process, families are usually matched with birth mothers who are not firmly engaged to adoption, are not emotionally prepared and do not know the process, enhancing the chances of the confirmation disrupting. In the initial stages of the adoption process, numerous birth parents may be intimidated to talk to an attorney.

• Adoption attorneys may not always be ready when you need them most, as adoption attorneys are typically busy with other cases. Many large adoption agencies give 24/7 counseling and support and have huge staff prepared to work closely with adoptive families during the adoption process. You may not get these services if you decide to work with a local attorney to seek an independent adoption. Your attorney could be distracted from your approval by other pending approvals or cases and may not offer after-hours or weekend availability.