Author: Abhishek Agarwal
The first step towards an adoption procedure requires prospective parents to file a petition with the court for a formal request to adopt a child; the couple need to give details of personal and professional nature including the child’s birth certificate (or birth particulars e.g. date and place of birth), a legal statement as to why the child's birth parents have terminated their rights among other facts. All this requires the expertise of an adoption lawyer to represent the prospective parents in court, minimize hassles of petition filing etc and to follow a procedure that is most beneficial to their rights.
Especially in the final stages of the adoption procedure, the help of a qualified and experienced adoption lawyer is of utmost importance since this is the individual who will clue in the adoptive parents about how to approach the hearing, which takes place a year from the child being sent to stay with them in their home. While adoption agencies can educate parents about the nitty-gritties of adoption issues, it is mainly the onus of a true adoption lawyer to masterfully handle the legalities of the procedure and ensure the couple in question are granted permanent custody of the child through proper and timely follow-through of various legal procedures and ascertaining all documents are in order.
Adoption lawyers are professionals that play a vital role in ensuring International adoptions follow through smoothly as well since an adoptive child from a foreign country has different liabilities attached to the country's rules and regulations, which can at times, prove to be restrictions that regular parents without the knowledge of legal issues are helpless to deal with or find a solution to. Sometimes, these obstacles include language barriers, which may prevent them from comprehending vital legal issues stated in the adoption documents and a good adoption lawyer with the help of a capable translator can help overcome this challenge of foreign adoption.
In the case of a domestic adoption and more so for international adoption, the role of a good adoption lawyer cannot be emphasized more than the fact that this is the professional who has the ability and experience to understand and document citizenship details, health restrictions, explain and guide clients who are prospective parents on issues of a criminal background check as well as abou their parental rights regarding various types of adoption and related formalities.
Registration, legal rights of the child as well as those of the adoptive parents, termination of the rights of the birth parents, as well as the full scope of the adoption procedure are some of the vital issues adoption lawyers deal with on behalf of the prospective parents besides cluing them in about legal loop-holes and gray areas to avoid in adoption procedures.
Some agencies and NGO's involved solely in the matters of adoption hire their own adoption lawyers to smoothen out the process for their in-house requirements and to minimize hassles associated with adoption to encourage more people to take up this cause for building a family unit; thus, even as their fees may be a bit on the higher side, hiring adoption lawyers is a sure-shot way of staying on top of legal issues.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/parenting-articles/adoption-lawyers-duties-facts-that-prospective-parents-must-know-740289.html
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