Attorney and Counselor at Law





Law Office of Jeffery S. Brown

PRIVATE ADOPTION

​Adoption is an important and permanent decision. Private Adoption is when you choose to build your family through adoption without using an agency  for placement. In a private adoption, the birth parents relinquish their parental rights directly to the adoptive parents, instead of to an agency. 

Private adoptions allow both the birth parents and the adoptive parents more choices in choosing each other. Birth parents may choose the adoptive parents or ask the attorney handling the adoption to assist them.  In many situations, it allows you to meet and get to know each other prior to placement.


Birth and adoptive parents can request the level of contact they have with one another before and after the adoptive placement occurs. There are several levels of contact.  A closed adoption is where the birth parents and the adoptive parents have no contact at all.  A semi-open adoption is where the adoptive parents send photos and updates to the birth parents, usually once or twice a year. An open adoption is where the birth parents and the adoptive parents keep in physical contact with each other so that the child will know the birth parents to the extent of whatever is agreed upon.


A birth parent may legally consent to his/her child's adoption no sooner than 72 hours after the child's birth.  A period of six months of post adoption follow-up home visits with the adoptive family and child are required by law in order to finalize the adoption.


Following an adoption, a new birth certificate is issued for the child, recording any change in the name and listing the adoptive parents as the child's natural parents.

To learn more about adoption, contact us today. 440-322-5522