Tue 29 Jul 2008
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First off, adoption lawyers are there to represent and protect the interests of couples who are going through the adoption process. All too often couples who are not represented and end up losing their savings because they have not employed an adoption lawyer to represent them in an effort to save some money. It is quite common for birth mothers or their agents to request a financial sum in advance but this is less likely to happen if the adoptive parents have their adoption lawyer with them.
It is always good to start as you mean to continue so at the first meeting, ensure your adoption lawyer is with you who can discuss general arrangements, the adoption process and inform the donor or agent that no money will be changing hands at this point. This can stop the most common deception carried out on adoptive parents of handing over cash to the baby’s or child’s agent (or mother) because they need it for legal fees. Then it is just a matter of having the donor supply details of their attorney so the adoption lawyer can contact him or her directly to ascertain if this is a genuine request.
It is important to remember that the responsibility for obtaining legal help for the birth mother is not that of the adoptive parents. In order to ensure fair play on the part of the birth mother, the adoption lawyer will request contact details for her including a real address where she can be contacted. Your legal representative will advise against sending out money so the birth mother can make travel arrangements as it is very easy to cash these tickets in and would be virtually untraceable.
Proof of pregnancy will be required by the adoptive couple to ensure that the whole process is legitimate. Have these plus any other documents investigated by professionals and even insist that the inspecting professional get into contact with the author of the documents. If the mailing of documents and information is continually delayed, or excuses are made when the items haven’t arrived then it is probably time to scrutinize the situation with your adoption lawyer a little more carefully.
Adoption scammers often contact a number of couples simultaneously usually on behalf of a third party who is looking to have her child adopted but the purpose is to take money from the couples so another purpose of proper legal representation is to ensure this type of thing doesn’t happen. To avoid this type of deception, have your adoption lawyer inquire about contact with the actual birth mother and if this request is denied from the onset, avoid it at all costs.
If proceedings do continue at this point it is important to make sure that the mother who wants her baby adopted is the not the person contacting many couples. An adoption lawyer will find a deception such as this easy to check on as there will be similar phone numbers and email addresses etc.
There will obviously be a cost to retaining an adoption lawyer but it will be well worth it if you are able to go through the adoption process without any problems. It is often hard to not get emotional at a time like this; however, being cautious and maintaining composure can prevent future heartbreak and lead to a happy ending.











