Adoption makes a family official. MDR Law Group, PLLC helps stepparents, grandparents, and other relatives in Bullitt, Nelson, Hardin, Spencer, and Jefferson Counties through the paperwork, consents, and court hearings an adoption requires.
Types of adoption we handle
Stepparent adoption
A stepparent can adopt a spouse's child. Because the petitioner is married to the child's parent, that parent does not have to join the petition as a co-petitioner, and approval from the Cabinet for Health and Family Services is not required before filing. The other biological parent's rights must end, either by consent or by court order.
Relative adoption
Grandparents, aunts and uncles, siblings, cousins, and other blood relatives, as well as fictive kin, can adopt without first getting the Cabinet's approval, though the court may still order a home study and background check. Relative adoptions often follow a period in which the relative has been raising the child.
Adult adoption
An adult over 18 can be adopted with the same legal effect as a child adoption. Only the adult's own consent is required. Adult adoptions are often used to make a long-standing stepparent or caregiver relationship legal. One limit matters for estate planning: for inheritance, an adopted person counts as the adoptive parents' child only if they were adopted and living in the household before age 18.
Who can adopt, and where
A petitioner must be at least 18 and either a Kentucky resident or someone who has lived in Kentucky for the 12 months before filing. The petition is filed in the Circuit Court of the county where the petitioner lives. A married petitioner's spouse generally must join the petition. Unless the child was placed by the Cabinet or a licensed agency, the child must have lived in the petitioner's home for at least 90 days before filing.
Consent and termination of parental rights
An adoption generally requires the voluntary and informed consent of each living legal parent. A child 12 or older must also consent in court, unless the court waives it. For a newborn, consent cannot be given until 72 hours after birth, and it becomes final and cannot be withdrawn 72 hours after it is signed.
- Voluntary. A parent can consent to the adoption, which ends their parental rights when the adoption is granted.
- Involuntary. If a parent will not consent, the adoption can still be granted if the petitioner proves one of the grounds set by statute. They include:
- Abandoning the child for at least 90 days
- Seriously injuring the child, or repeatedly causing physical injury or emotional harm
- Causing or allowing sexual abuse of the child
- Failing, for at least six months, to provide essential parental care and protection, with no reasonable expectation of improvement
- Failing, for reasons other than poverty alone, to provide food, clothing, shelter, medical care, or education the child needs
Home studies and the court process
After the petition is filed, the Cabinet or another investigator the court designates usually reports to the court on whether the petition is accurate, whether the adoptive parents are fit and able to care for the child, and whether the adoption is in the child's best interests. In stepparent and relative adoptions, the court decides whether to order that report.
At the final hearing, the court enters a judgment of adoption if it finds that the facts in the petition are true, every legal requirement has been met, the adoptive parents are of good character and able to care for and educate the child, and the adoption is in the child's best interests. The judgment changes the child's name as requested in the petition, and from then on the child is the adoptive parents' child for all legal purposes, subject to the inheritance rule above.
What we help with
- Stepparent adoptions
- Grandparent and other relative adoptions
- Adult adoptions
- Obtaining consents and handling contested adoptions
- Preparing for the home study and final hearing
Talk to us
Call (502) 309-9044 or use our contact form to schedule a free consultation.
This page provides general information, not legal advice. Every case is different, and past results do not guarantee future outcomes.