Adoption is the legal process of creating a new parent-child relationship with an adopting parent who is not a child’s birth parent. An adoptive parent may be a stepparent or domestic partner of one of the birth parents, a relative, or someone completely unrelated. The most important qualifying factor is that the adoptive parent must unequivocally desire to permanently be the parent of a particular child.
Once the adoption process is final, adoptive parents hold all legal rights and responsibilities of a parent-child relationship. This new parent-child relationship is permanent and is exactly the same as that of a birth family.
The most common type of adoption in California is a stepparent or domestic partner adoption. In a stepparent or domestic partner adoption, the spouse or domestic partner of the child’s parent adopts the child. The couple must be legally married or registered as domestic partners. This type of adoption is a little simpler than the others, because one of the child’s birth parents remains the child’s parent.
To learn more about the adoption process, contact an experienced California family law attorney. At the
Law Offices of Judy L. Burger, we can discuss your options and recommend a strategy to help you achieve the best outcome possible in your family court proceedings.
Judy L. Burger is known for taking a firm stand in representing clients in high conflict cases in and around the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento areas. If you are a parent facing a family law dispute, call us today to learn more about how we can help. Call (415)293-8314 in the San Francisco Bay area or (916)631-1935 in the Sacramento area, or contact us online via our
confidential inquiry form.
