[Pixie]

I know that when adopting out of state the adoptive parents need an attorney in their state and an attorney in the birthparents' state.

My question is -- would the out of state attorney also be the birthparents' attorney or would the adoptive parents hire TWO out of state attornies....one for birthparents and one for themselves?

Also, if the out of state attorney handles the relinquishments, is it necessary to hire the attorney for finalization upon match or do you wait until you are home with the baby?

Any additional information about out of state private adoptions will be appreciated.

[taggrr2]

In our case, the attorney who represented us was in our home state. The attorney in the state of birth represented the pbmom. Both parties need representation, but I don't think aparents need an attorney in both places. They simply work together to make it happen.

[Waddly]

Hi Pixie,

I believe states can differ with their adoption laws. We are in IL and our ** is in Nebraska. We have an attorney in Illinois and an attorney in Nebraska who will be representing us. Our attorney in Nebraska can only represent us. She does; however, work closely with another attorney who will be representing our **. We do have to have an attorney in IL to receive Interstate Compact paperwork once the ** signs relinquishment papers. Our attorney in IL will also do finalization. We expect our legal fees to run about $5,500 in all.

Best of Luck!

~Waddly

[tobeafamily]

We arranged for Ryan's bparents to have seperate representation in Texas, where Ryan was born, plus representation for ourselves. So we had 2 attorneys in Texas and one in Virginia.

We did this because we wanted to make sure there would never be conflicting interests that could be used later to revoke the adoption - figured better safe than sorry and honestly, the fees for their attorney were very low.

Regina, AMom to Ryan Joshua Thomas

[lisa in venice]

In our last adoption we had an attorney here who was our advocate and the birthmom in the other stae had an attorney who was really her advocate. While that Attorney got us thru the process in that state there was no question but that she was birth mom's advocate.

lisa