[marinewife222]

Hey guys. I live in NC and like so many of you I'm seeking to terminate my ex husbands parental rights so that my current husband will be able to adopt our daughter and have the legal rights that he is entitled to as the only father she's ever known. Wow that was a mouthful.
That said, I am happy to read of the the wonderful success some of you have had in this area. I've done my research on NC state law reguarding TPR and I do know that I legally cannot make an attempt at TPR until my ex has been out of the picture for at least one year. So I have been holding my breath and will continue to do so until Jan-Feb of 2007.
However, my problem lies in an attorney. I haven't gotten on the horn just yet to ask about fees and such, so I was wondering if some of you wouldn't mind sharing with me the uglies of what it cost you for an uncontested and contested TPR. I have no clue if he will contest it or not. He is such a stupid man, but also unpredictable, so I need to be mentally prepared for anything.
Another problem I face is the fact that when he left my daughters life in Dec. 05 I know what state he ran away to, but other than that I know nothing of his whereabouts or how to contact him. What problems will I face with that? (He was in Illinois last I knew.) Any advice or direction would be greatly apprciated. If anyone needs more info or if I'm too vague please let me know. Thank you, Katie

[jsimon]

So far it has costed us a little over $6,500. It was contested until today when the BF signed over his rights. The attorney's hourly fee is $295. He estimates that he probably only has about 3 more hours of work to do on our case so that will bring us to almost $7,500. Plus we live in CA so that probably makes a difference since you live in a different state. As far as locating the BF it depends on your state but in CA if you make a real attempt to locate him and can show proof of it, then a judge will allow you to post an add in the paper where you know he last lived and he has a certain amount of time to respond, if he doesnt then his rights will be teminated. It is possible to do a step parent adoption without an attorney if it is uncontested. I would not recommend it if he contests. It can get pretty messy.

[mackiedoobuzz]

Hi there! We are in the same situation, with TPR, and unable to locate and all that.... The attorney we are starting our work with has not given us an estimate, but I just found out my elective coverage legal plan thru work will actually cover the attorney fees for this case! (everything minus the filing fee!) Maybe check that avenue. My attorney has sugested that serving the bio father with notice by publication in his last known state is one route that SOME judges will go for. She also said that some judges want to see a little more work done, so she suggested finding a PI in the last know state and asking them to do a "search" for him and ask them their rate to fill out an affidavit of due dilligence, and the judge will find that plenty acceptable. We are lucky since my childrens' bio father does not work a legitimate job, and has not filed taxes in over 7 years nor has a residence or utility bill to call his own. I have no phone number for him, since his last one was a pre paid cell phone which he notoriously has disconnected within a month of having one. He likes to make himself invisible, and what's left of his family has pretty much disowned him and my children since I left him four years ago. We KNOW that if we could find him that he would fight the adoption out of pride and spite, but has no care in the world for the kids. He was horribly neglectful and abusive to the children, so even if we had to confront him, he'd not have a leg to stand on. I'd check out this option, and see if you can avoid him long enough to get the ball rolling. Journal everything that makes you feel he's an unfit parent. It will help out if it comes down to it being contested someday.
Good luck!

[stepadoptionblog]

We had to publish a public notice, as we did not know the current whereabouts of the **. With the court fees, lawyer fees, and fees for the notice, the adoption was about 3,000. We ended up having to drive down to the state that the divorce was final in because it was a very small town and they had no idea what we were talking about when we were requesting documents! i got so tiredof it I packed the kids up and made a road trip out of getting our documents from the courthouse. It ended up being a very memorable trip and I am glad that we did it.

Since we had to do the public notice, our adoption was uncontested, but the news paper fee was over $300 simply to run for a month, and it was a once a week paper, so it only ran 4 times! It can get pricey, but the good news is that most of the fees are spread out over the course of the adoption process, so you aren't hit too hard with large bills. Make sure your attourney knows that you are on, or wish to do a payment plan so that they are not expecting a large sum of money at the end of the process.

[IndigoMama]

I live in Indiana and our is an uncontested adoption. We really searched around to find the lowest priced attorney. The attorney we have asked for a $1, 000 retainer and thought that would cover everything. Everyone else we asked quoted us $1,500. Like I said this is completely uncontested and we do not have to search for the biofather. I think it will go slightly over that but most likely not by much.