Description

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Adoption is a process that can require both time and patience. In handling an adoption case, the family lawyer guides the client through the different types of adoptions available. At the same time, the attorney must identify and determine the applicable laws for a particular adoption to ensure they can legally finalize the adoption in their jurisdiction. Now updated and expanded, The Adoption Law Handbook: Practice, Resource, and Forms for Adoption Professionals is a concise and accessible resource that explains all aspects of handling an adoption case. Jennifer Fairfax, an experienced family lawyer whose practice is focused on adoption and reproduction law, provides a logical framework to the fundamentals of the process, as well as supplying in-depth information on specific topics, advice on client intake and consultations, practice tips for each step in the legal process, and an array of sample forms. For ease of reference, each chapter concludes with valuable summary points. The book covers primary types of adoption and explains issues on handling each one: domestic private/independent adoptions, domestic agency adoptions, and international adoptions. This hands-on resource spans the full range of legal issues impacting an adoption, including Hague, ICPC, ICWA, special needs adoptions and how to get the client from intake to finalization. Other topics examine the cost and financing for adoption; co-parent, stepparent, and adult adoptions; relinquishment and termination of parental rights; post-adoption contact agreements, disruption; and failure of disclosure and tort of wrongful adoption, and more. The book also provides extensive resources, including over 200 pages of appendices that include forms, charts, and documents, plus lists of adoption resources for both attorneys and their clients.

About the Author

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Jennifer Fairfax's Family Formation Law Offices is based in Silver Spring, Maryland, and she also practices in Virginia and the District of Columbia. She has been practicing family law with a focus on adoption and reproductive law for more than 20 years. Jennifer is former Vice President, a multiyear Trustee, and a Fellow of the Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproductive Attorneys, and she is former President and Trustee for the Center for Adoption Support and Education (C.A.S.E.)