Washington State Divorce Attorneys and Step Parent Adoption

If you are a single parent who is about to marry or has just married someone other than your child’s other parent, you may wish to consult with Washington State divorce attorneys about step parent adoption. Step parent adoption can benefit everyone—child and all parents—under certain conditions. Whether your psychological, social, and familial conditions are right is something you must decide yourself. Whether your family meets the legal criteria is something Washington State divorce attorneys can help you with.

First, in order for a step parent to adopt, both of the child’s current legal parents must agree to the adoption. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that the right to parent is a fundamental constitutional right, and it is difficult (but not impossible) to take that away. A parent may agree to give up this right in order to allow an adoption to go forward. Some less than involved parents see the benefit that their child may receive by being adopted, and will agree. However, absent agreement, a parent will have to be declared unfit in order to have their rights extinguished. Washington State divorce attorneys do handle these kinds of cases, but they are very difficult and can be very expensive.

The Washington State divorce attorneys at McKinley Irvin can give you some straight guidance on step-parent adoption. Having seen divorces and Washington State child custody cases from all sides, our Washington State divorce attorneys are in a unique position to evaluate adoption and custody cases. We take a child first approach to custody and adoption, and we can give you the information you need to make an informed decision.

The author is a Washington State divorce attorneys law student. Please visit McKinley Irvin for more information.