Experience
Our firm’s founder Attorney Charles Montgomery has over 40 years of proven, award-winning legal experience.
Adoption is the process of establishing the legal relationship of a parent
and child between persons who are not already related by blood. NC state
statutes governing adoption should be understood as a process of selecting
fit parents for children and for promoting the welfare of a child, not
of finding children for adoptive parents.
After an adoption, relationship between the adoptee-child and his or her natural, biological parents and their families is severed. This means the biological parents are relieved of all their legal rights and obligations toward the child.
From the date the adoption decree is signed, the adoptee-child has the same legal status as a legitimate child born to the adoptive-parent. The child may inherit his or her adoptive parents’ estate through intestate succession..
However, this does not apply to stepparent adoptions, when a stepparent adopts his or her stepchild. This type of adoption does not terminate the relationship of the child with his or her natural, biological parent.
The procedures for legal adoptions will differ depending on whether it is a private adoption or agency adoption, but all of these procedures must follow legal procedure. Because strict compliance with the laws is required, we recommend that you speak with one of our Cary adoption attorneys about your North Carolina child adoption.
North Carolina laws regarding adoption:
The legal process for adoption begins with the filing of your Petition for Adoption. To complete your petition, various documents must be included.
Important documents in an adoption include:
Upon the filing of your Petition for Adoption, notice of its filing must be served on any individual whose consent to the adoption is required by law and whose consent had not been obtained at the time your petition was filed. Chapter 48 sets out in detail those individuals from whom consent to the adoption is required as well as the correct procedure by which to serve these individuals.
By statute, the court is required to set a hearing date on your adoption petition within 90 days after you file your petition for adoption. The hearing or disposition of your adoption petition must take place within 6 months after the date you file your adoption petition.
If your petition is unopposed, there is no need for a hearing. If you have been found to be a fit adoptive parent and no one opposes the adoption, you can be assured that your petition for adoption will be granted. If a hearing is necessary, the court must find upon a preponderance of the evidence that the adoption is in the best interests of the child, that you are a suitable adoptive parent, and that all the statutory procedural requirements for adoption have been met.
For guidance through your adoption matter, call us at (919) 348-2317.
Our firm’s founder Attorney Charles Montgomery has over 40 years of proven, award-winning legal experience.
At Montgomery Family Law, each of our attorneys dedicates 100% of their law practice to family law and divorce.
Two of our attorneys are N.C. Board Certified Family Law Specialists, a certification earned by only 1% of lawyers statewide.
Known for our dedication, our firm is rated AV Preeminent® by peers, the highest rating possible for ethics and legal skill.