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adoption reversal

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J

jen_gale

Guest
What is the name of your state? utah

I placed a child for adoption almost 14 months ago. I tried to get her back when she was 3 months old but was told there was nothing i could do. I truly feel i was pressured into making this decision and that is was the wrong thing to do. I was going through post-partum depression and in a lot of physical pain that I don't feel I was in the right frame of mind to make the decision that i did. Also I feel that the adoptive family has not kept up with their part of the agreement. The father never signed anything to turn over his rights but I don't know if that makes a diference.I just want to know if there is anything that I can do to get her back. I feel that no matter what i am her biological mother and should have some rights.
 


CMSC

Senior Member
How did the adoption go through without the father signing over his rights? Was he notified by way of publication?

What sort of agreement did you have with the adoptive parents. I will tell you, your post hit home. I want to help, but really if the adoption was done legally and it is finalized there is nothing you can do now. It has been 14 months. You could attempt to consult with an attorney. I would suggest getting ahold of a good support system. You can email me if you want.

Oh, just so you know, I too placed my son up for adoption. The adoptive parents deceived me and things did not go smoothly. I got my angel back at 3 months of age. So I know what you are going through.

My email address is [email protected]
 
K

kam2051

Guest
I feel that no matter what i am her biological mother and should have some rights.
If your parental rights were terminated, I don't believe this is necessarily the case.
 

djohnson

Senior Member
I agree with Kam on this one. Your rights were terminated and its been 14 months. Who told you at 3 months there was nothing you could do?
 

nextwife

Senior Member
Utah Adoption Law

http://www.adoptionsolutions.com/general/state laws/ut_law.htm

Note that there is, basically, a 24 hour waiting period. After that, revokation is not provided for. That is likely whay they told you at three months that nothing could be done. At least, that is how I am reading this summary.

Utah Adoption Statute Summary

Utah Code Annotated Sections 78-30-1 to 78-30-9 and '78-30-16.3 (1997)

Who Can Adopt?

Any adult person can adopt. If the adoptive parent is married the spouse must consent to the adoption unless they are lawfully separated. The adoptive parent must be 10 years older than the adoptee.

Who Can Be Adopted?
Any person can be adopted.

Consent to Adoption
The following people must consent to the adoption:

1.
the parents if the adoptee was born in wedlock, unless the adoptee
is 18 years of age or older;

2.
the mother of the adoptee born out of wedlock;

3.
the biological father who has executed a voluntary declaration of paternity before the mother's execution of consent or her relinquishment to an agency for adoption;

4.
the biological father if he has been adjudicated by the court to be the biological father prior to the mother's execution of consent or her relinquishment to an agency for adoption;

5.
the child-placing agency to whom an adoptee has been relinquished; and

6.
the adoptee who is over 12 years of age, unless the adoptee does not have the mental capacity to consent.

Consent to adoption is not required of the following people:

1.
a parent whose parental rights have been terminated;

2.
a biological father of a child born out of wedlock who has not established a right to consent (see unmarried father's rights, below); and

3.
a parent who has given up the child to a child-placing agency.

A birth mother may not consent to the adoption until at least 24 hours after the birth of the child. Consent to adoption may not be revoked.

Unmarried Father's Rights
In 1995, the state enacted a comprehensive scheme regarding unmarried father's rights with respect to an adoption. The legislative intent is to encourage finality in adoption and place a burden on unmarried fathers to affirmatively take steps to demonstrate parenthood. Furthermore, except in limited circumstances, an unmarried father is presumed to know of the child's birth if he had sex with the mother. An unmarried father's consent, as noted above, is only required when:

1.
for a child placed with adoptive parents more than six months after
birth, the unmarried father has developed a substantial relationship with the child, taken some measure of responsibility for the child and his future, and demonstrated a full commitment of the responsibilities of parenthood.

2.
for a child placed when under six months of age, the unmarried father manifested parenthood, prior to the mother's relinquishment or consent to adoption, including: initiating a paternity proceeding, filing notice of said proceeding with the registrar of vital statistics in a confidential registry established for this purpose, and if he had actual knowledge of pregnancy, paid for a fair and reasonable amount of expenses.

Confidentiality
All adoption records shall be sealed and can not be opened for inspection, except upon a court order. After the adoption is final a report shall be compiled and given to the adoptive parents that includes a detailed health, genetic, and social history of the adoptee. This report should include information about the adoptee's biological family, but not any identifying information.

A mutual consent voluntary adoption registry shall be established. The registry can only release identifying information when it has received permission to release such information from both the adult adoptee (21 years of age or older) and the biological parent, and any adult sibling of adult adoptee requesting such information.

Permissible Fees
Prior to the final adoption hearing a statement of all fees and expenses shall be filed with the court.
This does not apply if the adoptive parent is the legal spouse of the birth parent.

Place of Adoption Hearing
The adoption hearing may take place in the county where the adoptive parents live.

Authority To Place Child
Any agency licensed to place children. Where a licensed agency has not placed the child, additional elements are required in the pre- and post-adoption studies.

Relative Adoption
In the case of stepparent adoptions, the child must have first lived with the stepparent for 1 year instead of the required 6 months for other adoptions. No itemization of fees paid need be submitted by stepparents wishing to adopt. In addition, the preplacement adoptive study may be waived in stepparent and relative adoptions.

Re-printed with permission from the National Adoption Information Clearinghouse.




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L

LawMan out west

Guest
If the biological father did not terminate his rights that may be a way of getting the child back.

You also have some argument that the agreement to terminate your rights was made when you did not have the capacity to make such a decision.

Basically you may have a chance to get your child back. you will need an attorney, and it might be a very difficult process and very heart rending on all sides. It may also be very expensive.

You should also start the process as soon as possible. It could take a while and the younger the child is the better your chances are.

If you need help finding a lawyer let me know.....
 
J

jen_gale

Guest
I would really just like to know if I have any real chance of getting my child back. I don't want to go through a whole court case and really get the adoptive parents mad at me if there is no chance this could even happen. The father knew about the baby but he lives in Connecticut. Originally they said that he had to sign papers but after a while they told me that he didn't. I wanted him to sign the papers to take some responsibility but he never had to. I did go through an agency and pretty much was told even a month after the adoption when I went in and said I did the wrong thing and wanted her back they said there was nothing I could do. So I am just really confused. If there was something that I could've done earlier I was lied to about that and she wouldnt be 14 months old now. I talked to lawyers in Utah and everything they all told me the same thing.
 
L

LawMan out west

Guest
What to look at

The way to determine whether you have a chance is to look carefully at why you say your consent was made under duress. It turns out that the Utah Court of Appeals just published an opinion in a similar adoption case where the mother claimed her consent was given under duress:

http://www.utcourts.gov/opinions/appopin/btd040303.htm

The mother won in the trial court but the higher court said that the trial court would have to reconsider the issue using and different standard.

The attorneys in that case could give you,perhaps the best idea of where you stand since the law seems to have just changed slightly.

Gary H. Weight, Provo for the birth mother
Donald E. McCandless for the adoptive parents.

You might even consider going to the new trial to see what the process would involve.
 

nextwife

Senior Member
The reason that the summary of Utah adoption statute was listed was so that YOU could review and see if any of the requirements under the law appeared to have been bypassed. Had the statutory requirements not have been met, you could use that as legal cause to attempt to reverse the adoption. Your ability to reverse an adoption would be dependent upon the applicable state laws and the particulars of the situation, in addition to having a good adoption-knowlegdable attorney. What works in one state may not apply to another. So, you know more about exactly what transpired, and when, and without more info, I do not know that anyone here can definatively say whether you have legal cause. If I am wrong, someone please correct me.

For example, in looking at the law, I see this regarding consent to adoption:

"the parents if the adoptee was born in wedlock, unless the adoptee
is 18 years of age or older"

Thus, if you were less than age 18, and your parents failed to consent, that might be one consideration, but, as we are unaware of your age at the time, we can not know if that is relevant.

Lawmanoutwest suggested that a failure to provide for the birthfather's rights might be a way for one to approach the case. That is why the particulars have relevance. If his rights under the law were not respected, he may have legal cause that you could build a case upon. What chance you do or do not have depends upon such factors. So please don't be upset if follow-up questions are asked, we who read your post don't know what you do about the situation.
 
L

LawMan out west

Guest
Duress is hard to prove.......

The law in utah is extremely strict with regard to an unmarried father asserting his rights.

If he is aware of the child and does not assert his rights in a timely manner he waives his rights and cannot do anything to prevent the adoption.

Based on what I have heard, and the research I have done, I do not think the father could help you in this situation.

Perhaps the only way you could contest the adoption is by showing that your consent, given by signing the papers or testifying in court, was under duress or induced by extreme fraud.

You have a very difficult case, primarily because you have to prove a great deal of duress to convince a court that your consent was not valid when you gave it.

The basic standard for duress is whether you had any reasonable alternative under the circumstances other than consent to the adoption. This is a pretty high standard and it would involve showing that you were under so much pressure or under the stress brought on by emergency or lies or whatever that you couldn't see any other way out of it except to consent to the adoption.

What you can do, and what would be much easier is to make sure the adoptive parents live up to the bargain they made with you, whatever that is. You may not be able to reverse the adoption, but if they promised you visitation rights, or other involvement in the child's life then you have a strong chance of getting a court to acknowledge those rights.
 
J

jen_gale

Guest
LawMan out west
I appreciate your help. I guess my next question is where should I go now? I tried to look up that court case but was unable to find it. I truly think that I was under duress and I don't know exactly what I would have to prove but I think I could. Plus if I was lied to and there could have been something sooner I could've done then I was deceived by the agency and everybody else. I didn' t feel good about this fron the get go. Would that make any difference that I was lied to? I am 26 years old. I am not some young teen who couldn't take care of my child. I honestly was under so much stress from family, the agency my baby's father that I felt like I had no other choice. Anyways if you could just maybe help me know where to go. I know that time is very important and if I am going to do something it has to be very soon!! Please just be honest with me and let me know if I have a chance I couldn't handle going through all this and it not working. thanks
 
L

LawMan out west

Guest
Getting your full parental rights back will be quite difficult.

However, you did mention that the adoptive parents had agreed to do some things but were not living up to their side of the bargain. What kinds of things did they agree to do?

This may be a way to get back into the child's life..i.e. if they promised to keep you involved and now are shutting you out it could be the case that you still have some rights to spend time with the child... Making sure you get these rights might be a lot less difficult than getting your child back.....which is not a great possibility.


As i said before, contact either of these attorney's they would have a lot better guess on what your chances are...

Donald E. McCandless and Lorie D. Fowlke telephone 801-375-5600
or
Gary H. Weight telephone 801-373-4912
 
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