Adoption is a process that can require both time and patience. This guide helps you efficiently handle all steps in an adoption case, from consultation through finalization. Jennifer Fairfax, an experienced adoption attorney covers the primary types of adoption, both domestic and international, and examines the full range of issues impacting the adoption process, including the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children, special needs, adult, and stepparent adoptions, financing and tax issues, open records, and wrongful adoption.

This title is the first of its kind -- it is a deskbook detailing the intricacies of U.S. domestic adoption law and policy. This deskbook is geared for use as a reference by the adoption law attorney, adoption professional, and law students. This book, written in clear and concise language, provides an in-depth discussion and analysis of adoption law. In addition to 14 chapters addressing the most critical topics of adoption law and policy (including, for example, consent, ICWA and TRA), the guide offers a chart of the current statutes from all 50 states, a detailed bibliography, a discussion of key Federal legislation, and much more. This book is a must have for all family law attorneys in general, and all adoption attorneys and adoption professionals in particular.

"California Adoption Law and Procedure explains the law governing contested adoptions. It covers the four types of adoptions (independent, agency, stepparent and intercountry), and briefly discusses those aspects of guardianship and juvenile dependency law which relate to adoptions. This book explores the "best interests of the child" and the home study process. It also seeks to explain "consent," whose consent must be obtained, and whether consent may be revoked. The book further describes the roles of attorneys, adoption service providers, adoption facilitators, adoption agencies and governmental agencies. It seeks to clarify the rights of the adoptive parents, the child, and of third parties, whether or not a Postadoption Contact Agreement is in place. This text discusses interstate conflicts and how laws such as the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act operate. It also covers the new federal statutes and regulations which implement the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption."--Back cover.

Previous edition, 1st, published in 1995.

This book analyses the social and legal functions of adoption in selected societies worldwide, and reviews the current global wave of adoption law reform. The author explores trends such as inter-country adoption, and examines similarities and differences in the experience of many nations. The book also provides a window for testing the presumption that within and between cultures there exists a common understanding of what is meant by adoption.