Established Adoption Lawyer Assists Prospective Parents in Media, PA

Professional guidance when expanding your family through adoption

If you are hoping to start a family, grow your existing family, or provide legal protections for loving relationships with people you already consider family, Louis Wm. Martini, Jr., P.C. is prepared to help. From our offices in Media, PA, we help families throughout Delaware County and Pennsylvania come together through legal adoption. We provide highly professional yet personal service to help ensure the adoption you are contemplating proceeds smoothly and results in a legal, permanent parent-child relationship.

Experienced representation for a variety of adoption scenarios

Over more than 20 years, we have helped many prospective parents become new parents through a variety of adoption processes in many different circumstances, including:

• Agency adoptions
• Foster parent adoptions
• Grandparent and kinship adoptions
• Open adoptions
• Private placement adoptions
• Same-sex couple adoptions
• Second-parent adoptions
• Stepparent adoptions
• International adoptions

We help our clients choose and prepare for a particular adoption process, and guide our clients through every step to ensure compliance with all applicable laws. We also help protect your financial interests and emotional investments throughout the adoption process.

Pennsylvania laws regarding adoption

Adoptions in the commonwealth must conform to Pennsylvania law. The good news for prospective parents is that the commonwealth’s rules are among the least restrictive in the country. Requirements you should know about include:

• Who can adopt — Any adult who can pass a home study by a licensed home study provider can adopt. We are familiar with several providers and can guide you through the home study process. If you adopt through an agency, that agency may have its own requirements you must meet.
• Who can be adopted — A person can only have two legal parents. A minor is free to be adopted if a court has terminated the parents’ rights, either with their consent or over their objections due to unfitness. In stepparent adoptions, a parent’s spouse can only adopt a child if the other parent’s rights have been terminated. Adults and minors age 12 and older who are eligible to be adopted must consent to the adoption.
• Birthparent expenses — Pennsylvania law allows adoptive parents to pay certain expenses for a birth mother who has consented to give up her child. These include medical costs of the birth mother’s prenatal care, delivery, and postnatal care, as well as expenses for the care of the child prior to the decree of adoption being issued. Additional forms of payment are illegal.

If you are considering an international adoption, you must comply with the laws of the United States and the child’s home country in addition to the laws of the commonwealth.

Put our experience to work for your family

Louis Wm. Martini, Jr. appreciates the many benefits of creating a lasting legal bond between parent and child. An adoption solidifies emotional connections, bestows legal parental rights, and allows the child the right of inheritance. Adoption can also place the child under your medical coverage.

For these reasons and more, we are eager to help clients navigate the legal aspects of adoption. We assist with every stage of the legal process: we draft and file all necessary court documents, attend all legal hearings and draft any contractual agreements between parents that might be necessary. We are sensitive to and respectful of all clients who want to extend their love to a child. In addition to representing traditional couples, we regularly assist with grandparent, stepparent, and same-sex couple adoptions.

Contact an experienced Media, PA adoption lawyer serving Delaware County

Louis Wm. Martini, Jr., P.C. works tirelessly to help prospective parents navigate the adoption process with success. Call us at 610-624-4227 or contact our office online to schedule a free consultation. We are conveniently located at 206 West State Street, just a few short blocks from the Delaware County Courthouse.