When you marry someone who already has a child, you not only get a husband or wife, you also get a son or daughter.
In some cases, the child’s other biological parent may no longer play a role in the child’s life, and you may decide to be legally recognized as the child’s parent by legally adopting him or her.
Overall, the step-parent adoption process in Louisiana is straight-forward and fairly uncomplicated, but there are certain important steps that must be taken.
For example, in order to adopt a step-child, the child’s other biological parent has to relinquish his or her parental rights, also known as the termination of parental rights.
This could be an easy step if the other biological parent doesn’t play a role in the child’s life and wants to be off the hook for child support.
However, it can also be a difficult battle if the biological parent does not consent and you have to fight to be legally recognized as the parent of the child you have helped raise.
Either way, it is important to have an experienced family law attorney by your side during the journey to make sure that you take all of the required legal steps.
At our Baton Rouge family law firm, we place an emphasis on doing the right thing for our clients, and this is true of our step-parent adoption cases.
We will take the time to get to know you and your goals in order to help make sure that the process goes as smoothly as possible.
Adoption is such a wonderfully rewarding experience, but it can also be filled with anxiety and frustration, which is why you need effective legal representation.