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Hello, everyone, and welcome to another Family Law Matters. I’m Dr. Michael Mantell, privileged as always to be joining Bonnie Rabinovitch Mantel, who is the owner and managing partner of the highly esteemed Primus Family Law Group. Hi, Bonnie.

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Hi, Michael. And, you know, for our regular listeners that come in every week and hear us, they know that you and I are not related, even though our last names sound the same, although they’re not spelled the same. But for anybody new who’s joining us, we are friends.

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We are not related. Amazing as that is. It’s great.

Yeah. So, Bonnie, sort of a complicated situation that I want you to touch on this week. A couple are married, and one of the members of the couple was previously married and has children with another person.

The current spouse decides he or she wants to adopt his or her spouse’s child. Now, that opens up a Pandora’s box of issues, financial, obviously legal, and so forth and so on. Can you describe some of the nitty gritty issues involved in doing this? Sure.

The first thing we have to ask ourselves, Michael, is, is the original parent, the biological parent, still involved in these children’s lives? The other parent. Correct. So not the one who wants to adopt and not the spouse, but the biological parent that’s no longer part of that relationship.

If the parent is exercising visitation and still has access to the child, then absolutely not. Step parent is not going to be able to adopt. Court’s not going to do that.

However, if the biological parent has not had any contact with the child for a couple of years or more, and the statute is clear on, it has to be a lengthy, lengthy period of time and there’s no contact. And the adoptive parent is willing to take on both the nurturing and the financial responsibility of the child. And it is considered in the best interest of the child, then yes, the adoptive parent will be given an opportunity to adopt the child.

But it’s very clear that bio parent has to be out of the picture for quite some time. Now, when you say out of the picture, what if the bio parent is not seeing the child, is not speaking with the child, is not sending the child birthday gifts and, you know, holiday cards and all that stuff, but is paying child support? You will not get to adopt that child. Because the state’s primary goal is the, well, one of their major concerns is they do not want this child to fall on the state’s payroll, for lack of a better word.

And so an adoptive parent is speculative as to whether or not they’ll be able to financially support. But once you have a court order in existence for the other parent, that parent’s on the hook. And so no.

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Very interesting. And if folks have a question about this, they’re married and they’re contemplating divorce because, I mean, excuse me, adoption, because Primus Family Law Group is a family law group. It’s not a divorce group.

It handles many different kinds of family matters. How can they be in touch to get some more information? They can reach out to us directly at 619-574-8000 and you will be put on my calendar for a free 30 minute phone consultation. Or you can fill out a form online at www.PrimusFamilyLaw.com and you’ll get on my calendar that way.