Adoption Lawyer in Marietta, GA

What an adoption lawyer actually does in a Georgia case

Most of the work happens before anyone sees a judge.



An adoption lawyer figures out which of Georgia's adoption paths your family fits, confirms whose consent is legally required and whose is not, drafts and files the petition in the right superior court, orders the home study if your case needs one, handles service on any parent who has to be notified, and then presents the case at the final hearing. When a birth parent objects, the same lawyer litigates the termination of parental rights that has to happen before an adoption can be granted.

The part people underestimate is the consent analysis. In a stepparent case, the question of whether the other biological parent's consent can be dispensed with, usually because of abandonment or a long failure to support the child, is the whole case. Get that wrong at the front end and you spend a year and several thousand dollars finding out.

Stepparent and confirmatory adoption

This is the most common adoption we handle in Cobb County, and often the most emotionally loaded, because the child usually already thinks of the stepparent as a parent. The adoption makes the law agree.

Georgia allows a stepparent to adopt a spouse's child. Where the other biological parent is willing to surrender rights, these cases move fairly quickly and rarely require a home study. Where that parent cannot be found, will not sign, or contests the petition, the case becomes a termination of parental rights matter first and an adoption second.

A detail that surprises people: a child who is 14 or older has to consent to their own adoption in Georgia. Almost always they do. But if you have a 15-year-old with complicated feelings about it, that is worth raising in the first conversation rather than the week before the hearing.

For additional family law needs, our Marietta family law attorney team can help.

Relative and grandparent adoption

Grandparents raising grandchildren are the fastest-growing group of clients calling this office about adoption, and most of them start the call by asking whether they can do it themselves. The honest answer is that the form-filing part is not the hard part. Establishing that the parents' rights should be terminated or that their surrender is valid is the hard part, and that is where cases fall apart without a lawyer.

Georgia permits adoption by grandparents, aunts and uncles, siblings, great-grandparents, and other qualifying relatives. If you already have guardianship or a custody order, that helps your position but it is not the same thing as an adoption. Guardianship ends. Adoption does not.

Traditional agency and private adoption

If you are adopting through a licensed Georgia agency, the agency handles matching and much of the pre-placement work, and your lawyer handles the petition, the surrender documents, the interstate compact paperwork if the child is coming from another state, and the finalization.



In a private or independent adoption, where you have connected with an expectant mother directly, there is no agency doing that work and the legal exposure is higher. Georgia has specific rules about what expenses an adoptive family may pay, and about the window during which a surrender of parental rights can be revoked. Do not rely on a written agreement with a birth mother that has not been reviewed by a Georgia adoption lawyer. Those agreements are frequently not enforceable the way people assume.

Most agency and private adoptions require a home study by a licensed Georgia evaluator. It is less invasive than the name suggests, though it does take a few weeks, and starting it early is the single easiest way to shorten your timeline.

Adult adoption in Georgia

Georgia lets you adopt an adult, and it comes up more than you would guess. A stepparent who raised a child from age six but never formalized it. A foster parent whose placement aged out before the adoption finished. A relative wanting to make an inheritance question unambiguous.



Adult adoption is procedurally the simplest adoption Georgia offers, because the person being adopted consents for themselves and no home study or parental consent is involved. Many of these can be finalized in a couple of months.

LGBTQ+ families and second-parent adoption

Georgia does not consider sexual orientation in adoption decisions, and Georgia courts grant second-parent adoptions to same-sex couples. Married and unmarried couples both have paths available.



For couples who conceived using a donor, a second-parent or confirmatory adoption is still the recommended step even where a birth certificate already lists both parents. Birth certificates are administrative records. An adoption decree is a court judgment, and it is what travels reliably across state lines.

When a birth parent will not consent

An adoption cannot be granted while another person still holds parental rights. When that person will not voluntarily surrender them, the court has to terminate them, and Georgia sets a high bar for that.

The grounds that come up most often in our cases are abandonment, sustained failure to communicate with or support the child, and unfitness related to substance abuse or violence. These are contested proceedings with evidence, witnesses, and a real possibility of losing. If someone has told you this kind of case is routine, get a second opinion.

We litigate these. We also tell clients honestly when the facts are not there yet, which sometimes means waiting rather than filing.

How long a Georgia adoption takes

Uncontested stepparent and adult adoptions in Cobb County commonly finalize within two to four months. Agency and private adoptions usually run six months to a year, with the home study and any interstate paperwork setting the pace. Contested cases have no reliable timeline, because they depend on the court's calendar and on how hard the other side fights.



Those ranges are what we have seen in Cobb, Cherokee, and Paulding. Court congestion varies, and any lawyer who gives you a firm date at the first meeting is guessing.

What adoption costs

Fees depend on which path you are on. An uncontested stepparent or adult adoption is a predictable, relatively modest flat fee. Agency and private adoptions cost more because there is more work and more third-party expense, including the home study and agency fees that are paid to someone other than your lawyer. Contested terminations are billed hourly and are the most expensive scenario by a wide margin.

Diane quotes fees in the initial consultation, not after you have committed. If cost is the thing holding you back from calling, that call is free and it will at least give you a real number to plan around.

Adoptions we handle across Cobb County and North Georgia

The Cherry Law Firm files adoptions in Cobb county, Cherokee, and Paulding County superior courts, and works with families in Marietta, Kennesaw, Smyrna, Acworth, Powder Springs, Austell, East Cobb, West Cobb, and Dallas.

Ready when you are

Adoption cases are the good part of this job. If you have been putting off the call because you assumed it would be complicated or expensive, spend 15 minutes finding out whether it is.

Call The Cherry Law Firm at 770-444-3399

Frequently asked questions about adoption in Georgia