1. Home
  2.  | 
  3. Family Law
  4.  | Can I adopt my spouse’s child?

We Are Small
For A Reason

Can I adopt my spouse’s child?

On Behalf of | Dec 2, 2019 | Family Law |

Divorce is often challenging, but it can also provide exciting new opportunities. One of these may be the ability for you to start a new family. However, it is important to understand that certain aspects of officially establishing your new family may be subject to further legal procedure. One of these aspects is adoption. 

It is relatively common for the spouse with primary custody to remarry. In some cases, the stepparent may want to adopt the child from the previous marriage. How you would proceed in a situation such as this would depend on the details of your case. Please read on for a discussion of a few examples. 

Perhaps the simplest situation would be the adoption of an adult. You may encounter this situation if you had a divorce later in life. The goal of these types of procedures is typically to simplify or strengthen an estate plan rather than to provide care for the adopted child. In Florida, adults do not need to the consent of biological parents to go through with adoptions. 

As mentioned on FindLaw, you could be eligible for a unified proceeding when performing a step parent adoption of a child. This means reduced court time in most cases. Children 12 or older would require an interview, and then they would have to provide consent. Generally speaking, this type is much simpler than a facilitated adoption. 

This types of procedures could be simple, or your case could require some extra work to provide the best possible outcome. Various complicating factors could include same-sex marriages, situations in which biological parents objected and so on. Therefore, please regard this only as background information. It is not specific legal advice. 

Archives

Categories