Custody & Kidnapping

Although I am not an expert in STATE law, generally when someone has his/her parental rights terminated by a court, there generally may no longer be any legal connection between the parent and child. Therefore, if the parent wants to file for visitation, s/he may not be able to apply for visitation as a parent if his/her legal parental rights were terminated. I don’t know how your state handles this situation but you may want to ask an attorney if you are able to file for visitation and if you’d be considered a non-parent for the court’s purposes – if so, you may want to ask the attorney if non-parents can apply for visitation in court in your state and if there may be strict limits on who can apply and under what circumstances. I don’t know STATE’s laws on this but if a parent acted in a way as to lose custody, you can ask an attorney if the court may be hesitant or not to agree to order that the child has to visit with the parent. Perhaps you can also ask an attorney if in the future, the child wants to visit with the parent (even though it may not be court-ordered), if the child and the parent may be able to work that out on their own as the child gets older and whether the adopted parent would have the right to prevent this or not.

An attorney may also be able to let you know if the adoptive parents felt that it was not in the children’s best interest to visit with the natural parents, whether they might be able to get a restraining order or some type of court order as part of the adoption proceeding that may say that the parents can have no contact with the children. I don’t know for sure if this is commonly done in STATE. An attorney may tell you whether or not during adoptions, if a judge felt it is in the children’s best interests to not be around the parents, if s/he may order that there be no contact until the children are adults (18 yrs old). Here is a link for free and paid lawyers to try to get specific information for your case: LINK

THIS IS INFORMATION ABOUT OPEN ADOPTIONS - CAN ADD IF SHE SAYS THTA THERE WAS AN OPEN ADOPTION WITH GUIDELINES FOR CONTACT THAT AREN’T BEING ENFORCED - EDIT AS NEEDED:

First, generally speaking, open adoption contact agreements may not be enforceable contracts but rather are written as a guideline for both the biological and adoptive parents, meant to be upheld in good faith but which either party could decide to no longer follow. However, in some states, there are laws that allow for such contact agreements to be legally enforceable (although the laws very from state to state with respect to how such agreements should be written, how they can be enforced, etc.). There’s a resource through the Child Welfare Information Gateway (a project of the federal government) that outlines each state’s laws on this subject, which you can find here: https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubPDFs/cooperative.pdf you can find STATE’S laws on open adoption contact agreements on FILL IN PAGE NUMBER. However, this guide was last updated in 2014, and state laws may have changed since then and/or there may be alternative ways to try and make adoptive parents honor such an agreement. Therefore, it may be best to speak to a lawyer to see what options might be available for your client. You can search for legal aid organizations that may be able to help here: LINK