Legal Question in Family Law in California

Re: Adoption annulment or revocation

Hello, you could file for termination of partental rights. As the other attorneys said, it is unknown as to how an agency would respond, as you would be asking the state to take responsibility for the child. More research would have to be done to see how to proceed and then you would find out with the filing.

Good luck. Mark J. Mahoney

Re: Adoption annulment or revocation

It is theoretically possible, but extremely unlikely. You always could turn the child over to the juvenile authorities, but get ready to pay child support until the child is 18 and no longer in school.

Re: Adoption annulment or revocation

Recently, attempts by adoptive parents to return custody of mentally ill or behaviorally difficult children to an agency, sometimes years after an adoption, have received national attention. Adoptive parents' rights to revoke an adoption in these situations are being sorted out by the courts. At least two States, California and Kentucky, expressly recognize by statute the right of adoptive parents to take this action, in limited circumstances. At least one State supreme court (Rhode Island) has recognized this right in the absence of a specific State law.

The adoptive parents' right to revoke an adoption should not be confused with an emerging area of potential liability for adoption agencies called "wrongful adoption." In wrongful adoption actions, the adoptive parents do not seek to revoke the adoption, but they do seek monetary damages from the agency that placed the child. Usually, wrongful adoption actions involve a claim that the agency knew, or should have know, that the child was at risk of developing serious medical or behavioral problems and failed to inform the adoptive parents of this fact. Subsequently, the adoptive parents incur significant medical or other expenses to care for these children, and they sue the agency. Courts in numerous States (e.g., Arizona, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Rhode Island) now recognize these actions. Conversely, at least one State, Delaware, grants immunity from liability to persons and agencies acting in good faith under adoption law. In Texas, the law specifically states that an adoption decree cannot be attacked because the health, social, educational, or genetic history of the child or family was not filed.