Legal Question in Family Law in California

Yes, the arrears are still owed after the adoption is completed.

No, if adopted, your son will no longer be able to inherit from his bio-dad

Good luck!

Support up to the date parental rights are terminated in favor of the adopting step-parent is due and owed even after the adoption, and arrears continue to accrue interest. After the adoption, however, no support will be owed and there will be no financial connection, including inheritance, between the child and the biological father. It will be as if the adoptive father was the bio father for all legal purposes.

I agree only in part with the previous responses.

The biological husband is liable for child support up to the adoption. Any arrearages, meaning missed payments during this period, would still be owed. Once the adoption took place, the adopted father is considered the father for the purpose of ongoing child support.

Now for the part where I disagree with my colleagues. Normally, adoption severs inheritance rights from the natural father and replaces them with inheritance rights of the adopted father. But California, being the quirky state that it is, has an exception to this rule. The exception is provided for in stepparent adoptions through intestate succession, which are the rules that apply when a person dies without a will.

"An adoption severs the relationship of parent and child between an adopted person and a natural parent of the adopted person unless both of the following requirements are satisfied:

(1) The natural parent and the adopted person lived together at any time as parent and child, or the natural parent was married to or cohabiting with the other natural parent at the time the person was conceived and died before the person's birth.

(2) The adoption was by the spouse of either of the natural parents or after the death of either of the natural parents." (Prob. Code, sect. 6451.)

That's California law, and the law will most likely be different in other states.