Legal Question in Family Law in Washington

Re: termination of parental rights.

It is unclear whether the birth father is voluntarily terminating his rights or whether this will be a potentially contested action. In either case the beginning is to file a petition to terminate the rights, and provide sufficient evidence to support the termination (the voluntarily provided affidavit from the birth father is an important element of the evidence). The state may intervene if the child has been on public assistance, and unless somebody is willing to assume the obligations of the the birth father they may make the process more difficult. After termination, then the party who wants to adopt will have to petition for adoption; you should anticipate that a GAL or other court investigator will be appointed to make an evaluation and determine if the adoption is in the best interest of the child, before the petition is granted. This is the quick overview, there is a significant amount of detailed process involved in both of these actions.