Parental Rights & Family Adoptions
Most of the families who come to us are already families. A child is being raised, loved, and looked after by someone the law does not yet recognize as a legal parent. Adoption closes that gap.
Law Offices of Dayna Maeder handles family adoptions and terminations of parental rights throughout Florida, at the trial level and on appeal.
Family adoption covers more ground than most people expect.
A stepparent who has been raising a child since before that child can remember. A second parent in a two-mom or two-dad family. A partner who has been there from the first day without a marriage certificate formalizing it. A grandparent, an aunt or uncle, an older sister who stepped in when a child needed somewhere safe to land.
Law Offices of Dayna Maeder is an LGBTQIA+ affirming firm. Your family will be treated as the family it is, from the first phone call through the final judgment.
What these families share is that the love came first and the paperwork is catching up. Attorney Maeder has spent years walking Florida families through that process, and it remains some of the most satisfying work the firm does.
Florida’s adoption statutes are detailed, and precise. Consent has to be obtained or lawfully excused. Notice has to be done correctly and diligently. The record has to support the judgment the court is being asked to sign. Handled carefully, though, these cases end in the most beautiful way.
Contact Law Offices of Dayna Maeder to discuss your Florida adoption or termination of parental rights matter.
An adoption cannot go forward while someone else still holds parental rights to the child. When that parent consents, the termination can travel along with the adoption itself. When consent will not come, the rights must be terminated first.
Florida provides two routes, and understanding the fundamental differences between them and how to navigate each is especially nuanced. Each type comes with its own set of Rules and procedures.
A petition under Chapter 39 is housed in dependency/juvenile court, and it includes a wide set of grounds, including abandonment, conduct that threatens a child’s safety or wellbeing, incarceration in defined circumstances, egregious conduct, chronic and untreated substance abuse, and others.
A petition under Chapter 63 terminates parental rights in connection with adoption, always. The available grounds are narrower, and include consent, an affidavit of nonpaternity, and abandonment among them.
Either way, the standard is clear and convincing evidence, with statutory findings of least restrictive means and the manifest best interest of the child. These cases require strict compliance with statutes and rules, with a carefully built record. Attorney Maeder litigates with a future appeal in mind, because an opposed order terminating a parent’s rights often is challenged in the higher courts.
Trial attorneys who handle these matters occasionally want a second set of eyes throughout litigation, with complex motion practice, or for mid-case hearings on child hearsay, placement changes, and other significant case milestones. Law Offices of Dayna Maeder consults on Chapter 39 and Chapter 63 strategy, drafts and reviews petitions and proposed judgments, appears as co-counsel or coverage counsel, and will tackle the appeal if one follows. The firm also takes dependency and adoption appeals under both chapters, where there are expedited appellate deadlines and specific rules guiding that area of practice.
Contact Law Offices of Dayna Maeder to discuss your Florida adoption or termination of parental rights matter.
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