Bob  0:00  
It's our pleasure today to talk with Kimm Burger from the KB Law Office here in Hillsdale as we do each and every month. And, Kimm, we've already talked earlier this year about adoptions. But let's talk again about adoptions from a different angle. And this would be for people who may or may not want to put your children up for adoption. Sometimes there are those instances, I'm assuming, where people don't get the option. The court in said or somebody else decides, right?

Kimm  0:29  
That is correct. There's a couple of different ways that could happen, you know, DHHS gets involved, or the parent isn't, you know, having contact with their child and a step parent comes in and ask the court to terminate their rights.

Bob  0:43  
So how does that work? Let's say for example, we use me for an example every month, so we'll use me for an example, let's say I fall in love. And I get married, and my new wife had a has a three year old child, and the three year old hasn't seen her father, in those three years, and the father has no contact with the child, can I then adopt that child?

Kimm  1:06  
You can petition the court to adopt the child, if the father wants to sign off and saying, Yes, I don't care, you can be the father, father of this child, then they just go into court sign the papers saying they agree. Now if they don't, then the step parent can ask that the parents be involuntarily terminated. And then they would have to show that the other parent hasn't had contact with the child in a period of two years or more. And they haven't substantially complied with the support order. If that those criteria are met, then the court can say, I'm going to terminate your rights.

Bob  1:44  
So what if either A you can't find the biological father, or B, you don't know who the biological father is?

Kimm  1:54  
Okay, A is rather easier. You try to find them, you do bunch of searches, Facebook, you know, public records, if you can't find them, then you ask the court to be able to publish, meaning you put in a paper and different things, where we last knew that person lived, and then it's published for a period of time, and then the court would take notice of that and they can involuntarily terminate the rights.

Bob  2:17  
So before we get to B  then another question in that, how long is that time period? You search for somebody? I mean, you know, you can say, well, I've searched for two days, and I can find him. Is it a week, a month, a year? Is there a standard time? Or does the judge just say, eventually, that's long enough?

Kimm  2:34  
Basically, we just have to prove that we've done our due diligence to find them, you know, not just I looked in the phone book, I don't see them or I looked on Facebook, it is a number of different steps that you've taken to find that parent.

Bob  2:47  
So now let's get to B let's say that my new wife does not know who the biological father is. How complicated does that get?

Kimm  2:55  
That gets pretty complicated, because you can't terminate somebody rights if you don't know who that person is. So there's a bunch of different things that come into play. So we can the mom could say, I believe it's John Doe over here. And John Doe could say, okay, you know, I'll agree and will I agree to terminate my rights, or she says, I don't really know who it is, it could be a number of different people. And then we come into a problem to figure out who's is who's and we can't force somebody to take a DNA test. So there is a bunch of different legal hurdles, we have to jump over to try to figure out who that is and get something going.

Bob  3:35  
But is it still a possibility? Whether it be A or B, of still being able to adopt? 

Kimm  3:40  
Yes, it is just how much more work it takes to get to that point.

Bob  3:46  
Now, does the child have any say, say the child is older, 7, 8, 9, 10 years old, and does not want me to adopt them, but for legal purposes, for future purposes, you know, I would still like to adopt the child to make sure they're taken care of later in life. Does the child have any say in in all of this?

Kimm  4:04  
I've never actually had that happen. But I would guess, you know, the courts gonna make the finding if that's in the best interest of the child. And if the court says, Yes, it is. It's the courts gonna say yes, you're gonna get to adopt.

Bob  4:15  
So when you adopt the child, when I adopt that child, then all the legal responsibilities and rights and responsibilities of now being dad automatically kick in?

Kimm  4:25  
Yes, exactly. So you're on the hook for the child for the rest of its life.

Bob  4:29  
It's a wonderful way to put it. Now are there any other situations where, you know, other than the the standard, you know, a gal is pregnant? She wants to give the baby up for adoption? It goes through an adoption agency. Are there any other situations that might come up if I want to try to adopt a child that that might need your services?

Kimm  4:47  
Yeah, so what happens is CPS or DHHS, what it's known now comes in and gets involved. Whether you have unsafe home, drugs are a big one in Hillsdale County, and they can remove the child or children from your home because of those safety concerns, and then the court gets involved to, you know, give that parent services. If the parent isn't complying with the services, the court can say, You know what, you don't want your child obviously. So we're going to take the child from you and terminate your rights.

Bob  5:16  
So then foster care gets involved, correct? 

Kimm  5:19  
Correct. A lot of times what happens is when the state removes the children from the home, they are placed, they try to be placed with family relations, because that's better for the child. But when that can't happen, they go into the foster care system and foster care homes.

Bob  5:34  
Do foster care parents, then if they're fostering a child? And do they have a better chance then of adopting that child if they've been able to take care of them to say, six months or so? Or is it an equal chance for everybody?

Kimm  5:49  
Yes and no, the state wants stability for the child. So if they've been in the foster care home for a period of time, and usually it's at least 18 months before termination usually starts, then the state wants to keep that child in that home. If the foster parent wants to adopt. The other relations can come in and ask to adopt the child but then they're going to kind of look at the stability and a number of different factors and it usually leans towards the foster care family.

Bob  6:16  
If somebody's thinking about adopting in one of these situations, should their first thought be I need to contact Kimm Burger and and she can kind of walk me through the process?

Kimm  6:25  
Sure, I'd be happy to help. There's a lot of different information of what you should do what you can't do. And so if you contact me, I can help you figure that out.

Bob  6:33  
And how do they contact the KB Law Office here in Hillsdale? 

Kimm  6:37  
You can call my office at 517-797-6021 or you can go to my website, which is kburgerlaw.com.

Bob  6:45  
We appreciate Kimm Burger joining us today on our conversations with Kimm