Charleston Adoption Lawyers

Adoption Lawyers in Charleston

Whether you’re a hopeful parent-to-be or a birth mother seeking the best future for your child, our team of experienced adoption lawyers in Charleston is here to guide you through every step of the adoption process.

Why Choose Our Charleston Adoption Attorneys

We strive to be the best at what we do. That’s why we’re top-rated (AV) by Martindale-Hubbell, Stephan Futeral is rated 10 (Superb) by AVVO. Thomas Nelson is one of Super Lawyers Rising Stars, and clients endorse us with 5 stars ★★★★★ on Google Reviews.

1. Experience: With decades of combined experience, our lawyers can ensure that every legal detail is handled with precision and care.
2. Comprehensive Support: From initial consultations to finalizing adoption paperwork, we’re by your side to answer questions, provide legal advice, and offer emotional support.
3. Familiar with Local Regulations: Adoption laws can vary from state to state. Our Charleston-focused team knows South Carolina adoption laws inside out, ensuring a seamless experience.

3. foster care adoptions – Helping foster parents finalize AN adoption.

4. international adoptions – Navigating the complexities of international adoption procedures.

1. private adoptions – directly between families and birth parents.

2. step-parent adoptions – assisting stepparents in legally adopting their spouse’s child.

3. foster care adoptions – helping foster parents finalize the adoption of children in their care.

4. international adoptions – navigating the complexities of international adoptions.

Types of Adoption in South Carolina

South Carolina law provides several paths to adoption, with requirements that vary by the circumstances:

• Stepparent adoption: A parent’s spouse adopts the child. Whether another parent’s consent is required depends on that parent’s legal status and the statutory consent rules; a court may dispense with required consent only on a legally sufficient basis, such as termination of parental rights.
• Relative adoption: A grandparent, aunt, uncle, or other qualifying relative adopts a child in the family. Kinship does not, by itself, eliminate the statutory consent and court requirements.
• Agency adoption: The South Carolina Department of Social Services or a child-placing agency facilitates placement and adoption.
• Private adoption: A placement may be arranged without an agency, subject to the same applicable statutory safeguards, investigations, consents, and court approval.
• Adult adoption: One adult may adopt another under a separate procedure requiring the written consent of the adult to be adopted or that person’s guardian and, if there is a sole adoptive parent who is married, the spouse’s written consent. 
• Interstate adoption: When a child is placed across state lines, the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children may apply; South Carolina imposes additional requirements for placement with a nonresident. 

Who May Adopt in South Carolina?

Any South Carolina resident may petition the Family Court to adopt a child. A nonresident may petition only if one of the circumstances listed in S.C. Code Ann. § 63-9-60(B) applies. These include adoption of a special-needs child; placement with a relative related biologically or by marriage; military service in South Carolina by at least one adoptive parent; unusual or exceptional circumstances making the placement or adoption in the child’s best interests; the absence of an identified South Carolina home after a legally free child has spent at least six months in foster care; specific consent to adoption by the nonresident from all persons whose consent is required; or placement by DSS or an agency under contract with DSS. Before an interstate placement with a nonresident, the statute also requires compact compliance and a South Carolina judicial determination with specific findings. A single adult may petition; a married prospective adoptive parent should obtain advice about the spouse’s participation and any required consent. The court must determine that the petitioner is fit and able to care for the child and that the adoption serves the child’s best interests. 

Consent and Relinquishment

An adoption requires the consents or relinquishments specified by statute, unless there is a legally sufficient basis to proceed without a particular person’s consent. For a child conceived or born during the parents’ marriage, the parents or surviving parent generally must consent. For a child born to an unmarried mother, her consent is required; whether the unmarried father’s consent is required depends on when the child is placed and on the father’s conduct under the applicable statutory test. 

If placement occurs more than six months after birth, an unmarried father’s consent is required if he has maintained substantial and continuous or repeated contact, generally shown by fair and reasonable support and qualifying visits or communication; the statute also recognizes a specified six-month period of openly living with the child and holding himself out as the father. If placement occurs six months or less after birth, consent is required if he openly lived with the child or mother for the continuous six months immediately before placement and held himself out as the father, or paid a fair and reasonable amount toward the child’s support or pregnancy- or birth-related expenses. The relevant period is tied to placement, not simply to birth. Depending on the circumstances, consent may also be required from a guardian, legal custodian, or child-placing agency. An adoptee over fourteen must consent unless the court finds lack of capacity to consent or that dispensing with consent serves the adoptee’s best interests. 

A consent or relinquishment must be a sworn document signed after the adoptee’s birth before two witnesses, one of whom must meet the statutory qualifications. The witnesses must certify that they discussed the document and believe it was signed voluntarily; they must also deliver a copy to the signer. Withdrawal requires a Family Court order after notice and an opportunity to be heard, and findings both that withdrawal serves the child’s best interests and that consent was involuntary or obtained under duress or coercion. Entry of the final adoption decree makes consent or relinquishment irrevocable. 

The South Carolina Adoption Process

The following is a general outline for adoption of a child; adult adoption follows a different statutory procedure.

1. Preplacement and background investigations: Before placement by an agency or person with prospective adoptive parents, the required preplacement and background investigations and reports generally must be completed. If more than a year passes after the preplacement report before placement, it must be updated. A court may permit temporary custody and placement before completion upon good cause shown. Do not assume a stepparent or relative placement is automatically exempt from these requirements. 
2. Placement: The child is placed in the prospective adoptive home in accordance with applicable law, including interstate-placement requirements when they apply.
3. Petition: The petitioner files an adoption petition in Family Court within sixty days after the child is placed for adoption in the petitioner’s home. Required consents and investigative reports are filed with the petition or later upon good cause shown. 
4. Postplacement investigation: After the petition is filed, a postplacement investigation evaluates the placement and whether adoption serves the child’s best interests; its report must be filed with the court at the final hearing. 
5. Final hearing and decree: The hearing generally must occur no later than six months after the petition is filed, or twelve months for a special-needs child, unless the court extends the time for good cause. The usual ninety-day period concerns the child’s actual custody with the petitioner, not a mandatory ninety-day wait after filing; the statute permits modification on good cause. The court reviews the consents, notice, reports, expenses, petitioner’s fitness, and child’s best interests before granting a decree. 
6. Birth record and legal effect: Following the decree, the applicable vital-records authority processes the adoption certificate. For a person born in South Carolina, the state registrar generally prepares a supplementary birth certificate naming the adoptive parents; for a person born in another U.S. state, South Carolina transmits the certificate of adoption to the state of birth. The decree establishes the legal parent-child relationship and its rights and duties, subject to the decree’s treatment of any biological parent’s existing rights. 

Guidance for Birth Parents

A birth parent considering adoption should understand who must consent, how the child will be placed, what information will be provided, and when consent becomes final. A birth parent may participate in identifying a prospective adoptive family, but a proposed placement remains subject to statutory requirements and court approval. A birth parent should consult independent counsel before signing a consent or relinquishment, especially if counseling or legal guidance is wanted. South Carolina requires the sworn consent or relinquishment to be signed after birth, with the prescribed witnesses and disclosures; it cannot be withdrawn simply because the parent changes their mind. 

South Carolina prohibits giving or receiving a fee or anything of value in exchange for consent or relinquishment of a child. Subject to court approval, permissible adoption-related costs include necessary actual medical expenses and reasonable living expenses of the mother and child for a reasonable period, as well as specified investigation, witness, guardian ad litem, attorney, and agency fees. The petitioner must file a verified, itemized accounting at the final hearing of payments made, agreed to, or anticipated; reasonable living expenses must be supported by receipts. Counseling is not separately listed as an automatically reimbursable category, so any proposed payment should be reviewed under the statute before it is made. 

Start Your Adoption Journey Today

Reach out to our adoption lawyers in Charleston and take the first step toward expanding your family. With our knowledge of South Carolina’s adoption laws, the procedure for adopting a child, and a deep understanding of the emotional facets of adoption, you’re in the best hands.