Today the Kentucky Court of Appeals affirmed a trial court’s refusal to set aside a same-sex adoption in S.J.L.S. v. T.L.S., but it is quite clear that is not the way the court would like the headline to read. In the exceedingly well-written 61 page opinion, like any great legal thriller, you don’t learn until...Read More

Adoptions Changes Sought, Panel Wants Safeguards For Removing Kids From Parents is the title of a Lexington Herald-Leader article by Valarie Honeycutt Spears. Some quotes: A task force studying the improper removal of children from their parents in Kentucky is for the second time asking the General Assembly to pass a reform bill.Read More

From Madelyn Freundlich, 2007 November. New York NY: Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute in the report, “For the Records: Restoring a Right to Adult Adoptees,” are the following findings, via the Family Law Prof Blog: Prohibiting adopted people from getting their personal information raises significant civil rights concerns and potentially serious, negative consequences for their...Read More

ZOELLER V. GUTTERMAN FAMILY LAW: GRANDPARENT VISITATION AND ADOPTION 2006-CA-002141 PUBLISHED: AFFIRMING PANEL: THOMPSON, PRESIDING; NICKELL, STUMBO CONCUR COUNTY: JEFFERSON DATE RENDERED: 10/26/2007Read More

M.B. v. D.W. ___S.W. 3d ___ (Ky. App. 2007), decided September 21, 2007.Read More

The Family Law Prof Blog reports: The Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled unanimously today that state law does not preclude unmarried couples from jointly petitioning to adopt a child. The case involved a lesbian couple who had petitioned to adopt a 10-year-old girl and her 6-year-old brother, for whom the couple had been foster parents...Read More

Both The Family Law Prof Blog and The Indiana Law Blog have posts about adult adoptions of a partner who becomes an heir. From The Family Law Prof Blog: “On an island liberally sprinkled with the affluent and well-connected members of such clans as Bush, du Pont, Rockefeller and Cabot, the Watson family occupies a...Read More

We have been reading the news (New York Times, USA Today) of the Memphis child who will be returned in days to her biological parents, after being raised by another family for seven years. I have been waiting to see the Tennessee opinion, which is now online.Read More

“Kentucky looks to speed up adoptions”, is the Courier-Journal front page headline reporting on the Blue Ribbon Panel on Adoption meeting in Frankfort yesterday. The online edition link to today’s article was not yet available at the early hour of this posting. What an informative and productive meeting it appears to have been.Read More

Storm v. Mullins, 199 S.W.3d 156 (Ky., 2006) Issues and Holdings: 1. Whether the consent to custody form, signed by the mother, was sufficient to establish the mother’s consent to the paternal grandparents’ adoption of the children. The Supreme Court held that such form was not sufficient. 2. Whether the one-year statute of limitations period...Read More