Post-Adoption Contact Agreements

Adoption Attorneys Drafting Agreements To Enforce Open Adoption Arrangements

Research has demonstrated that in many situations, adoptees benefit from maintaining a relationship with their biological family. As a result, in 2022, with the assistance of Grob & Eirich, LLC, the Colorado General Assembly enacted the post-adoption contact agreement statute. The statute provides that in both private and public adoptions, adoptive parents, biological parents, and in some limited situations, birth relatives, can enter into an enforceable voluntary written agreement providing for the sharing of information and updates, an exchange of letters and pictures, calls, and/or visits into the future. The purpose of an open adoption is to voluntarily create and maintain an on-going channel of communication and contact between the respective parties, and in some situations, biological siblings. Accordingly, nothing in the statute permits a court in Colorado from ordering ongoing contact or communication if the adoptive parents do not expressly seek a post-adoption agreement.

Open adoption is not an arrangement in which the adopted child is co-parented. Rather, the adoptive parents are the legal parents with all the rights and responsibilities inherent in a parent-child relationship. As such, even if the terms of the open-adoption agreement are not followed, the birth parents’ relinquishment or termination of parental rights cannot be set aside.

One significant benefit of an open adoption agreement is that it can sometimes serve to settle a contested termination of parental rights case both in the context of private adoptions and in child welfare cases. Attorneys at Grob & Eirich, LLC, have extensive experience in drafting creative open adoption agreements that often result in settlement of litigious cases allowing the prospective adoptive family to proceed with finalizing an adoption.

Grob & Eirich’s representation in this area of the law includes:

• Providing an informed and unbiased opinion about whether a post-adoption contact agreement is appropriate given the nature of the court proceedings and the facts of the case;
• Drafting comprehensive and creative post-adoption contact agreements that can be enforced in the adoption filing; and
• In the event of a disagreement about the terms of a post-adoption contact agreement, representing any of the respective parties to either enforce, modify, or terminate the contact agreement.

To Learn More About Post Contact Adoption Agreements, Contact Our Firm Today.

We offer comprehensive and compassionate consultations at our Lakewood office.