The Indiana Court of Appeals reversed an adoption order Tuesday, finding the child’s biological father was denied due process when the trial court failed to give him notice of his right to be represented by counsel.
Children going into the state’s child welfare system end up more broken, attorneys suing the Department of Child Services say, because they are not being provided with therapy and treatment to help them heal. Rather, the lawyers contend, DCS is just finding beds to stick the kids in and forgetting about their other needs.
A Hendricks County stepmother cannot adopt her husband’s son because the child’s mother was justified in her failure to regularly communicate with the child for several years, the Indiana Court of Appeals has ruled.
Hoosier families celebrating adoption later this year will have the chance to commemorate the experience with cameras in the courtroom.
Holding her infant foster daughter, attorney Kiamesha Colom explained in simple terms a 13-page bill that revamps parts of Indiana’s foster care system. Come July 1, she and her husband, like other long-term foster parents around the state, will be able to have more of a say in the care and protection of their baby.
The Indiana Court of Appeals reiterated that a pair of grandparents seeking to visit their deceased son’s child should be given their day in court.
The number of adopted Hoosiers seeking information from the state about their birth parents has more than quadrupled since a new law took effect last year, opening access to the records.
The grandparents of two children adopted by their unmarried uncle do not have standing to seek visitation, the Indiana Court of Appeals wrote Friday in an opinion rejecting the argument that the children were “born out of wedlock.”
While the effort to give foster parents standing in cases involving abused and neglected children has stalled in the Statehouse, numerous child welfare and Department of Child Services reforms appear poised to pass the Indiana General Assembly.
Indiana residents who were adopted as children are waiting longer than expected to get access to previously closed adoption records as one state agency struggles to handle thousands of requests. The state Department of Health has received more than 3,300 requests for adoption records since a July law made such information available to adoptees.
Indianapolis attorneys Joe Delamater, a criminal defense lawyer at Razumich & Delamater PC, and Kiamesha Colom, a partner at Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, encountered confusion, frustration and ultimately heartbreak during the course of a few months when they became foster parents to a baby boy. Now they are pushing for changes to state laws they say will balance the system so the right results happen for kids.
The Indiana Court of Appeals has upheld a trial court ruling setting aside a Lawrence County adoption, finding the child’s mother and grandfather committed fraud on the court by falsely claiming they did not know who the child’s biological father was in an effort to allow the grandfather to adopt the child.
In celebration of National Adoption Day, Hoosier families will once again have an opportunity to smile for the camera in the courtroom. The Indiana Supreme Court has announced its authorization of cameras in court for uncontested adoptions during the month of November, allowing photography and video of the adoption proceedings.
A Hamilton County judge’s ruling that a father’s consent was not required for a stepfather to adopt his child was clearly erroneous, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled Friday, reversing the adoption.
Despite having already granted the adoption petition, the Vanderburgh Superior Court must revisit an adoption case after the Indiana Supreme Court denied transfer to a Court of Appeals opinion that found an error in the trial court’s decision.
A conflicted Indiana Court of Appeals panel on Friday affirmed an adoption order in which a prison inmate who was the child’s biological father objected, but was deemed to have given implied consent for failing to put his name on the state’s Putative Father Registry.
The Indiana Supreme Court will consider sentencing practices, sex offender restrictions and parental rights when it hears oral arguments in three cases Thursday.
Lawmakers have offered more than a dozen bills to address a growing children in need of services crisis, many of which have won broad support in the General Assembly.
In a case a judge said represents “how substance abuse is savaging the familial bonds within Indiana and around the country,” the Indiana Court of Appeals upheld the adoption of a southern Indiana child without the mother’s consent after finding the mother’s substance abuse made her unfit.
Through her life experiences and career as an adoption attorney, Natalie Chavis gained insight into the legal and emotional effects of the foster care and adoption processes, insight that led her to self-publish her first novel, “Adopting Tiger.” Her upcoming book signing and fundraiser coincides with National Adoption Day.