Procedural Guide to Opposing Adoptions

in NJ

Revoking Consent to Adopt

1. The goal of adoption is to give children security and stability of a permanent home.
    
2. Revoking consent to an adoption causes disruption and emotional turmoil in a child's life.
    
3. Therefore, NJ allows consent to an adoption to be revoked only for specific reasons. These include:

• If there was fraud or coercion

• If revocation is in the best interests of the child

• If the birth parents and adoptive parents mutually agree to the revocation

If the adoption has not been finalized

It is extremely important that the birth parent or interested person opposing an adoption move immediately to judicially intervene to keep the child out of the proposed adoptive home.  In nearly every case, the best interests of the child are advanced by keeping the "status quo” and the courts in New Jersey are reluctant to remove children from homes where they have lived for any appreciable time and where they are loved and well cared for.

General guidelines for opposing NJ adoptions include invalidity of surrender to an approved agency, fraud, duress, misrepresentation and of course the best interests of the child.   If a child is living in a proposed adoptive home it is essential that an action be filed against the adoption agency and the adopting parents to set aside, surrender and seek an injunction removing the child from the adoptive home.  If the adoption is a "private placement” with no written surrender to an approved agency, termination of birth parent rights will not often be granted in the absence of a showing of abandonment or neglect. 

If a relative other than a parent or legal guardian objects to adoption and wants legal custody of the child, it is again imperative that they proceed to immediately take legal action to protect their interests until the issue of placement is resolved.