Adoption Law in Georgia

If you're considering adopting in the state of Georgia, understanding the law is a critical step. And today we are having a conversation with Sherriann Hicks. She's an adoption attorney in the state of Georgia. And she's going to give us an overview of not only adoption law, but surrogacy law in the state of Georgia. I am so excited to share this conversation with you today with Sherriann.  Sherriann is a wealth of information, and she has been practicing adoption and reproductive law in the state of Georgia for well over 25 years. Why don't you join me in welcoming Sherriann to the show, Sherriann thank you so much for being willing to join us today.

SHERRIANN: You are so welcome. Nice to be here.

AMANDA;  Would you mind starting with sharing just a little bit of background about yourself with the audience so they can get to know you a little bit better?

SHERRIANN:  Sure. My name is Sherriann Hicks. And I like to call myself a family formation attorney. I specialize in adoption and surrogacy, and child advocacy. I've been in practice for over 25 years. And I work with my husband, Jeff. And we have the Hicks Law Group. I started specializing in adoption a long time ago because I've really enjoyed putting families together and representing adoptive parents and representing birth parents. And so I just sort of made that my niche. I am currently the Deputy Director of Adoption for the Academy of  Adoption and Assisted Reproduction lawyers. And previously, I was also on the board of trustees there. So I enjoy that organization. And I strongly encourage anybody who is thinking about adoption, to go to our website and learn more about the academy and to find attorneys in their state who can help them. And those are listed on the Academy's website as well.

AMANDA:  That is great. Thank you so much for pointing that out. I should also mention that this entire adoption legal series is really based upon finding four A's attorneys in the respective states. And so I do as well highly recommend going there and using that as your source because you know that those attorneys really specialize in adoption and reproductive law in particular. And so we'll always link to that in the show notes as well. 

SHERIANN:  Right. Right. 

AMANDA:  Well, I do want to start with just kind of an overview and foundation for our viewers and listeners around what adoption law is like in the state of Georgia. Do you mind just giving us a brief overview?

The Adoption Process In Georgia

SHERRIANN: Sure, I will start by saying this video here is meant for education. And so it's not creating a legal relationship between me and anyone who might be watching. It's not creating an attorney-client privilege. These rules are subject to change. So, for example, in 2018, Georgia rewrote the adoption code here. And there were lots of changes made to our law at that time, we have very little law on assisted reproduction. So we always tell our clients that area of the law is developing, and is subject to constant change. But as far as adoptions go, I would like to view Georgia as a friendly state for adoption. We have the ability for a birth parent to sign an out of court consent. So that's always good, because no one likes going into court to surrender the parental rights, especially right after they may have had a baby. We have a four day revocation period. And that's pretty good. If you compare all 50 states, four is not bad at all. There are different rules, depending on what type of adoption you are doing. The rules for agency are a little bit different than private, independent adoption. But overall, I think we are a friendly state, we allow non-residents to finalize here if they have complied with the ICPC. So that's really good. That's new, we didn't do that before 2018. But when we rewrote the code, the adoption code, that was something that we wanted to include, we want to get these adoptions finalized as quickly as we can. And we move them pretty fast here in Georgia. So if the cases are ready, we can get adoptions finalized in 30 to 45 days.

AMANDA:  Wow that is a really adoption friendly law, for sure. So I'd like to go back and just unpack a few things and ask a few specific questions there. So I'll start at the very beginning around a four-day revocation period. So can you speak a little bit more about what the revocation period means in Georgia, as well as if it's four working days or four calendar days? How does that really kind of come to life?

SHERRIANN; So the four days are counted in an interesting way, the day that a parent would sign is day zero, so that day does not even count in the four days, the four days start counting the next day, and they go straight through. But the fourth day cannot fall on a Saturday or a Sunday, or a legal holiday. Except, if you sign on a Friday, Saturday does count as day one and Sunday is day two, but it cannot end, the four days cannot end if the fourth day is a Saturday, no, if it's a Sunday, no, it rolls over to Monday. If Monday is a legal holiday, then it rolls over to Tuesday. And the revocation there are certain rules about how the revocation is delivered. And they're outlined in the consent we actually call our consent surrenders. And the parent signs a surrender, and then they sign an acknowledgment. And both of those documents tell them exactly how they go about revoking. The rule here in Georgia is you can revoke for any reason in the world until that fourth day passes. And then once that fourth day passes, there's absolutely no way to revoke a surrender.

AMANDA;  Okay? And is she sending surrender at birth or prior to birth? And if so, how does that impact the four days.

SHERRIANN; So, in Georgia, you have to wait until you have your baby in order to sign a surrender. For a mother, if you are an unmarried biological father, you can sign a pre birth surrender. So that's nice. And in some cases, we can go ahead and have the father sign off, and his obligations are done, his four days will pass before she even has the baby. But a parent cannot sign until after the baby is born. Now, I use the word parent, because, in Georgia, a biological father who's not married to the mother is not considered a parent. Someone who is married to the mother is a legal parent, but we differentiate here in Georgia, so that's important for people to know. But if they're not married, he signs a pre-birth surrender, he can sign that at any time after she identifies him as the biological father. And in some cases, fathers do want to just get that over with and get that done with and just know that their obligations are over. And unless the birth mother parents or revokes her surrender, you know, that's his stance, his surrender is in place forever. In an agency adoption, the mother has to wait 24 hours after birth to sign, in a private independent adoption, they can sign anytime after birth, it's typically good practice to try to wait 24 hours if you can, but in some situations, the mothers want to get out of the hospital, they need to get out of the hospital, to get to their other children, get back to work for a host of reasons. So we have some flexibility there.

AMANDA:  Okay, yeah, that totally makes sense. So when it comes to, you mentioned the word parent in particular, there as it relates to revocation, so if they are married. I would assume then based upon your definition, this description here, that would mean that he could not sign until 24 hours after birth, and then the four-day policy would be in effect as well.

SHERRIANN:  Yep, that's right. So if there's a married couple, and I deal with, I've dealt with several of these, especially since the pandemic, but if they're both signing, then he waits for her father and mother, legal parents, both of them sign at the same time. And if it's an agency, we make them both wait 24 hours, and if it's a private, independent, we take it as soon as we feel like it's safe to do so.

AMANDA;  Yeah, that makes sense. So let's talk briefly about the differences you mentioned between agency and independent. So, independent in our audience is also referred to sometimes private adoption, sometimes self-match adoption, it tends to go through a few different, kind of words or terminology there. So I am hearing you refer to that. So I'm assuming that means it is legal in the state of Georgia for hopeful adoptive parents to connect directly with expectant parents to match in that manner. 

Can You Self-Match In Georgia?

SHERRIANN:  It is, but we have to be really careful about who can advertise in Georgia because we do have some limits on who can advertise here. So only agencies and licensed attorneys are allowed to do that. So if you are a hopeful adoptive parent, you need to consult with a Georgia attorney if you are working with a Georgia birth mother or if you live in Georgia as the adoptive parents, just to make sure that you're following all of the laws accurately. I always tell people you think that you need to get a home study first or you need to go find a birth mother or a situation.  But really what you need to do is talk to an adoption attorney because you need guidance, you need protection from the start. And so I offer consultations to anybody that's interested in adopting. I offer a consultation, and they pay for one hour of my time, and I help them get on a path, develop a plan, and, you know, make sure that they're looking in the right places, and that they're following all the laws because the laws are very complicated. Interesting thing about adoptions is that the laws are different in all of our states. So all 50 states have different laws. So it's different if you're talking to somebody that's doing an adoption in Florida, or in Tennessee, or in Texas. And so it's just really important to have an attorney involved from the get go.

AMANDA:  I highly, highly recommend and that's the whole reason why I wanted to do this series is that I would get a lot of questions from our community on am I allowed to … and I would say, I’m not an attorney, you've got to talk to an attorney in your state, because that really, you guys are the experts for a reason. And we want to make sure that we're not putting anyone in jeopardy throughout this process. And we certainly don't want to put baby in jeopardy. So having an adoption attorney as your partner is really critical. And having one in the state that you live in, no matter if you're considering adopting in another state is important, because there are different rules as it relates to finalization and ICPC. And so you just want to make sure you have the right partner from the beginning. So thank you for that. It's really important. So you mentioned that an adoption attorney and adoption agencies are the only ones that are allowed to advertise. Are there specific per the law in Georgia, are there specifics called out in the law as it relates to what constitutes advertising? And is that something you would help someone through throughout their consultation with you? 

Can You Advertise Your Adoption Profile In Georgia?

SHERRIANN:  You know, it's just a little bit unclear as to what advertising would mean, and the Internet, of course, has kind of changed the landscape for everybody. So, again, I think what you need to do is you need to be working with an attorney, if you want to advertise, you need to find out, talk to the attorney about exactly what you want to do, and how can you do that and still comply with Georgia law.  The bigger problem probably is that matching, you do not want to be brokering a deal through somebody who is not allowed to match you. And where we try to be protective of both our adoptive parents and our birth parents in Georgia. And so again, just talking to an attorney from the start is the safest thing that you can do, we will guide you, we will tell you what you can and cannot do. And then you won't be in a situation where, for example, you come to me and you worked with a facilitator, and you're doing an interstate adoption into Tennessee, where they absolutely will not approve that for ICPC. And you don't find that out until after you have a baby. And then no, we have to spend a lot of time and money to fix that problem to legally comply with that state's laws. So it's just really I cannot stress enough how important it is to have an attorney just from the start. From the very beginning. I always tell people, if you're spending money on an adoption, you need to have the lawyer in place. 

AMANDA;  That's right.  Absolutely. And I agree well before the home study because again, there are implications there as well. So you mentioned the guidance aspect that an agency or an attorney will provide to a hopeful adoptive family throughout the process. Recently, I've learned in other states that providing support to an expectant parent, you know yourself directly, can also put adoption opportunities in jeopardy. Can you talk a little bit about how support services are really handled in the state of Georgia under the adoption law?

SHERRIANN:  Sure. So in Georgia, adoptive parents are allowed to pay certain living expenses to birth parents, they have to be reasonable. And they have to be related to pregnancy, or birth of the child or counseling. They're allowed to pay for counseling for the birth parents, but they cannot pay those monies directly. They have to go through the Georgia attorneys trust account. And so that's a really, really key component because we don't want your adoption to be set aside because a judge learns that you paid or promised to pay something that does not fit into those categories. So you know, you'd be surprised what kind of requests are sometimes given. I mean, I've had people ask for iPads. And I've had them  ask for certain things that I didn't feel fit in that description of reasonably related to pregnancy or birth of the child. So you just have to be really careful. Because it's a felony in Georgia. If you do that.  So yeah, nobody wants to go to jail for accidentally making a payment that wasn't legally permissible.

AMANDA: And it can start as innocent as you know, you want to help, right and someone needs a tank of gas. And you think, oh, that won't hurt, but it actually is a felony, it can hurt you. So I often coach my clients, when I'm working with them one on one, you should just always ask the attorney and quite honestly, I've also coached my clients that when you're in a situation where you know that it's just dead wrong, you have to just put it back on this is the law in the state. And this is, we know, we can't do that. And so if you aren't comfortable communicating that with an expectant family, then your attorney partner should be able to communicate on your behalf that this is the law and none of us want to get in trouble over this.  

SHERRIANN:  And it's usually a very good idea for them not to talk money to each other. Because you know, that can lead to conflict, it can lead to confusion, it can lead to hurt feelings. So having adoption professionals involved to help with those conversations is really a benefit to all parties involved.

AMANDA:  Agreed.  You don't want to start a situation that you don't want to continue, right. You want to build a relationship that you're having for life, and you don't want it to be based around the financial aspect, of course. So we've covered a lot of ground in a short period of time, you did mention at the top of the show in your background, that you also help in other types of law, reproductive law outside of adoption. Do you want to speak a little bit about that today, just to give an overview of what your area of expertise is there as well?

Surrogacy in Georgia 

SHERRIANN:  Sure. So I do a lot of assisted reproduction law. It's also referred to as ART. And in that capacity, I represent intended parents. And I also represent gestational carriers. As it is in adoption, it's the same in ART, we like independent representation for each party. So just like we like for adoptive parents to have their own legal counsel. And we like for birth parents to have independent representation. We like for intended parents. And that's what we call them on the surrogacy side, intended parents, and gestational carriers to also have independent representation. So in ART cases, I switch back and forth. Sometimes I am hired by the intended parents to draft a contract for them, and file pre birth petitions. And we call those parentage proceedings. And actually, we hope to get them designated as parents before the child gets to life before it's born. And then I also represent gestational carriers where we review contracts that other attorneys have prepared and we negotiate the terms of those contracts. And then we support the intended parents in the parentage proceedings, as they asked the court to designate them as parents pre birth. There's a lot of planning and a lot of organization that goes into surrogacy, but it is exploding. It is really, really, really popular. It's growing by leaps and bounds.

AMANDA:  And again, I highly recommend having the right partner.  I had someone recently reach out in our community that said a friend had offered to be a surrogate. And that was my number one recommendation was please go get an ART attorney involved here. So that way you guys understand the laws and the regulations because I know in some states, it can be prohibited.

SHERRIANN:  That’s right.  There are states that prohibit it.  I will say the clinics here in Georgia that do the reproduction, the medicine side of it, they are really good, and they don't start that process without there being legal in place. And so it's you know, that's great for us, because we know, the clinics are saying We're glad that you want to do this, but there are certain guidelines that we follow that you're going to have to follow, and then they send them back out to get the contracts and get everything taken care of before they even start the process.

AMANDA:  That's awesome. And thank you for kind of giving an overview of that process as well from kind of start to finish stating what's important, again, starting with having your ART partner together before you go into getting into the clinic aspect of it. So that's really important. I'd like to go back to adoption now and just talk about the process from start to finish in your mind.  I always think that our audience learns best through live examples. So if we could give an example around, I'm starting now and I'm hoping to adopt in the state of Georgia, I'm reaching out to you to have my very first conversation. Can you walk me through kind of the process all the way to finalization if you will, based upon the law there.

The Steps To Adopt A Baby In Georgia 

SHERRIANN:  So when I do a consult with prospective adoptive parents, what I tell them is that they need to do some research they need to look at the different types of adoptions that are available to them in Georgia, they need to understand that we have private adoptions, we have agency adoptions, we have adoptions from foster care, we have international adoptions, and they need to look and see we have type fits their personality best. If you are a very risk avoidant individual, it's going to be very challenging to do a private adoption under some circumstances, because there's so many components that go into that. And there's not really a social worker assigned to a birth mother to help with that process. And so for you an agency adoption might be a better fit, because then you've got a helper, you've got an agency that is actually helping meet the birth parents needs, help with expenses, and just another set of hands in there so that there's sort of an intermediary between you and that birth parent, but one of the first things that I tell them is they they're going to need a home study. So I give them some referrals to home study providers here in Georgia. After doing this for 25 years, I've worked with entities all over the country. And so I make referrals to them and say, here's some good ways to get started, here are some options and give them some choices. That way they are not overwhelmed.  They've got a finite list of things that they can do, calls they can make, they can interview different agencies, consultants, whatever it is that they choose, and they can make an informed decision, that's what I want them to do. At some point they will match with a birth parent. And once that match happens, then I charge a retainer fee to represent them through the process. And that varies because the fees are different for in-state adoptions versus interstate adoptions.  They also need to establish a budget very early on, they need to understand this is what your attorneys fees are going to be. One thing that surprises them sometimes is that it's customary for adoptive parents to also pay the birth parents legal fees. Because we want them represented, we know that they probably, in many cases, don't have the money to hire their own attorney. And we want them to get an attorney that also specializes in adoption so that they understand what the process is going to look like. In addition to that, the home study is going to cost them some money. There are some other expenses that are associated with adoption. And so I can kind of give them an idea of what all those financial pieces look like. Basically, you build a relationship with the birth parents as the pregnancy goes on. And then when the baby is born, we strongly encourage that you are present at the hospital. We help design hospital and birth plans so that we can let the hospital know an adoption is coming their way.  They greatly appreciate the advance notice and things run much smoother. Some of our hospitals in Georgia will allow adoptive parents to actually have their own room and bond with the baby right after the baby's born. Other hospitals charge fees to do that. And in some cases, the birth parent may want the adoptive mother to stay in the room with her and the baby. So we're flexible but we try to navigate all those details ahead of time. And then the baby is born and ultimately the mother will sign or the birth parents will sign surrenders. And then the baby is discharged from the hospital to the adoptive parents. If the baby is going to travel across state lines, for the purpose of adoption, the adoptive parents have to comply with the interstate compact on the placement of children. And I always tell people that's like a home study on steroids. It's just a packet like this that you have to do. And the lawyer helps with all of that. But you understand that there's a waiting period before you can travel home with baby. And then once you you get out of the revocation window, we are ready to file a petition with the court. A petition is the case filing we're asking the court to grant our adoption. And in order to do that we have to file a legal action called a petition with the court.  We show the court all of the legal documents that the parents have signed, we show the court the home study, we show the court compliance with ICPC. And ultimately, the court sets this case down for a final hearing. In Georgia, the judges are very flexible, and they are doing a lot of these hearings still by zoom. Some people would think that might not be as fun as going in person. But some people really enjoy that they can invite 30 and 40 people and people from across the country and sometimes across the world to join their final hearing. Others want to go in person. So I just let the client decide what they want to do. And the final hearings are always special no matter how you attend, whether it's in person, or it's by zoom. It's a happy, happy time for the judge and they usually make it really special.

AMANDA:  That it.  Thank you so much. I think that'll be incredibly helpful for hopeful adoptive families to really understand the process from start to finish.  There's one gray area that I want to go back and touch on, because it's a question I oftentimes get.  When you are discharged from the hospital with baby, but before revocation has ended, can you touch upon who makes decisions for baby during that period of time?

SHERRIANN:  The adoptive parents make the decisions during that time. So when a parent signs a surrender, they are releasing any and all rights, duties, responsibility, and it's released, personally to the adoptive parents until revoked. So, newborn baby goes home with the adoptive parents, they go to the pediatrician, they're usually showing the pediatrician a copy of the documents that the biological parents have signed. And that's sufficient.  If there's a revocation then of course, that takes back the surrender, and the baby would have to be returned to the biological parents immediately. And we would help with that. One thing I didn't touch on is father, so I mentioned earlier that if you're not married to a mother, you're called a putative father. And a lot of people will just call putative fathers, biological fathers, but not legal fathers. And some cases require us to terminate the rights of a biological father, before a child is legally free for adoption. So if, for example, a birth mother is not married to the biological father, and in Georgia, she has the right not to identify him if she chooses not to identify him. So many times, if they don't know who they are, or they weren't involved in the pregnancy, or they told them to go get an abortion, or they've you know, on some situations, they're victims of domestic violence or rape, they don't identify that biological father, then we have to terminate any potential rights he might have in that child before that child is legally free for adoption. And again, backing you up to when you match, that is something that you're talking to your attorney about, because that's one element of risk. And so something that I talked to my clients about when they are presented with scenarios and explain that this is a high risk case, this is a low risk case. And this is why.  

AMANDA:  Yeah, and that's, again, another important reason to have that connection point with an attorney prior to going into this, because you can talk about those risk levels. And every situation is different, right? Just because the characteristics of an opportunity, quote unquote, match with something else does not mean that it's necessarily going to fit in the same boxes as something else.  So it's really important to have someone that's walked through this numerous times, that can help you spot those,  loopholes, or potholes or whatever you want to call them, those things that can really trip you up throughout your journey that you don't want to. 

SHERRIANN:  I mean if you make the mistakes that we’ve discussed by not having an attorney involved, it costs so much more money.  Please save so much money by having an attorney, I know it sounds so weird because people think attorneys are so expensive, but no, you’re going to have to pay attorney’s fees regardless so let’s get those attorneys in soon so you can go down the right path.  And in many, many cases, we will save you money, and keep you from spending money on unnecessary things or things that we don't think are going to be helpful or beneficial to you.

AMANDA:  Yeah, I always think about them as preventative fees. Because I'm preventing something different or worse happening in the future, that's going to cost more money. 

SHERRIANN:  Yeah, that's a good way to look at it.

AMANDA:  Well, this again, has been so helpful. Any parting thoughts or words of wisdom for hopeful adoptive families out there or maybe even intended parents out there that might be considering either adoption, or surrogacy?

SHERRIANN:  Sure, I would just say, don't be weary about how long it takes.  Your baby will find you. Be educated and be prepared. It can seem like a very intimidating process, it can seem very scary to start. But I can assure you that if you get the right individuals in place, your stress level will greatly reduce. And I mean, that's what we're here for.  We are here to do the heavy lifting. We're here to guide, advocate and protect our clients. And we do that whether we're representing adoptive parents, or whether we're representing birth parents, whether we're representing intended parents or gestational carriers. So day in and day out.  And, I don't see two cases that are exactly alike. No two people on this planet are exactly alike. So just think about it, every case is different. And so it's just because there are so many variables involved, the more information you have and the more guidance you have, the better off you're going to be.

AMANDA:  Absolutely. Well said. Thank you again, so much for joining us. I'd love for the audience to know how to find you. How can they come and get in touch with you if they're considering adoption or surrogacy in the state of Georgia? 

SHERRIANN:  I am also a member of the Georgia Council of Adoption Lawyers, which is another vetted group of attorneys that specialize in adoption. They can go to that website. They can go to the Academy's website, they can Google my name Sherriann Hicks, and I have a website and it'll pop right up. And I'm in Gwinnett. County, and I travel all over the state of Georgia. So on LinkedIn, luckily for me with a unique name like mine, if they just can figure out how to spell it, S H E R R I A N N, they will be led right to me through the internet.

AMANDA:  That's awesome. And we'll be sure to link to you in our show notes as well. Okay, great. Thank you again, for your time today. We appreciate you.

SHERRIANN:  Oh, thank you. And thank you for doing this. I really think this is a great project and I hope it helps lots of people.

AMANDA:  Thank you. Me too. I trust that you found today's conversation with Sherriann  incredibly helpful, my friend. I know that the adoption process sometimes can feel overwhelming. And if you're needing to learn how to adopt a baby, be sure to check out the private adoption program where I walk you through the process step by step. And if you're adopting in the state of Georgia, please reach out to Sherriann to help support you in your adoption as well. Remember my friend, anything's possible with the right plan and support and I'm only a message away. I'll see you soon.

Disclaimer: The information contained herein is not to be considered legal advice. We are not attorneys. Should you wish to hire the attorney mentioned in this post, please contact them directly.

Hi, I Am Amanda

I am an adoption profile expert on a mission to teach you how to adopt and help you create and share your family's story more affordably!