Using an Out of State Attorney

[IM2010]

Hi Ladies,
We are homestudy approved, and making final decisions on which attorney to use. We live in a state that does not allow attorneys to advertise so we are thinking of using an attorney that can advertise (in CA). I'm just wondering if any of you have done this? Did it make the cost of the total adoption really HIGH?! We can finalize in CA if the baby is born there, if not we will likely finalize in our home state. Either way we will advertise on our own as well (i've already made a website) . Thank you!!!

[BC-lisa in venice]

CA does not allow advertising. If CA is the state where you find an Attorney to work with (some rally great ones here) you will be matched thru their referral network NOT advertising. Most people who live here choose to advertise in other states where advertising is legal and stats favor more adoptive placements (states with younger populations and high birth rates) and states where expenses are lower. If you choose to search here you can use the internet but newspaper ads are not OK. Of course people do it all of the time but that is the kind of thing that can come back to bite you after placement.

We live in CA and used a CA Attorney AND an Attorney in OH for our dd's placement. It can be more expensive to do it this way because you have to pay two Attorney's, two agencies, etc but often finding just the right situation is more important. If you are working with an agency sometimes they will discount their fees if you have an out of state Attorney because they don't have to do any of the out of state legals or birth parent stuff. So you end up paying about the same as if you only used your local agency when all is said and done but really depends on the professionals you work with.