# Can birth parents contest the adoption and succeed?



## baby0684 (May 20, 2012)

Hi

I met with birth parent recently, and they seem to be changing their life around. Stable jobs, stable home. Lots of family support round them.

They said that they are with a new solicitor and said they are going to fight to get little one back. 

Bee has been with us for 5 months, all the paperwork should be done for court by end feb, so looking at april/may for adoption order.

The family do not agree to the adoption (which is quite normal), but could they win and get him back?


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## aaa is a MUMMY (Oct 13, 2009)

Baby we were told it had never happened. Have you spoken to sw. 
We met bm and birth grand father on wed and the following week we heard from sw saying she had been to the court and entered an objection and we would be getting a copy of all papers from the court. Typically it arrived when hubby was at.work I couldn't stop crying it read like she was completely amazing she had some fantastic character references. Was also a friday and sw didn't work friday or mondays!
Bless our sw she actually rang on the Monday at about 830 she had spoken to bubba sw and she was going to call us later that day..our sw also came out to talk to us as she knew how I worried.  When bubba sw rang she basically said it was all a load of rubbish and she had counter evidence against everything. Bubba is ours now

We had a couple on our prep who were removed from fc house as bm was contesting and she had got parents against injustice involved. The reasoning behind appeal was something our la had never come across. The introductions started again a  few days later they did have endless court appearances at very high courts their son has now been theirs for almost 3 years.

Hope that helps and I am sure it will all be ok. They look at the impact on child as well and to move little bee again is in no ones interest.   it is so hard xx


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## Handstitchedmum (Mar 24, 2013)

Technically, the child's interest is the priority, not just an afterthought. So, a birth parent not only has to show how they've turned their life around but also why it is in the child's best interest to experience another disruptive move. I don't think there are many precedents for that.


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## EverHopefulmum (Sep 23, 2009)

We discussed this with our SW the other day and she said she had been a SW for over 25 years and she had only ever heard of it happening once, and that was exceptional circumstances where the birth dad was living abroad and for some reason they couldn't find him so he had not been assessed as a carer and then he suddenly arrived back on the scene when they tried for the AO ie it was an error on SW's/legals part.


You're never going to stop worrying until you get the AO in your hand, but if SW have done their job correctly (which i'm sure they have) then no court in the land will send LO back to birth family now. Sometimes it's birth families last attempt to show they care, even though they know it won't change the situation & i've actually hear one SW say they encourage birth family to do it as it sends a good message to the LO that they were wanted


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## newmum (Jan 22, 2011)

We've been told that BM will contest our application and that it's pretty normal these days for BM to do this! but not to worry? Hard not to though isn't x


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## Flash123 (Jan 29, 2006)

From what i have gathered from our current experience, during the first hearing the birth parents can notify the court that they wish to contest. This can be done either in writing, by their legal repsentative or in person. The judge considers this but needs to award 'leave' in order for the parents to formally contest and their argument to be heard. 

Bf contested ours but the judge was hearing none of it so he wasn't given the chance to take it any further.


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## MummyElf (Apr 11, 2013)

My SW said more and more birth parents are contesting....although I don't believe she has ever mentioned any of them succeeding.

When I worked in family law we represented lots of birth parents having children removed up until the point of the Court making an Order for the child(ren) to be placed for adoption. To get to that point a lot of work is done to see if there is any way the parents can look after the child, all sorts of assessments and ongoing contact with the child throughout (although birth parents frequently don't turn up for this contact). It takes a long time and thousands of pounds are spent, hours poured in by experts etc.

The bottom line is with all the information and evidence there, the Court come to the decision in the best interests of the child to place for adoption if that's clearly what is best .... It takes a LOT to overturn that evidence. I have seen birth parents wish to show they've changed to stop the plan for adoption many times but none of them have succeeded as generally it's been too little too late I.e. A clear drug habit evidenced many times over through testing and then them saying they are clean and want to prove it as soon as the child is to be placed for adoption.


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