State Rep. Doug Wozniak has introduced a bill to correct an unintentional result of 2017 legislation preventing attorneys from legally serving people in adoption court hearings.

In 2017, legislation was passed to prevent underground adoptions without court supervision. Wozniak said that through unintentional oversight, the Legislature failed to include language to protect attorneys who regularly represent adoptive parents and biological parents in legal court-supervised adoptions.

“This is a problem,” Wozniak said. “Because the bills do not take into consideration that attorneys specializing in adoption-related matters are necessary in adoption hearings, and without them adoption would be nearly impossible for many families.”

Under current law, these attorneys are violating the law and are subject to felony prosecution.

“This was not the intention of the Legislature at the time the bills were passed,” Wozniak said. “There are hundreds of children in need of good, loving homes. We must do all we can to make adoption possible.”

To remedy this problem, Wozniak’s newly introduced legislation would amend the existing law to allow adoption attorneys to continue to lawfully advertise for and perform their services in court-supervised adoptions without the threat of prosecution.

The bipartisan bill package, House Bills 5148-9, were referred to the House Families, Children and Seniors Committee.

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