What Are Home Studies? Home Studies are required for adoptions, including those by a relative, foster care to adoption, and private adoptions. No matter what type of adoption you decide to move forward with, like all adoptive families in Minnesota, you must first be approved to adopt through a Minnesota-licensed home study provider. Home studies...Read More

A few generations ago, when someone was adopted, information about the birth parents was usually wholly unknown. Adoptions were closed. Today, it’s estimated that only 5 percent of adoptions are closed. “That means that 95 percent of today’s adoptions involve some level of openness, whether they are mediated, fully open, or somewhere in between.”[1] What...Read More

Most matters that go before the courts have two sides. Adoption is no exception. This is especially true in the case of stepparent adoption. Whether you are trying to adopt or a petition has been filed to terminate your parental rights, it is important to understand the process of step-parent adoption. It is also of...Read More

Inheritance laws offer some protection to spouses, but rarely to unmarried partners, when a will and other estate planning documents do not exist. Even if you’ve drafted a contractual agreement between the two of you regarding disposition of assets, inheritance laws and other biases can affect how a judge or a relative will carry out...Read More