In 2009 I had a baby girl. Since then, her birth father has only seen her about four times. He has said in the past that he wants nothing to do with her, or me. My husband wants to adopt her, and I want him to, but I don't have the money for a lawyer, and I was wondering if I actually have one, or if I coule just pay the court fees and get it taken care of?

You COULD do it without a lawyer.

You could ALSO have a bone set without a doctor.

If you want it to be legal, binding, and unable to be overturned, you want a lawyer. I would NEVER recommend an adoption be done without a lawyer.

You DO need the birthfather's permission for an adoption to go through--if he won't give it, you will have to PROVE that he is not a fit father.

Are you collecting child support? Have you even filed for chlid support? I ask because child support would stop once an adoption was complete---so it's incentive to get him to sign away his rights.

You HAVE to go to court for this. There are actually two parts to an adoption: relinquishment (by the bio-father) and adoption (by the stepfather). One cannot happen without the other.

You CAN do it without a lawyer, but you'd have to make sure all the proper paperwork was filed, and make sure that the biological father showed up in court to relinquish--would you be able to do that, for sure?