Have a friend who is having a baby soon. It was unplanned. She wants me to have the baby. She wants no lawyer involed. Is there a legal way to do that? She wants me to sign under the mothers name so she can be done with it. Were talking about a baby girl I already named her November Skye.

First off, while it's your choice of name, of course--that's a name that will NOT be appreciated by the child. Believe me, I worked in a college admissions office, and those people whose names were descriptive phrases pretty much hated it. Plus, you're giving her an unusual first name on top of that--I mean seriously, how would you like it if your name was something like May Bea or February Valentine?

Secondly, you may be able to do it without lawyers, but I wouldn't recommend it. You HAVE to go to court for this. You need to make sure that the adoption papers are in order, that the birthmother has had all of her legal rights COMPLETELY explained to her, and make sure that she understands this is forever. You need to make sure that basically all of your I's are dotted and your t's crossed--and that's hard to do without a lawyer.

If you really MUST do it without a lawyer, I would call your local family court and find out what paperwork must be filed for a relinquishment of parental rights and then for an adoption.

Signing your name as the mother is illegal, its fraud. The hospital would not allow it.

For you to legally become the parent of this child you need to get court approval. While you may be able to draw up an adoption petition on your own, I would not recommend it.

And I agree with Synnen on the name issue

Yes, even if somehow she pretened to be you in the hospital, it would not be legal and fraud and you wouild really have no legal rights to the child even after all of the fraud.

On top of that you have to go to court to get a legal adoption, plus you have to deal with the paternity rights of the father.

Can you do it all without an attorney, yes you can, should you, no you should not