Adoption Not Completed; Attorney Sanctioned

The Indiana Supreme Court suspended an attorney for 60 days with 30 days stayed and probation for two years for mishandling an adoption

In February 2019, “Clients” retained Respondent and paid him $1,766 to complete an agreed adoption. By July 2019, Clients had signed an adoption petition and other preliminary issues had been resolved, including the biological mother’s signing of a consent to adoption and release for the child’s medical records. For the next fifteen months, Respondent failed to meaningfully advance the matter and to respond to Clients’ inquiries. In October 2020, Respondent filed the adoption petition that had been signed in mid-2019 and was notified by the court of deficiencies in the pleadings. Respondent filed an amended petition correcting those deficiencies, but he failed to file the medical records within 60 days of filing the amended petition, as required by statute. In January 2021, the court twice ordered Respondent to file the required records; and when Respondent did not do so, the court scheduled a dismissal hearing for March. Respondent did not appear at the hearing or file the records, and the court dismissed the adoption. Respondent did not keep Clients adequately apprised of the pendency of dismissal proceedings or the dismissal itself.

In August 2022, Clients notified Respondent that the child was about to turn 18 and would be graduating in the spring, and Clients asked for a refund because Respondent did not complete the adoption. Respondent did not respond to that communication or to several others in the ensuing months. Respondent likewise did not respond to multiple demands for information made by the Commission during its investigation of this matter.

The probationary terms include cooperation with the Judges and Lawyers Assistance Program. (Mike Frisch)