Oklahoma House committee effort targets adoption lawyers

Oklahoma House committee effort targets adoption lawyers

End sought to baby bidding wars

BY MICHAEL MCNUTT
Published: February 17, 2009Buzz up!

A House committee passed a bill Monday intended to stop the "silent auction" of children by cracking down on attorneys who sell and traffic children up for adoption.

Rep. Jason Nelson Author of House Bill 2174

The House Human Services Committee unanimously passed House Bill 2174, which would stop attorneys from shopping for judges who don't ask too many questions about the fees attorneys charge for adoptions, open adoption expense records to the public and prohibit an attorney from seeking to have a child adopted by more than one family at a time.
The bill would limit adoptions to take place in one of only four locations — the home county of the birth mother, the home county of the adoptive parents or in Oklahoma County or Tulsa County. The bill now goes to the House floor.
Rep. Jason Nelson, the bill's author, said some adoption attorneys are opening a small office or storefront in a county with judges who are friendly or otherwise unfamiliar with the problem.
Bidding on babies
Some attorneys charge fees of $30,000 or more for adoptions because the costs are secret and because the adoptive parents agree to them, he said.
Nelson, R-Oklahoma City, said some attorneys bid babies to several families, awarding the baby to the highest bidder.
"None of the families knew this, they were all paying in, there's no refund policy," he said. "So they're all just out of the money and they would never know what happened. A lot of the times, just the attorney would pocket the money."
Nelson, a freshman legislator, said he drafted his bill based on a 2006 state grand jury report that criticized Oklahoma County adoption judges on how they handled overseeing adoption expenses.
Grand jurors reported that birth mothers basically were allowed to sell children for cars, televisions and vacations.
Attorneys who violate provisions of the bill would be charged with a felony and face a prison term up to 10 years and a $10,000 fine. Adoptive parents who would be charged with a misdemeanor and face a fine up to $5,000.
'Done in secrecy'
Public Defender Bob Ravitz, who was ordered by an Oklahoma County judge to keep tabs on adoption expenses, said Oklahoma ranks in the top 15 percent on adoption costs in the country.
"When everything's done in secrecy, I believe the costs go up, get higher," he said.
Ravitz the committee that some families have spent more than $100,000 to adopt a child. Attorneys are vague when detailing expenses, he said.
Some costs may be just additional money the birth mother wants; he also told of an instance where an attorney charged $175 an hour just to drive the birth mother on a more than 200-mile round trip for a medical appointment.

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