March 2015

 

Thank you for taking a moment to read our spring newsletter. A big change for us as of January first is our new name, Grob & Eirich, LLC. I am proud to announce that Tim Eirich is now a partner with the firm, and our new name is in recognition of his hard work and dedication. Tim will continue to concentrate on litigation and abuse and neglect cases, complementing our overall practice focused on adoption, child welfare, assisted reproduction, and immigration proceedings.

 

I am also happy to welcome Kathleen Glynn to Grob & Eirich. Katie's extensive expertise in immigration allows us to represent more families facing immigration issues or children living in this country without legal status.

 

This quarter we feature grandparents. We handle a lot of adoptions for grandparents and other relatives who take on the important task of raising their kin when the birth parents are unable or unwilling to do so. Two stories of successful adoptions handled by Grob & Eirich highlight the challenges and rewards of grandparents taking on this responsibility.

 

We also discuss the increase in the adoption tax credits issued by the IRS for 2015. Finally, we highlight one of our many agency partners, Nightline Christian Adoptions.

 

Our new website address is www.GrobEirich.com, which has been recently revised and updated with information on all our legal services. We hope that you will visit this new site to learn more about all the new and exciting changes happening at our firm. Our email addresses have also changed to seth@grobeirch.com, tim@grobeirich.com, katie@grobeirich.com and ondine@grobeirich.com, although the old ones will continue to forward.

 

If we can be of any assistance to you, please don't hesitate to call us at (303) 679-8266. The best compliment you can give us is to refer us to a friend or colleague, and we truly appreciate it!

 

Sincerely,


Kathleen Glynn Joins the Team, Bringing Expertise in Immigration Issues for Families
  

Grob & Eirich welcomes new senior associate, Kathleen Glynn, with her primary focus  on immigration options for families and children.

 

"We're very excited to have Katie join our legal team," Seth said. "We have extended our expertise at Grob & Eirich to now offer our clients full wrap-around services, representing both children and adults without legal status to seek to legally remain in the United States. We have a lot of cases involving particularly children who have been in the United States for a significant period of time who lack legal status and will now benefit from Katie's expertise through exploring different legal options available to help them stay in this country legally. Kate will also do some adoption overflow work as well. We anticipate reaching out to family law practitioners to inform them that our firm is now readily available to partner with them to handle family law related immigration issues."

 

Katie's enthusiasm and excellent work ethic enhances her expertise. "I've been helping families with their immigration law needs for most of my career," Katie said. "I look forward to helping more families, and working with Seth and Tim."

 

Katie graduated from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law in 2005 and was admitted to the Colorado Bar in 2007 and to the U.S. District Court, District of Colorado Bar in 2008.

 

Prior to joining Grob & Eirich, Katie was the Equal Justice Works Fellow and Managing Attorney of the Children's Program at the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network. She also represented hundreds of children before the immigration courts and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

 

Katie is fluent in Spanish and is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and the National Lawyers Guild's Immigration Project and serves on the AILA Colorado liaison committee with the Executive Office for Immigration Review.

 

 
IRS Issued Increased 2015 Adoption Tax Credits

 

The Internal Revenue Service has issued new regulations surrounding the permanent adoption tax credit. This credit continues to be significant for families who are interested in adopting a child who needs a home, and allows families to have the financial resources they need to care for these children long term. The federal government subsidizes adoptions to encourage more adoptions in this country.

 

Beginning in 2015, the credit for an adoption of a child with special needs is $13,400, up from $13,190 in 2014. This entire credit is available for special needs children regardless of actual adoption expenses incurred.

 

The maximum credit allowed for other adoptions (excluding stepparent adoptions), is the actual amount of qualified adoption expenses incurred up to $13,400. These are credits, not deductions, and are available for each child adopted.

 

The available adoption credit begins to phase out for taxpayers with modified adjusted gross income in excess of $201,010 and is completely phased out for taxpayers with modified adjusted gross income of $241,010 or more.

 

If you are considering adoption, please be sure to consult an experienced adoption attorney at Grob & Eirich or your tax consultant to learn more about this important financial benefit.

Through Adoption, Grandparents Take on the Challenge of a New Generation

 

In the United States, one million children live with a grandparent in a home where neither parent lives, according to AARP. For a variety of reasons, a lot of children grow up being raised by grandparents.

 

"Grandparents have an amazing, unselfish commitment to grandchildren who can't otherwise live with their biological parents," Seth said. "But they often need legal authority and protection so the child can't be uprooted later by neglectful and unfit parents."

 

Many grandparents want legal authority over the children in their care in order to enroll them in school, make medical decisions, or add them to their health insurance. Adoption also protects the children financially if grandparents become sick or die and allows grandparents to choose an appropriate caretaker in their absence.

 

Grob & Eirich assist grandparents in adoption proceedings, in both private kinship adoption proceedings and public abuse and neglect cases.

 

Under Colorado law, before pursuing a private Kinship adoption, the child must live with the grandparents for at least one year. Additionally, it must be demonstrated that the birth parents are consenting to their parental rights being terminated and the adoption or have either abandoned the child for a period of one year or more or the birth parents have failed without cause to provide reasonable support for a period of one year or more. The court must also make a best interests determination based on many factors, including but not limited to, the family stability, the present and future effects of adoption, the child's emotional ties and interaction with the parties, the child's adjustment to the living situation, the child's age, and the mental and physical health and of the grandparents and other parties. The grandparents need to prove by clear and convincing evidence that being adopted by them is in the best interest of the child.

 

Diane

 

As an infant in Texas, Daniel lived in a home filled with drugs, alcohol, and violence. When he was almost one year old, he was placed in protective services. Then Diane, his material grandmother, began to care for him after his father was jailed for shooting someone.

 

"Daniel celebrated his first birthday with me," Diane said. "I've taken care of him, raised him, watched him grow and play football."

 

Diane raised Daniel for nine years, and in 2013, when Daniel was 10, she decided to adopt him. Daniel really wanted to be adopted and to change his last name.

 

Diane didn't know who could help her with the adoption until someone suggested Seth Grob.

 

"Seth is awesome," Diane said. "He told me everything I needed to know, what we had to do, even the worst case scenario. I had a lot of questions, and he took the time to answer them. Even through my biggest fear of losing Daniel, Seth kept me calm."

 

"We searched everywhere for Daniel's biological parents, but we couldn't locate them," said Seth. "That made it easier for the court to terminate the birth parents' parental rights based upon abandonment and lack of support."

 

With Seth's expert assistance, the adoption process moved quickly, starting in January and completing in June 2014.

 

Daniel was so excited about being adopted by his grandmother that he jumped up and down in the courtroom and insisted he get a picture taken with the judge.

 

"Seth would be the best choice for anyone wanting to adopt," Diane said. "He will do everything in his power to help."

 

Penny and Michael

 

When Indie was just 18 months old, her mother overdosed on drugs and her father, who was separated from the mother but also struggled with drugs, wasn't able to care for her. Penny and Michael, Indie's grandparents, went to get their granddaughter in the middle of the night and began to care for her.

 

"When we got her, Indie wouldn't respond to her name," Penny said. "Previous parenting had been by TV, and she was neglected. I was so thankful we got her when we did."

 

Penny and Michael did not believe an Allocation of Parental Responsibility, where parents not only maintain their legal relationship with the child but also can modify the court's orders, was in Indie's best interest. Rather, they wanted to fully adopt their granddaughter and provide her with the stability and permanency that only adoption could provide.

 

Tim said it wouldn't be easy to adopt Indie, due to the nature of dependency and neglect cases, but if the parents were not able to successfully complete their treatment plan, Penny and Michael could adopt, and he would represent them.

 

"Tim told us we could be an 'intervenor' to the court so we would get all correspondence on the case and we could know what was going on," Penny said. "We couldn't overrule anything, but we could vocalize our concerns."

 

"The grandparents' involvement was integral," Tim explained. "Both parents were substance abusers, unstable, and very manipulative. The mother disappeared, and the father's rights had to be involuntarily terminated. Penny and Michael provided important information regarding not only their granddaughter's needs but also the father's history of illegal business dealings and drugs use. The grandparents credibility was high with the judge due to their substantial history with both parents. Without the grandparents' involvement in the proceedings, the judge would not have had all the information to make an informed and deliberate decision about the child's future."

 

"Tim was with us at every court hearing and explained everything to us in English instead of legal lingo," Penny said. "He also spoke up on our behalf. One time Indie's father wanted unsupervised visits, and the caseworker didn't say why this was a bad idea. Tim represented our perspective for the court, and the court agreed with us."

 

Termination of parental rights was finalized in spring 2014 after 18 months of court process. Penny and Michael officially adopted their 3-year-old granddaughter, Indie, on November 22, National Adoption Day.

 

"Tim was awesome to work with," Penny said. "We've recommended Tim to many people who have nonconventional adoptions. We have complete confidence in him."

 


Nightlight Christian Adoptions
We highlight one of the many valuable partners we work with in each newsletter
 
Nightlight Christian Adoptions is a full-service, Hague-accredited child placement agency.

In 1997 they pioneered the first embryo adoption program, Snowflakes Embryo Adoption. Nightlight programs also include comprehensive International, Domestic, Foster Care/Foster Adoption and Home Study services. They assist families in all 50 states with licensed offices in Southern California, Colorado, South Carolina, Kentucky and Oklahoma.

 

Nightlight is currently offering international adoption assistance in Bulgaria, Haiti, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Romania, Taiwan, Ukraine, United Kingdom, China, Hong Kong, Nicaragua, Panama, and Uganda. Nightlight has completed more than 2,000 domestic adoptions, 1,700 international adoptions and 550 embryo adoptions.

 

Seth Grob has been their general legal counsel for the past several years.

 

"We love working with Seth," said Kate the Colorado Executive Director and International Program Director. "He takes care of all the legal documents for domestic adoptions, searches for birth fathers if needed, files with the court for termination of parental rights, and arranges for separate legal counsel for birth mothers."

 

"I always enjoy working with Nightlight Christian Adoptions," said Seth. "They provide a high level support for birth parents and adoptive families."




Grob & Eirich, LLC
12596 W. Bayaud Ave, Suite 390
Lakewood, CO 80228
303.679.8266