Surrogacy & Adoption
Adelta Legal can assist you and your family with the legal aspects of lawful surrogacy and assisted reproductive technology.
Surrogacy
A lawful surrogacy agreement is a written agreement between a surrogate mother and the intending parents whereby the surrogate agrees to become pregnant and surrender custody of, and rights in relation to, any child born and receives no valuable consideration other than for expenses connected with the pregnancy.
Until changes to South Australia’s surrogacy legislation in 2019, single women and same sex couples were prevented from accessing surrogacy in our State.
Surrogacy is now much more accessible to all types of families in South Australia. It is now possible to access surrogacy if you are a single intending parent, if you are in a same sex relationship, or if you or your partner cannot provide any reproductive material.
Another significant change was to the expenses that the surrogate mother could claim during the pregnancy. These expenses are now broader, for example claiming a loss of income, psychological support during and after birth, travel expenses, childcare, insurance, medicines, and even maternity clothes.
Adelta Legal has some of Adelaide’s leading lawyers who practice in this field who are available to provide general advice to you on surrogacy matters and can work with you to create a lawful surrogacy agreement to ensure parentage orders can be obtained following the successful birth of a child from a surrogate parent.
Adelta Legal can provide advice to both intending parents and surrogate parents and offers fixed fee arrangement for preparation of agreements.
Adoption and Discharge of Adoption
South Australia has recently amended laws in relation to adoption within the Adoption Act 1988 (SA). As an adult, you are now able to make an application for adoption or for discharge of an adoption order in the Youth Court of South Australia and have Court Orders made discharging your adoption.
This Application will need to address the reason you wish to apply for adoption or discharge the adoption for example, if you consider it is in your best interests to have the order made or discharged, taking into account your rights and wellbeing.
If successful, a discharge order would have the effect of the original birth certificate or adoption order being voided and you will thereafter be able to change your birth certificate through the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages.
Declaration of Paternity
Should you require an order for the declaration of paternity, we can assist you with making an application in the Adelaide Magistrates Court to determine paternity or parenthood.
You would need to first undertake a DNA test and have the results available to support your application.
Our friendly team at Adelta Legal would be more than happy to assist if you would like advice or have questions with respect to the following:
- surrogacy
- assisted reproductive technology
- discharging of adoption orders
- declarations of paternity
- change of name applications to SACAT in the event of a dispute.
We have offices in the city, at Tea Tree Gully and Morphett Vale for the convenience of clients. In addition, for the elderly or infirm, visits can be made to clients at home or in hospital.
Call us on 08 8415 5000 or send an email to make an appointment.
Key people for Surrogacy and Adoption
Julie Redman
Accredited Family Law Specialist
e: jredman@adelta.com.au
p: (08) 8415 5017
Accredited Family Law Specialist
LL.B.
Julie has over 40 years’ experience practising in all aspects of family law in South Australia. She has been ranked every year by the profession, though the Doyle’s guide, as one of the top family lawyers in South Australia
In 2018 she merged her very successful family law practice Alderman Redman with Adelta Legal to establish the Adelta family law unit.
Julie is an Accredited Family Law Specialist, a Nationally Accredited Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner (FDRP), an Independent Children’s Lawyer and a Nationally Accredited Mediator in Mediation Practice since 1990.
She is also a Nationally Accredited Arbitrator in family property matters and practises in Collaborative Family Law on request.
Julie accepts instructions in:
- complex property matters involving large property pools, family businesses
- spousal maintenance, child support and adult child maintenance
- sensitive and complex children’s and parenting matters including relocation
interstate and overseas
- Hague Convention matters
- surrogacy and adoption.
Julie keeps steady focus on the best interests of children and her advocacy is designed to retain co-operation, preserve goodwill and promote resolution as the preferable pathway to progress.
Experience governs Julie’s approach to the law. Julie works with clients to explore all options and to respond appropriately and speedily to a client’s needs. If litigation is necessary it will only be embarked upon after careful consideration of all other options, recognising it is hardly ever in the client’s interests to progress to lengthy, protracted litigation. If litigation is recommended it will be prepared with diligence and resolve.
Julie is the SA Representative and Director of AIFLAM (The Australian Institute of Family Law Arbitrators and Mediators). She has been on many government and non-government children’s interest boards, including the SA Government Children’s Interest Bureau, The Council of Reproductive Technology, Uniting Communities and the Children and the Family Law Committee of the Law Society.
Julie has presented numerous papers at conferences and universities both nationally and internationally on family law issues and has a particular area of legal interest in surrogacy arrangements and other alternate family formations.
Julie has been married “for a long time”, is a keen bushwalker, reads widely and enjoys the theatre and visual arts. She is an accredited volunteer guide at the Art Gallery of South Australia.
Contact Julie Redman