A mother’s parental rights were properly terminated in this stepparent adoption case because the termination was supported by clear and convincing evidence.

Adoption appeals frequently involve situations that require immediate action by the courts, which means emergency motions must be filed.

A stepparent adoption petition was properly dismissed, because the mother did not have a court order establishing that she had custody of the child.

The rulings are concerning for prospective adoptive parents because they allow putative fathers to stop an adoption in its tracks, by obtaining an order of filiation from the trial court.

In In re LMB, the Court of Appeals held that entry of an order of filiation while an adoption appeal was pending mooted the adoption appeal.

A parent’s rights may not be terminated solely on the basis of parental incarceration in a Juvenile Code case - also applied to an Adoption Code case.

The COA released a published opinion providing some clarification on whether paternity actions can ever take precedence over adoption proceedings.

In a published decision, the COA found that the Kent County Circuit Court erred in terminating a mother's parental rights under MCL 712A.19b(3)(l), where the mother had voluntarily released her rights to a different child under the Adoption Code.

In the case In re Michael Robert Benbow III, Minor, the COA reversed an order of the Clinton County Family Court terminating a father’s parental rights in a step-parent adoption case.