Adoption Law Office of Birney O'Brian Bull

04/21/2026

Not to “beat my own drum” or anything, but today, via adoption, I helped a legal orphan add (recover) two legitimate parents. How she became an orphan is heartbreaking, but at least now she has legitimate parents when it’s time to become a driver, or go to college, etc.

10/31/2025

For adoption, several of the things that HAVE to be mailed, HAVE to be “Registered” mail. (That’s what the Georgia code requires.) Two things about that: 1. “Registered” mail (not just “certified”) is the most reliable way to mail things, and 2. “Registered” mail is, by FAR, the most EXPENSIVE way to mail things. For “Registered” mail, USPS employees, personally, have to handle EVERY move a letter makes, from sending to delivery, and they have to “log” what they do with that letter EVERY step of the way. Thus it is that “Registered” mail is the most RELIABLE means of mailing, and the most EXPENSIVE means of mailing. For someone with a low income, having to mail ONE piece of paper for $12 can be daunting. But, of course, it IS about the welfare of a child, and it IS what the Georgia code requires.

09/18/2025

This picture (usually less grainy) appears for me in many places. Full disclosure: It’s from an adoption hearing in 2007! There’s a LOT more gray now!

08/07/2025

Adoptive parents wonder what they “have to say” at a final adoption hearing. Just answer my questions! And it will be obvious. “You’re living in X county, is that correct?” Stuff like that. If I’m obviously shaking my head left and right as I ask the question, the answer is No! It will be so easy you won’t believe it.

12/06/2024

All too often in the adoption world, agency people (including "public" adoption agency people) think the attorney fee is just sort of a tax that the law allows lawyers to collect on adoptions they handle. But by the time cases get to the lawyer, the agency is almost completely out of the picture. The lawyer presents the cases to the court, first on paper, and then in person in live hearings with judges. The lawyer also advises adoptive parents from start to finish on the legal adoption process, and then after the decrees have been signed, the lawyer (should) assure that the birth certificates are properly amended. It's a lot of work, requiring expertise many lawyers do not have, and the lawyer's fee is not a "tax" for doing little or nothing.

12/04/2024

Funny thing: DFCS expects me to pretend to be a "Contractor" with them. Sorry but I've never done that, and will never pretend to have done that with them.

08/16/2024

OK, I guess I should mention this. I've been included in "The Best Lawyers in America" for 2025. I should put it on the website, too, but, that's a chore, and, well, I'll try to get around to it. (Worth mentioning because it's not one of those advertising vehicles [you're not ALLOWED to pay to get into it], but a purely peer-reviewed thing.)

Discover the 2025 Best Lawyers honorees across the U.S. in the 31st edition of The Best Lawyers in America and fifth edition of Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch.