Adoption Lawsuits Spread 15 Families Suing State For Not Disclosing Facts About Children

Fri., Feb. 24, 1995

Associated Press

A million-dollar judgment, won by a couple who sued the state for not disclosing their adoptive son’s severe emotional problems, has prompted at least nine similar lawsuits.

And Timothy Farris, the Bellingham lawyer who filed them, said he has been asked by six other families to sue on their behalf.

According to Farris, all 15 families contend the state Department of Social and Health Services misled them or withheld crucial information about children they adopted.

A jury last year returned the $1 million verdict against the state for withholding information about a 7-year-old boy adopted by a Whatcom County couple.

The boy raped the couple’s natural daughter numerous times. The plaintiffs said the state knew the boy was severely disturbed, but withheld psychiatric reports and told the family he was normal.

Wrongful adoption lawsuits are a relatively new area of law, according to several legal experts. But they could prove expensive for the state.

“There appears to be a pattern of not informing clients of all of the information that’s available on adoptions,” said Karil Klingbeil, director of social work at Harborview Medical Center and an associate professor of social work at the University of Washington.

Farris has consulted with her on a number of the cases, Klingbeil said.

The state is “very troubled” by the cases, said Roger Gerdes, a state assistant attorney general.

“The prevalence of this kind of lawsuit would tend to undermine the ability for placement of children who need homes and would tend to encourage those who have accepted the responsibility of parents to back out when the going gets tough,” he said.

Gerdes said the state has not had a chance to review some of the cases, which were only recently filed.

But in one case, he said, the adoptive parents had taken care of the child before they were foster parents and knew the child’s background and problems.

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