(1) When the adoption entity is an agency, fees may be assessed if such fees are approved by the department within the process of licensing the agency and if such fees are for:
(a) Foster care expenses.
(b) Preplacement and postplacement social services.
(c) Agency facility and administrative costs.
(2) The following fees, costs, and expenses may be assessed by the adoption entity or paid by the adoption entity on behalf of the prospective adoptive parents:
(a) Reasonable living expenses of the birth mother which the birth mother is unable to pay due to unemployment, underemployment, or disability. Reasonable living expenses are rent, utilities, basic telephone service, food, toiletries, necessary clothing, transportation, insurance, and expenses found by the court to be necessary for the health and well-being of the birth mother and the unborn child. Such expenses may be paid during the pregnancy and for a period of up to 6 weeks postpartum.
(b) Reasonable and necessary medical expenses. Such expenses may be paid during the pregnancy and for a period of up to 6 weeks postpartum.
(c) Expenses necessary to comply with the requirements of this chapter, including, but not limited to, service of process under s. 63.088, investigator fees, a diligent search under s. 63.088, a preliminary home study under s. 63.092, and a final home investigation under s. 63.125.
(d) Court filing expenses, court costs, and other litigation expenses and birth certificate and medical record expenses.
(e) Costs associated with advertising under s. 63.212(1)(g).
(f) The following professional fees:
1. A reasonable hourly fee or flat fee necessary to provide legal representation to the adoptive parents or adoption entity in a proceeding filed under this chapter.
2. A reasonable hourly fee or flat fee for contact with the parent related to the adoption. In determining a reasonable hourly fee under this subparagraph, the court must consider if the tasks done were clerical or of such a nature that the matter could have been handled by support staff at a lesser rate than the rate for legal representation charged under subparagraph 1. Such tasks include, but need not be limited to, transportation, transmitting funds, arranging appointments, and securing accommodations.
3. A reasonable hourly fee for counseling services provided to a parent or a prospective adoptive parent by a psychologist licensed under chapter 490 or a clinical social worker, marriage and family therapist, or mental health counselor licensed under chapter 491, or a counselor who is employed by an adoption entity accredited by the Council on Accreditation of Services for Children and Families to provide pregnancy counseling and supportive services.
(3) The court must issue an order pursuant to s. 63.132(3) if the total of amounts permitted under subsection (2) exceeds:
(a) $5,000 in legal or other professional fees;
(b) $800 in court costs; or
(c) $5,000 in reasonable and necessary living and medical expenses.
(4) Any fees, costs, or expenses not included in subsection (2) require court approval and entry of an order pursuant to s. 63.132(3) before payment and must be based on a finding of extraordinary circumstances.
(5) The following fees, costs, and expenses are prohibited:
(a) Any fee or expense that constitutes payment for locating a minor for adoption.
(b) Any payment which is not itemized and documented on the affidavit filed under s. 63.132.
(c) Any fee on the affidavit which is not a fee of the adoption entity; is not supported by a receipt; does not specify the service that was provided and for which the fee is being charged, such as a fee for facilitation, acquisition, or other similar service; or which does not identify the date the service was provided, the time required to provide the service, the person or entity providing the service, and the hourly fee charged.
(6) Unless otherwise indicated in this section, when an adoption entity uses the services of a licensed child-placing agency, a professional, any other person or agency pursuant to s. 63.092, or, if necessary, the department, the person seeking to adopt the child must pay the licensed child-placing agency, professional, other person or agency, or the department an amount equal to the cost of all services performed, including, but not limited to, the cost of conducting the preliminary home study, counseling, and the final home investigation.
(7) Beginning January 1, 2025, an adoption entity shall report quarterly to the department information related to the age, race, ethnicity, sex, and county of birth of the adopted child and the county of residence of the adoptive family for each finalized adoption. The adoption entity shall also report for each finalized adoption the fees, costs, and expenses that were assessed by the adoption entity or paid by the adoption entity on behalf of the prospective adoptive parents, itemized by the categories enumerated in subsection (2), and any fees, costs, and expenses approved by the court under subsection (4). The confidentiality provisions of this chapter do not apply to the fees, costs, and expenses assessed or paid in connection with an adoption. In reporting the information required by this subsection to the department, the adoption entity shall redact any confidential identifying information concerning the child, the child’s biological parents, and the child’s adoptive parents. The department shall report quarterly on its website information for each adoption entity, including the actual fees, costs, and expenses of finalized adoptions. The department shall adopt rules to implement this subsection.
...appear in the statute. We believe that this reading gives unintended breadth to section 63.0425(1). [7] Throughout chapter 63, attorneys and intermediaries are treated as separate entities by the various provisions of the statute. [8] For instance, section 63.097, Florida Statutes (1987), regarding approval of fees to intermediaries, uses the words "attorney" and "intermediary" in the disjunctive, providing in part that "[a]ny fee, including intermediary or attorney fees over $1,000 ......
Cited 5 times | Published | Supreme Court of Florida | 2004 WL 2201732
...sent is required but who has not consented; (C) there is an objection to venue, which was made after the waiver of venue was signed; (D) an intermediary, attorney, or agency is seeking fees, costs, or other expenses in excess of those provided under section 63.097 or 63.212(5), Florida Statutes; (E) an affidavit of diligent search and inquiry is filed in lieu of personal service under section 63.088(4), Florida Statutes; or (F) the court is otherwise aware that any person having standing objects to the termination of parental rights pending adoption....
...-7-
(C) there is an objection to venue, which was made after the
waiver of venue was signed;
(D) an intermediary, attorney, or agency is seeking fees,
costs, or other expenses in excess of those provided under section 63.097 or
63.212(5), Florida Statutes;
(E) an affidavit of diligent search and inquiry is filed in lieu
of personal service under section 63.088(4), Florida Statutes; or
(F) the court is otherwise awa...
...ees, Costs and Expenses, which was followed by an Amended Motion to Approve Fees, Costs and Expenses. Appellees also filed a document entitled “Fees Approved by the Department of Children and Families That Do Not Require Court Approval (Fla. Stat. 63.097(1)),” which was signed by an employee of the Department of Children and Families (DCF) and approved fees paid to Home At Last in the amount of $20,850. 2 Appellees clearly alleged in the Amended Motion that the fees approved by DCF under section 63.097(1) do not require court approval, the fees were reviewed by them, they were informed about these fees, and that they “are assenting to the fees and costs associated with the adoption.” Appellees also alleged that “the fees assess...
...us to determine whether it was proper for the lower court to review certain of the fees and costs sought by Home At Last and to condition entry of the order of adoption on the refund of the amount it determined was excessive. We conclude it was not. Section 63.097, Florida Statutes (2011), sets forth the fees permitted in an adoption proceeding and, in subsection (1), expressly places in DCF the authority to approve certain fees: (1) When the adoption entity is an agency, fees may be assessed if...
...the lower court. Indeed, subsections (3) and (4) discuss when the lower court’s approval of certain fees is necessary, but nothing therein includes the fees imposed pursuant to subsection (1). The fees at issue here are agency fees that fall under section 63.097(1). We see nothing in the provisions of that section that requires court approval of the types of fees involved herein. Moreover, we see nothing in the provisions of section 63.097, or any other, that allows the lower court to withhold entry of a final judgment of adoption in the event a refund of fees is due....
...Even if the lower court did have the authority under subsection (1) to determine the amount of fees encompassed by that subsection, it did not provide findings as to why it concluded that $21,225 is not a reasonable fee, but $4,000 is reasonable. Given the agreement of both parties and the plain language of section 63.097(1), we conclude that the lower court erred in refusing to execute the Final Judgment of Adoption until Home At Last refunded the $17,225....
Published | Florida 2nd District Court of Appeal | 1988 WL 24162
...ional $4,314.67 that the parents had deposited with appellant and had been paid by appellant for the mother's living expenses. It further ordered the adoption held in abeyance. The trial judge issued the order in reliance on the language of sections 63.097 and 63.212(4), Florida Statutes (1985) [1] . *976 Section 63.097 provided that "[a]ny fee, including those costs as set out in § 63.212(1)(d), over $500 paid to an intermediary other than actual, documented medical costs, court costs, and hospital costs must be approved by the court prior to paymen...
...The Chapter does not address whether such an attorney can also act as a trust agent. It is to be noted, as HRS points out, that while section 63.212(1)(d) allows payment by the adoptive parents of the actual prenatal care and living expenses, both prenatal and postnatal for thirty days, both sections 63.097 and 63.212(4) pertaining to intermediaries are silent as to living expenses....
...From time to time these expenditures and how they are paid have been questioned by both the Court and the Department. However, beyond noting the questionable reasonableness of these expenditures, no conclusive decision or ruling has been made. To fully understand the problem faced by the trial judge in interpreting sections 63.097 and 63.212(4), it is helpful to analyze all of the pertinent sections of chapter 63 in sequence....
...Section 63.032(9) defines "placement:" "To place" or "placement" means the process of giving or transferring of possession or custody, or arranging for the giving or transferring of possession or *977 custody, of a child by any person to another person for adoption. Section 63.097, while entitled, "Approval of fees to intermediaries," is not only confusing but misleading because by its provisions it purports to restrict payments other than "fees:" Any fee, including those costs as set out in § 63.212(1)(d), over $500 paid to an intermediary other than actual, documented medical costs, court costs, and hospital costs must be approved by the court prior to payment to the intermediary. Because section 63.097 allows other actual documented medical, hospital and court costs to be paid without prior court approval but makes no reference to living expenses for the mother, which are allowed by section 63.212(1)(d), an apparent hiatus exists as to those expenses. Those types of expenses would normally occur only when the adoption is of an unborn child. Because sections 63.097 and 63.212(4) require prior court approval, the payment of living expenses by an intermediary becomes nothing short of impossible if the statutes are interpreted literally....
...ays postnatal. If the adoption is otherwise in order, the trial judge shall forthwith render the final judgment of adoption. Reversed and remanded. THREADGILL and PARKER, JJ., concur. NOTES [1] The 1987 legislature amended those sections to provide: 63.097 Approval of fees to intermediaries....
...sent is required but who has not consented; (C) there is an objection to venue, which was made after the waiver of venue was signed; (D) an intermediary, attorney, or agency is seeking fees, costs, or other expenses in excess of those provided under section 63.097 or 63.212(5), Florida Statutes; (E) an affidavit of diligent search and inquiry is filed in lieu of personal service under section 63.088(4), Florida Statutes; or (F) the court is otherwise aware that any person having standing objects to the termination of parental rights pending adoption....
GRIFFIN, Judge. Appellant, Linda J. Barnby, appeals an order of the lower court limiting her to a total fee of $2,000 for her services as intermediary and attorney in the adoption proceeding below. See § 63.097, .212(4), Fla.Stat. (Supp.1992). 1 We reverse. As provided by section 63.097, Florida Statutes (1992), any fee over $1,000 that is paid to an intermediary requires court approval and a “showing of justification” for the larger fee....
