Frequently Asked Questions

  • A surrogacy agreement is a written agreement entered into by intended parents and a surrogate which serves as the foundation for establishing the intended parents’ parental rights, terminating the surrogate’s parental rights, and setting forth the parties’ rights and obligations throughout their arrangement.

  • We recommend you start the legal process of your surrogacy agreement right after your surrogate is both psychologically and medically cleared to move forward as a surrogate.

  • We normally have the agreement drafted within one or two business days after we receive the referrals from you or your agency. Normally it takes one or two weeks, depending on how long you or your surrogate takes to review and consult with attorneys.

  • You MUST have a properly signed and executed Surrogacy Agreement between you and your Surrogate before your Surrogate starts the injectable IVF medication. ​

  • o Under the laws of the State of California, when using surrogacy you can assert your parental rights based on the intention clearly stated in your gestational surrogacy agreement that you will be the parent of the child and the surrogate has no rights or responsibility concerning the Child born to the Agreement.

    o A properly executed gestational surrogacy agreement will prevent the surrogate from asserting parental rights at some point in the future.

    o When you are recognized by the court that you are the parents of the child before the birth, the hospital where the surrogate gives birth will put your names as the parents on the child’s birth certificate information sheet.

  • o We first send you a written attorney Services Agreement to review. It will explain the services we will provide and the cost. You will need to sign, date it and send it back to our office.

    o Once we have received your signed attorney services agreement, our firm gets to work. If you intend to use a surrogate, then once you have a match, and your surrogate is psychologically and medically cleared to proceed, we will prepare the first draft of your surrogacy agreement and send it to you for review.

    o Read it carefully, we will have a consultation with you to answer/discuss all your questions comments, and/or suggested revisions. To avoid delay, it is a good idea for you to plan to review the agreement and contact us within two days after you receive it.

    o Next, the surrogate will receive your approved draft of the agreement for review with her independent attorney. If the surrogate requests any changes, we will review those changes with you. After both you and your surrogate fully agree on all the terms of the agreement we will finalize the agreement, and send it out to all parties with signing instructions.

    o Once we receive signatures from all parties, we will issue a “legal clearance” letter to inform your IVF Physician that you and your surrogate are legally cleared to proceed with your cycle.